Urban Farm-acology: The Urban Political Ecology of Hackney City Farm
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Transcript of Urban Farm-acology: The Urban Political Ecology of Hackney City Farm
Payne 2010
Urban Farm-acology The Urban Political Ecology of Hackney City Farm
Initial Establishment Hackney City Farm, image from Hackney City Farm Website
SO 452 Urban Environments, Lent Term 2010 Alexandra Payne
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The “Urban environment” is a relational concept, with necessarily subjective and moral values
attached to its creation. Urban political ecology (UPE) is a framework that can be used to explore
these values and explain the metabolisms between human beings and the urban environment they
create and live in. (Heynen et al., 2006) UPE looks at the political and social relations that govern
the right to the city and the right of access to productive natural spaces. In this way it is also an
examination of the values that go into our creation of nature and the values that get built into our
physical spaces. This essay will use an Urban Political Ecology framework to explore the social,
economic, political and spatial processes that came together to form the socio‐nature of Hackney
City Farm, and the way in which these relationships continue to shape the farm and its meaning
for the surrounding community. Historically the “natural” has been increasingly removed from
the “urban” and through this process increasingly controlled by the rich. Hackney can be seen as a
place that exemplifies this separation, a place where uneven geographic development has given
way to social and health inequalities. In conclusion I will investigate Hackney City Farm, a
community‐run farm in one of the most deprived boroughs of London, as a potential remedy for
some of the social ailments created by this separation. As one of the remaining locations in one of
the poorest boroughs of London where residents of low socio‐economic status have the
opportunity to interact with ‘nature’ as agricultural/ gardening land, it’s presence presents a farm‐
acology a space for healing the rift that has been created between nature and society, between the
urban second nature and “nature” as man has imagined it in the past.
Harvey has pointed out that in our creation of human domains, “it is hard to see where ‘society’
begins and ‘nature’” ends. (Harvey, 1993, p.31; 28) What we create through our human social
processes is inherently “natural” in that it is a cultural representation of our society, and this
process inevitably leads to a blurring of the distinctions between the urban and “natural” world.
However, in London, the historical socio‐political processes that have molded the city into its
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modern global form have created an urban environment where the natural‐ in the form of
productive land ‐ is increasingly removed from and crowded‐out rather than blended with it.
Recently, a number of factors, including an increasing population and land values (Hackney
Council, 2006; 2007) and decreases in publicly available land have created a situation in Hackney
where “nature” ‐ specifically access to open space, and areas for gardening/ growing fresh foods,
and the other health benefits attached to open spaces– (consumption of nutritious foods, mental
and psychological well being) ‐ has become increasingly limited for residents of lower socio‐
economic status. The socio‐economic construction of the city has turned nature into a commodity,
no longer a public good available for everyone, essentially privatizing the “commons.” Hence the
uneven geographic development became a physical manifestation of social inequalities
In any discussion of man’s relation to nature in the form of productive land the heart of the
discussion necessarily centers on one fundamental fact – human beings must eat to live, without
sufficient food, and sufficiently nutritious food humans cannot survive. Therefore the most
immediate value of any form of productive land is in its ability to sustain human life. “Human
bodies are produced and reproduced through socio‐metabolic processes that link their existence
to external processes that produce food. The same socio‐metabolic processes that are themselves
constituted through relations of social and political power through a wide assortment of cultural
meanings.” (Heynen, 2006, p.129)
The 2006 Mayor’s Food Strategy for London showed that although Londoner’s benefit from the
availability of a complex food network that supports the immense food needs of the growing city,
these needs are met unevenly, especially in lower income neighbourhood and “in many parts of
London people struggle to access affordable, nutritious food.” (Mayor of London, 2006, p.3) These
struggles then result in the uneven experience of ill health among different socio‐economic classes
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and ethnicities. This has been highlighted by both Garret’s 2005 case study of London, and the
more recent 2009 report “A Tale of Two Obes‐cities”(a collaborative effort between London and
New York Universities). Both sets of research found that nutrition‐related ill health‐ for example,
obesity, diabetes, mental distress and illness, and hunger – was more likely to be suffered by
ethnic‐minorities, the poor and the disadvantaged living in highly deprived areas of cities where
healthy food is often neither accessible nor affordable and physical interaction with nature is
constrained.” (Freudenberg et al., 2009; Garnett, 2005) Heynen has pointed out that, historically
“the quantity, quality and variety of food people have eaten have been determined by their place
in their economy and the institutional structures in place within those economies to produce and
distribute food.” (Heynen, 2006, p.124) The Food Strategy also made this connection noting that
those with lower socioeconomic status were less likely to live in close proximity to healthy local
food sources. Therefore, improving Londoners’ health and reducing health inequalities depends
on increasing support for local producers, and thereby ensuring a secure and safe local food
supply for the deprived. (Mayor of London, 2006)
Connected with this idea is Marx’s understanding of society and human history as a production of
man’s labour. He explains that “Men must be in a position to live in order to be able to make
history…The first historical act is thus the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the
production of material life itself.” (Marx in Swyngedouw, 2006, p.24) It follows then, that he who
controls the means of producing life (productive land) controls the production of history, and also
the further development of the urban landscape. Separation from the land is therefore detrimental
to an individual’s immediate health, but also affects their future ability to interact and process
space in a manner of one’s choosing. Furthermore, our understanding of the human biological
processes of metabolizing food goes hand in hand with their interaction with productive spaces.
