Food Self-Provisioning

Allotment gardens have played a significant role in Czech and Slovak society for decades, building upon a rich history of gardening. This article elaborates on Czech and Slovak allotments in the European context and identifies their core functions, services, and benefits. We provide a thorough historical review of allotments in this region, reaching back to the eighteenth century to trace significant periods and historic events that shaped society in general and urban gardening in particular. We analyze the development of allotments until and after 1989 and illustrate key aspects of their present situation using case studies and examples. The article provides a complex historical narrative as a good basis for discussions on contemporary trends, challenges, and visions for the future of urban allotment gardening in both countries.

A growing number of people around the world are becoming familiar with the phenomenon of ‘World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms’ (WWOOF). This movement originated forty years ago in London, England, but has since spread around the world. Estimations suggest that WWOOF currently has more than 90,000 signed-up members internationally. Over the last four decades WWOOF has developed as part of an environmentalist social trend in contemporary, although predominantly Western, urban societies. The members of WWOOF largely share a green, “ecotopian” attitude towards nature, living in the country, and the sustainable use of resources, health and nutrition, anti-consumerism and anti-capitalist ideals. This thesis is the first comprehensive ethnographic study of this international phenomenon. In it I provide an analysis of the complexities of this environmentalist social trend, and the interconnections between environmental, socio-economic, and political processes. By applying a combination of methods, including participant observation in Austria and New Zealand and interviews with volunteers, hosts, directors, and the founder of the movement herself, I was able to gain a multi-sited as well as multi-layered perspective of the international WWOOF movement. In this study I investigate the urban origins of this environmentalist movement and its inherent critique of industrialisation and modernity, while illustrating how the morality of “ecotopian” thinking informs the lifeworlds of the participants. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the international WWOOF movement as it is experienced, narrated, and negotiated by its members. In it I demonstrate the tensions between ideals and lived reality, the contradictions and compromises, and the vast range of interpretations of these ideals that lead to internal conflict. In trying to overcome these tensions, social practices emerge that blur the boundaries between “ecotopian” green values and mainstream attitudes. I argue that through these processes of constant negotiation the members of this green lifestyle trend, exemplified by the members of the WWOOF movement, develop alternative environmental, socio-economic, and political practices that do realise their ecotopian dreams at least to some extent.

Allotment gardens have played a significant role in Czech and Slovak society for decades, building upon a rich history of gardening. This article elaborates on Czech and Slovak allotments in the European context and identifies their core functions, services, and benefits. We provide a thorough historical review of allotments in this region, reaching back to the eighteenth century to trace significant periods and historic events that shaped society in general and urban gardening in particular. We analyze the development of allotments until and after 1989 and illustrate key aspects of their present situation using case studies and examples. The article provides a complex historical narrative as a good basis for discussions on contemporary trends, challenges, and visions for the future of urban allotment gardening in both countries.

Allotment gardens have played a significant role in Czech and Slovak society for decades, building upon a rich history of gardening. This article elaborates on Czech and Slovak allotments in the European context and identifies their core functions, services, and benefits. We provide a thorough historical review of allotments in this region, reaching back to the eighteenth century to trace significant periods and historic events that shaped society in general and urban gardening in particular. We analyze the development of allotments until and after 1989 and illustrate key aspects of their present situation using case studies and examples. The article provides a complex historical narrative as a good basis for discussions on contemporary trends, challenges, and visions for the future of urban allotment gardening in both countries.

Allotment gardens have played a significant role in Czech and Slovak society for decades, building upon a rich history of gardening. This article elaborates on Czech and Slovak allotments in the European context and identifies their core functions, services, and benefits. We provide a thorough historical review of allotments in this region, reaching back to the eighteenth century to trace significant periods and historic events that shaped society in general and urban gardening in particular. We analyze the development of allotments until and after 1989 and illustrate key aspects of their present situation using case studies and examples. The article provides a complex historical narrative as a good basis for discussions on contemporary trends, challenges, and visions for the future of urban allotment gardening in both countries.