In 2023, the Cité de l’agriculture launched a research-action project named CAJAU in partnership with 4 local urban agricultural places. CAJAU aimed to understand how accessibility to urban agriculture in underprivileged areas could be improved, drawing on the principles of agrifood justice and food access. Prior research on accessibility[1] practices has primarily been assessed through economic or geographic perspectives. This project focused on more practical aspects, such as ambiances and hospitality practices whereby material as well as immaterial characteristics were taken into account. The goal was to understand how urban agriculture projects situated in underprivileged areas could welcome the inhabitants in the most caring way regarding their social and economic vulnerabilities.
The research team chose a pragmatic sociological approach to investigate this subject to further understanding of how urban farms integrated themselves into foodscapes and provisioning practices. The research also sought to enlighten engagement practices within urban farms. Such motivations were categorised through ease, attachment (engagement in familiarity), opportunities for self-sufficiency at the individual level (engagement in practicality), because it allowed them to enforce the common good in some sense (engagement in justice) or because it fulfilled an impulse of curiosity, a desire to discover (engagement in exploration).
The methods used in this study mixed conventional methods such as semi-directive interviews with more sensory-based ones, such as augmented itineraries, the use of mind mapping to describe the foodscapes during the interviews, and photo-eliciting of provisioning practices in supermarkets as well as urban farms. The methods employed sought to overcome two main caveats regarding accessibility and the social background of the participants in the study. Firstly, sensory methods sought to shed light on the relationship between ambiances (furniture, signage and communication, the type of activities on offer…) and how these were perceived by the participants. Secondly, visual methods such as mind mapping also deepened and facilitated communication between interviewees and interviewers.
The key results showed that a range of different ambiances within these different spaces broadened the possible types of engagement that could be fostered within them, and the perception of their “welcomeness” or “openness” . Nevertheless, no place can fit everybody’s dispositions or vulnerabilities. As a result, it is of the foremost importance that urban agriculture projects become aware of the capacities or implicit skills they “expect” from users. Urban agriculture exists in many different forms : they are entangled in political and financial realities, thereby generating specific business models, ambiances and services. This abundance of initiatives should allow everyone to find one fitting their vulnerabilities.This implies that project initiators should acquire a good knowledge of the urban agriculture places’ ecosystem to redirect individuals towards a more appropriate project for them.
This study also showed that in trying to assess accessibility and to foster participatory approaches, sensory methods constitute a promising approach. However, they require time both from researchers and participants, which can be a strong obstacle to their implementation. To tackle this difficulty, we sometimes conducted the research during working hours on site which may constitute a bias to our study. The first phase of the project is the study phase. The upcoming cooperation and field actions phases will surely bring complementary insights on innovating actions thought of during workshops and tested on the field. Stay tuned!