As Michelle Obama, Jamie Oliver, and a whole other long list of political figures and restauranteurs
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cum food pioneers have noted in the fight against both food poverty and obesity among school
children in both the US and England. As a result, those in lower income neighbourhoods, can not
identify natural foods, tell the difference between vegetables and do not know where their food
comes from or how it grows. In this way we can see that the value of connection to productive
land goes beyond the immediate necessity of food to the separation of an understanding of the
importance and value of that food and the means of connecting with this resource.
A Historical Separation of Productive Land from the Poor
To understand how the disadvantaged of Hackney came to be excluded from nature it is important
to understand that there are “historically specific dimensions to [any] urban experience” (Gandy,
2006, p64.) and that these socio‐political histories are based on specific values. Gandy points out
that, “nature is evoked as an ideological and metaphorical schema for the interpretation of reality”
(Gandy, 2006, p.65). In modern history, the city has been pitted against nature with the latter
being viewed instrumentally as a set of raw materials to aid in man’s progress. (Barry, 1999)
During the industrial era, with the intensification of capitalism, nature was a store of raw
materials for human economic purposes and this meant that those who controlled it had the right
to it’s exploitation for their productive needs. When nature became nothing more than a tool for
man’s profit and manipulation it led to a disregard for the destruction of nature, which in turn
caused cities to become increasingly polluted. “Cities were perceived to reside outside the natural
order”(Gandy, 2006, p.64) in contrast to the purity of the countryside. Thus the city became
“second nature”, something separate and aside from the dirt on which the city was built. (Barry,
1999) This value can be seen in Abercrombie’s 1940 plan for London’s continued urban
development which restricted development within a greenbelt (Thomas, 1963) to keep the urban
from encroaching on nature, but also had the effect of limiting access to this space to those with
private transportation. Within the city, nature was also to be protected. It was relegated to
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appropriate and orderly spaces – parks and allotments‐ to which access was limited. In this way,
land with productive value was cut off from free public access. Garden City planners such as
Ebenezer Howard unintentionally reinforced this separation of the poor from nature with the
creation of pristine neighbourhoods built in suburban areas. Although planned for the poor, these
areas were also planned around private transport and as a result were co‐opted by the upper
classes, further confining the poor to the inner‐city. As Engels pointed out, “power lies in the
hands of those who own, directly or indirectly, the foodstuffs and means to production.” (Heynen,
2006, p.134) Along with this separation of man and nature, came the separation of nature as a
means of production from certain classes. These socio‐political histories had the effect of
restricting garden use and urban land cultivation to wealthier classes by limiting access to a large
part of London’s green space to those with private transportation, private gardens, or access to
government licensed allotments.
Domene and Sauri noted an important tension between cities’ increasing environmentalism, the
promotion of green ideals and social justice issues such as the provision of gardening areas for the
under‐classes and the need for urban growth. They argue that “vegetable gardens comply with
the sustainability goals that many cities and towns are currently pursuing around the world and
therefore become protected and encouraged…. [However], they may pose obstacles to the steady
advance of urbanization and are erased from the city landscapes.”(Domene & Sauri, 2007, p.288)
They see these productive spaces as scenarios of conflict between different social groups vying for
control of the urban environment. These conflicts of class interest are also visible in London.
