Arturo Perez Vazquez and Simon Anderson

In: UA Magazine 5 - Methodologies for UA research, policy development, planning and implementation

Developments in urban agriculture have been practitioner-led. Researchers are trying to catch up and identify what contributions they can make. Research could learn from the successes and failures addressed in other forms of agriculture, and thus identify and address the researchable questions in a proactive way. Those who wish to engage in the development of agriculture in cities will need to take a constructivist approach to innovation facilitation, whereby they should recognise that they are just one of a set of actors involved in the process.Here, the authors review some methods that have been used in the study of urban agriculture, from actor-oriented and action-research perspectives.