Allotments were originally devised to compensate the poor for the privatization of the commons
(the desire of the wealthy to have more formal control of their property). This productive land
was formally protected in 1908 by the Allotment Act of Parliament (Thompson, 2007; Garnett
2005), which formally set aside land for the poor who could not afford space for growing food. It
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was recognized that there needed to be sufficient access to productive land for the poor and this
space was meant to remain proportional as populations grew, with the suggestion in the 1940’s
being that there be at least four acres of open land for every thousand city inhabitants. (Exploring
20th Century London, n.d.) However, from the 1950’s to the late 80’s there was a decrease in
available allotments due to development demands on land (Allotment Vegetable Growing, n.d.)
and the proportion of allotments in Hackney longer represents enough land to sufficiently serve
the population in an equitable or meaningful manner. While there are over 30,000 active
allotment holders in London, (Garnett 2005) there are only 124 remaining allotment plots in
Hackney (Hackney Council, 2008a), home to some 212,200 people (Ibid., 2010) – nowhere near 4
acres per 1000 people.
While Hackney has the highest acreage of parks of any London borough, it is also one of the largest
boroughs and has some of the lowest percentages of productive space available. (See Appendix)
Increasing demand for housing and the gentrification of many areas further limited the use of
urban green space in Hackney to the rich and the availability of open common areas and
communal gardening areas. This has meant that the poor’s access to productive land remains
limited and therefore so does their access to the mental and physical health benefits this land
embodies.
The Construction of Hackney’s Environment
Traditionally, Hackney was a working class area, and it remains one of the poorest boroughs in
London: it has consistently been one of the most deprived boroughs in England, ranking second
highest in 2007, with almost all it’s wards scoring in the 20% most deprived of the country (See
Appendix 2). Its residents consistently have lower average incomes per household than average
Londoners; it also has the highest number of it’s residents live in council housing. (Hackney
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Council 2008b, 2009) While those in lower socio‐
economic groups continue to live in Hackney, it has
begun to attract a much more gentrified population as
Gustavo, the farms Environmental and Enterprise
Manager points out:
“I live just down the road in Tower Hamlets. It’s pretty similar in terms of wealth; both [areas] are among the most deprived in London. Tower Hamlets is quite Bangladeshi, [while] ethnically Hackney is very Turkish and Caribbean. The older white community, old East Enders, people who worked in the factories are more working class… Hackney has probably benefited more from gentrification. Which is a good thing and a bad thing, up to a point…” Interviewer: “until the community has to move out” Gustavo: “which has started to happen… I mean this area was a dump…. But now…” [He gestures towards the gentrified mother baby pairs in the Café space] (Payne, 2010b)
This Gentrification has affected the poor’s access to productive green space in two ways. First, as
a result of changes in population and speculation, housing prices have risen 184% in the last 10
years. (Hackney Council 2006; Nationwide, 2009) This has caused higher demand for open space
to be developed and created a disincentive for developers to include gardens. It is estimated that
over the last 5 years some 7,900 acres of garden and green space was lost in London, mostly due
to new developments (Smyth, 2009, para.3). Second, housing units that still include gardens, or
newer buildings with rooftop gardens included on previously open space, are often too expensive
for lower‐class residents of Hackney to afford. These factors have disproportionately affected
Hackney’s poor populations, resulting in an un‐intentional environmental class‐ism. As Domene
and Sauri have pointed out, “the kind of landscapes we create are linked to wider issues of urban
development, urban sustainability, and the social preferences for certain urban natures over
others in a context of rapid urban growth and increasing competition for land… neither socio‐
environmental changes nor environmental planning are socially or ecologically neutral.” (Domene
& Sauri, 2007, p.288)
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In this way we can also see the beginning of a bourgeoisie environmentalism, where the rich value
access to gardens and green space, and have infinitely more access to using and shaping these
spaces through their control of capital. This can be seen in London, where the affluent have easier
access to land outside the city, along with the buying power to afford housing with terrace gardens
within the city and the choice to live in apartments with rooftop gardens or other gardening areas,
the poor do not. Although there has been a focus on renewed sustainability and
environmentalism, the “greening of London” has yet to truly affect London’s poor, especially those
in Hackney.
Urban Farming as Acology
Having reviewed the major issues that have restricted the access of the poor to gardening and
agricultural spaces in London, it is important to point out an exception. In south Hackney, at the
heart of two of London’s poorest boroughs and just down the road from the lively bustle of
Broadway Market lies Hackney City Farms. On any given day you can see a space alive with local
parents and their children, petting the animals and taking classes in the garden; young mothers
with strollers crowding noisily into the café rented out at the front of the premise; children from
local schools learning about sustainability and growing food; and visitors of all walks of life
popping their heads in to enjoy the fruits of an unlikely urban metabolism. The farm itself “is
surrounded by one of the most deprived and under‐resourced inner city areas in the UK, with high
levels of unemployment, many young people not in school…[nor] employment,” (Pounds, 2007,
p.6) and where many children are so removed from nature that they have never seen farm
animals. Nor do they know what their food looks like in its natural form, or where it comes from.
(Payne, 2009a) The farm’s location in the midst of this area has made it a valuable community
resource; a sort of Farm‐acology, a remedy for the social ills embodied in the historically
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constructed urban environment of Hackney, which separates ethnic minorities and lower socio‐
economic classes from “nature” in the form of productive spaces and therefore from numerous
forms of personal well‐being
Acology is the science of remedies (Acology, n.d.) and that is precisely what urban farms have the
potential to be: specific socio‐natures that can aid in assuaging the social and physical ailments of
society. Urban Farming and gardening have long been shown to improve “individual and
community health and well‐being” (Thompson, 2007, p.162). It has been shown in England that
proximity to gardens and green spaces in the city can reduce social and health inequalities and
that urban green space improves your health. (Freudenberg et al., 2009; Smythe, 2009; )
However, in London, it is usually the most deprived populations who have the least access to
space for gardening and urban food cultivation ‐ for meaningful and productive interaction with
the land, which brings along with it social and health benefits (both physical and mental). As noted
above the historic separation of men from nature in the form of productive resources has led to a
state of physical and social detriment. Urban farms gave the potential to remedy these ills. This
idea seems to have been picked up in recent years as many cities across the world have begun
focusing on urban agriculture as a means of reintroducing productive nature into ‘urban food
deserts’ in impoverished areas. London has recently begun to focus on healthy eating and
lifestyles, and in the 2006 Food Strategy for London the Mayor’s office highlighted the importance
of eating fresh foods and outlined the need “to support opportunities for small‐scale food
production for individuals and communities” (Mayor of London) in order to bring healthy food
back into the urban landscape and make it less expensive and more easily accessible to lower
income individuals who suffer unjustly from health issues brought on by food inequality (Mayor of
London). In recent years there has also been an increased interest in local eating, organic foods,
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sustainability, etc, brought on by global efforts to reduce carbon footprints and address other
environmental issues.
Relating with the Land
The identity of the farm is inherently tied up with it’s location in a severely deprived area, it’s
reclamation of a Brownfield site in the inner city, it’s status as a local‐run charity and it’s reliance
on grants and social enterprise for survival. The value of Hackney City Farm to the community
must therefore be understood through it’s social, environmental, and political relationships, as
“identities shift with a changing context, dependant upon the point of reference…and can be
understood differently depending on the vantage point of their formation and function.”
(Friedman in Harvey, 1996, p.7) These relationships will be explored in more detail below.
Hackney farms specific location is a primary entry point for understanding it’s value. First, it
represents the reunion of some of the cities poorest and most deprived citizens with productive
land that they would not otherwise have had access to. The location of the farm in the middle of
the city and at the heart of two of London’s poorest boroughs makes is easily accessible to
residents in a number of ways; it is in easy walking distance for many of its visitors and close to a
number of public transport links to the rest of the population. Furthermore, Hackney City Farm is
free and open year round to the general public: unlike the allotment system there is no need to
apply and wait for a plot to open up, nor to pay a rental fee to maintain license to use the space. It
therefore presents the opportunity for people of all classes to interact with nature without many
of the constraints that have historically limited this interaction.
Since the construction of the urban environment is a relational construct with moral and
subjective values attached. It matters who creates environments because that dictates whose
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values are represented. The local community started Hackney City Farm in 1984 in direct
response to the needs of their community. As Charlie put it:
“It was started as a cohesion project. The people got together and said, ‘look at the urban environment were living in, we’re bringing up a whole generation of children that have no idea about food, about animals, about anything because we’ve all become so divorced from that.’ It’s a social project primarily.” (Payne, 2010a)
Today, Hackney City Farm is still managed and driven by local people. It is a charity and voluntary
organization, a registered environmental body: it is a social enterprise and a vibrant community
resource. It’s main aim, as stated in the Farm Business Plan, is:
“To enhance and improve the quality of life for inner city people, especially those in neighbourhoods and communities surrounding Hackney City Farm, by addressing social, economic and environmental issues and providing appropriate and much needed educational, training, health and recreational opportunities, within a framework of city farming… and local environmental improvement. To engender and foster a green eco‐friendly community within a healthy and much‐improved area of London… whilst also bringing together disparate communities in areas surrounding the Farm around the issues of improving the quality of their lives and their environment.” (Pounds, 2007, 7)
The Farm was started on brown field land and has a unique relationship with the land it was
started on, as both Gustavo and Charlie pointed out:
“The Farms been around for over 25 years or so…It was really all slum housing and it got cleared and they made a park…(Payne, 2009a)” “The Borough owns [the land], why we get it on such good term? It was derelict land, and in the 80’s these guys came in and were really converting a piece of disused space… It was a brewery, before that a button factory…[and then] the area was totally bombed out in the war… In the 80’s they managed to negotiate a 100 year contract with the council…”(Payne, 2009b)
The farms location on old industrial land is a re‐entry
of productive nature into a previously polluted
landscape. As environmental inequality often leads
to social inequality, therefore improving the
environmental quality of an area then has the
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potential to limit the social and environmental injustice suffered by the local population.
Another important part of Hackney City Farms relationship to the area is the low cost hundred‐
year lease they obtained from the council on the plot (presumably because the land was an
undervalued industrial site.) This long‐term lease means that the farm is somewhat protected
from the rising land valuation and development pressures in the area. This allows the farm to
resist (at least temporarily) the capitalist forces that have contributed to the removal of urban
agricultural spaces from the city. However it doesn’t change the circumstances facing the target
beneficiaries of the farm in the surrounding neighbourhood. The increasing rising property value
and rising rents in the area mean that those who do not own are starting to be pushed out.
Currently the feeling of the farm’s workers is that they are successful in serving lower‐income
families in the area, but gentrification is an oft‐addressed topic, as Charlie and Gustav both point
out, currently:
“The farm … reflects much more accurately the demographic of the area… The lower income families, … its people like that we are aiming at…something that the farm was set up and managed to start with… When the farm was started up there wasn’t the yummy‐mummy demographic, …and we are aware, particularly with this idea of this garden project in the park, [that] it could easily be get co‐opted by the middle class who have the time, the money, are already interested in growing their own vegetables…” (Payne, 2009a)
Another problem they often face is the fact that, even with the low rent, they must still find money
to run their daily operations. A large part of this money comes in the form of Grants from
sustainability, Farm, and educational trusts, as well as the National Lottery and a number of
corporate sponsors. Having a wide base is very important as it again allows the farm to be much
more stable, however, as Chris points out, relying mostly on grants can be difficult:
“…It’s finding the money [that’s the problem]. My job is paid for by the national lottery. It pays for the regular employees time and things like expenses, but if we wanted to build a greenhouse…. the capital costs can’t come out of the lottery funding, you can’t buy things, capital things, things you can own and sell, so I wonder if vegetables count? If I want to buy supplies, how do I pay for that… it can be quite expensive. That’s a funding thing for the
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farm…if we want to grow food to sell… produce enough food to sell… it’s expensive… so we have to find other funding…” (Payne, 2009a)
These economic constraints create a tension between who has the final say over the activities at
the farm, as purchases must fall in line with the guidelines for grant money. However, this has still
had a beneficial side, it has caused the farm to reach out to other institutions in the community, as
well as encourage social enterprise. In this way the economic tensions have also been beneficial,
as they have caused the farm to deepen it’s connections within other community organizations.
Food for Thought
While Hackney City Farm technically constitutes productive land, the farm does not currently
produce enough food to sell yet, and therefore doesn’t serve the purpose of providing nutritional
benefits to locals. Although they have restructured the original gardens to be more productive and
plan to open a community garden in London Fields in abandoned area to grow cheap produce,
their lack of sufficient food production calls into question the benefit it supplies to the local
community. However, Domene and Sauri discuss the fact that as socio‐natures gardens have
physical and symbolic meanings and that their worth goes beyond their physical productive
capacity to moral and discursive realms ‐ they are symbols of what we value, a desire to use urban
better, the sense of being useful to others, a reconnection with the land. In this way Hackney City
Farms provides a number of further benefit to members of lower socio‐economic groups. They
offer junior and adult gardening courses and run educational programs on sustainability, eating
locally, and growing vegetables for local schools. These programs provide interaction with nature
and agriculture to some of the poorest children in Hackney, many of who do not have access to any
sort of garden in their homes, or to agricultural land outside the city. The farm also supports a
Green Ambassador program, which works with local community leaders, teaching them about the
importance of the environment and sustainability so that they can engender these ideas into the
15
community. In all these ways the farm serves to reconnect people with the concept of food
growth, sustainability, understanding of nature and where food comes from. While not supplying
the actual nutrition, it changes people’s connection to food and productive space and gives them
the chance to interact in a more in‐depth way than just walking through or sitting in a park.
Planting new seeds
If the “Urban environment” is a relational concept, with necessarily subjective and moral values
attached to its creation, then it can be implied that by adjusting our values and changing our way
of understanding and relating to the “urban environment” we can create more equitable places.
Enrique Penelosa, mayor of Bogota, has said, “Cities are about a way of life... People behave the
way they are treated and if the city treats them well they respond in kind…[Therefore] we have to
create a society where other things are valued” (E2, n.d.). The physical way we construct the city
is important because it is a symbol of our values. Urban Modernity is “a particular set of processes
of socio‐metabolic transformations [that] promises exactly the possibility of the active, democratic
and empowering creation of those socio‐physical environments we wish to inhabit,” and human
agents are different from other forms of life in “their organic capacity to wish differently, to
imagine different possible futures, to act differently in ways driven and shaped by human drives,
desires, and imaginations.”(Swyngedow, 2006, p 24) What we build is a physical manifestation of
our values, re‐created throughout time and reinforced by that which we create. This is why the
historical separation of man and “nature” has proven so detrimental. When we separate from
nature we separate ourselves literally from that which we need to produce and re‐produce.
We have the ability to move forward from here, to make urban farming, as farm‐acology, a new
polemic against the separation of society from nature. Societies and individuals have an inherent
and inseparable role in creating the urban environments around them. All societies are in the
16
process of creating and re‐creating their natural environments, and because of this our urban
environments reflect back a "naturalization of the social assumptions that sculpted such
landscapes in the first place. (Smith, 2006, p.xiv) We create new values this way and engender
them over time. Pounds (2007) has called Hackney City farm a learning opportunity as a “living
exhibit.” It is a symbol and a living socio‐nature that is constantly redeveloping and has the ability
to recreate itself, and to set an example for the creation of other similar places. Therefore, if we
revolutionize our ways of thinking about the urban environment and our cities we can transform
the places we create.
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Appendix 1 Graphs of Land Use In Hackney
Region London Borough Land Use (Square metres (m2))
London Hackney Tower Hamlets Total Area of All Land Types 394,440.50 4,709.32 6,097.81 Area of Domestic Gardens 94,061.74 872.36 448.22 Area of Green space 150,773.84 1,093.95 926.92 As a percentage of All Land Types London Hackney Tower Hamlets Area of Domestic Gardens 23.85% 18.52% 7.35% Area of Green space 38.22% 23.23% 15.20% Area per Person London Hackney Tower Hamlets Population 7,619,800 212,200 220,500.0 Area of Domestic Gardens 0.05 0.02 0.01 Area of Green space 0.08 0.02 0.02
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Appendix 2
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References and Bibliography acology. (n.d.). Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/acology Allotment Vegetable Growing. History of Allotments in England Retrieved on March 1st, 2010 from: http://www.allotment.org.uk/articles/Allotment-History.php Barry, J. (1999) Environment and Social Theory. London: Routledge. Department of Neighborhoods and Communities (DCLG) (2010) Land Use Statistics (Generalised Land Use Database), Retrieved on April 20, 2010: http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=276754&c=hackney&d=13&e=8&g=334074&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1271773565134&enc=1&dsFamilyId=1201 Domene E. and Saurí D. (2007). Urbanization and class-produced natures: Vegetable gardens in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, Geoforum, 38, 287-298. E2 (n.d.) E2 design Series II — Bogotá: Building a Sustainable City Podcast, retrieved on March 30th from: http://www.e2-series.com/ with follow up from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuaXcRtgPzE Exploring 20th Century London. Retrieved on March 3 2010 from: http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conInformationRecord.286 Freudenberg, N., Libman, K., and O’keefe. ‘A Tale of Two ObesCities: Comparing responses to childhood obesity in London and New York City. New York and London: City University of New York and London Metropolitain University Childhood Obesity Collaborative, January 2010. Gandy, M. (2006) ‘Urban Nature and the Ecological imaginary’ in In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism, eds. Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. London: Routledge. Chapter 4, pp. 63 – 74. Garnett, T. (2005) Urban Agriculture in London: Rethinking Our Food Economy in Growing Cities, Growing Food: Urban Agriculture on the Policy Agenda, retrieved on April 15th, 2010 from: http://www.ruaf.org/node/90 Government Office for London (GOL). (2007). Indices of Deprivation 2007. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from: http://www.london.gov.uk/search/google_appliance/deprivation%202007%20briefing Hackney Allotment Society.(2009). Retrieved on February 28th 2010 from: http://www.hackneyallotments.org.uk/ Hackney City Farm (HCF) organization website; Retrieved on April 20, 2010: http://www.hackneycityfarm.co.uk/ Hackney Council. (2007). Haggerston Ward Profile Report. Strategic Policy and Research, Customer and Corporate Services. Hackney Council. (2006). Hackney Borough Profile. Hackney Council. (2008a) Hackney Directory: Hackney Allotment Society. Retrieved on February 28th 2010 from: http://www.hackney.gov.uk/servapps/hackneydirectory/details.aspx?OrgID=2720 Hackney Council. (2008b). Hackney Sustainable Community Strategy. Hackney Council. (2009). Hackney Local Development Frameworkc Hackney Council. (2010, Feb. 1)a. Deprivation in Hackney. Retrieved on February 28th 2010 from: http://www.hackney.gov.uk/xp-factsandfigures-deprivation.htm Hackney Council. (2010, Feb. 1)b. Hackney’s Population. Retrieved on February 28th 2010 from: http://www.hackney.gov.uk/xp-factsandfigures-mye.htm
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Harvey, D. (1993) The nature of environment: dialectics of social and environmental change. The Socialist Register 30: p 1 – 51. Harvey, D (1996) Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell. Heynen, N. (2006) ‘Justice of Eating in the City’ in In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism, eds. Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. London: Routledge. Chapter 8, pp. 129 – 142. Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. (2006) ‘Urban Political Ecology’ in In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism, eds. Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. London: Routledge. Chapter 1, pp. 1 – 20. Mayor of London. (May 2006). Healthy and Sustainable Food For London: Mayor’s Food Strategy for London, Summary. London Development Agency: London. Nationwide. (2009) Housing Prices: Historical Q2. Retrieved on April 22, 2010 from: http://www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi/historical/Q2_2009.pdf Office for National Statistics. (2001) Hackney Profile 2001 Census. Retrieved on February 28th, 2010 from: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/00AM.asp#work Office for National Statistics (2008) Population Estimate: Mid-2008 UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: 27/08/09, Table 8: Retrieved on April 20, 2010 from: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=15106 Payne, A. (2010a) Interview by Candidate # 11549 with Charlie Sayle, Volunteer & Education Manager, Hackney City Farm. Friday, February 12th, 2010, 10 am. Payne, A. (2010b) Interview by Candidate # 11549 with Gustavo Montes de Oca, Environmental and Enterprise Manager, Hackney City Farm. Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010, 10 am. Pounds, C. (2007) Hackney City Farm Business Plan 2006-2010. Unpublished. Hackney City Farm LTD. Smith, N. (2006) ‘Foreward’ in In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism, eds. Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. London: Routledge. Foreward, pp. xi – xv. Smyth, C. (2009, September 9). Urban Green Space is Good for Your Health Claims Researcher. The Times Online. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/earth-environment/article6826772.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084 Swyngedouw, E. (2006) ‘Metabolic Urbanization’ in In the Nature of Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism, eds. Heynen, N., Kaika, M., and Swyngedouw, E. London: Routledge. Chapter 1, pp. 21 – 39. Thomas, D. (1963) London's Green Belt: The Evolution of an Idea. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 129, No. 1 (Mar., 1963), pp. 14-24. Thompson, S. Corkey, L., and Judd, B. (2007). The role of Community Gardens in Sustaining Healthy Communities. Paper presented at the Third State of Australian Cities Conference, Adelaide, November 2007.accessed 24 August 2007.