Building a Neighbourhood Network: When the Shared Garden Group Impacts Local Social Relations. Two Parisian Examples
This paper’s aim is to underline how shared gardens can, through social homogeneity, become part of gardeners’ daily social lives. It is based upon a field study of two shared gardens mixing participant observations, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Results show that these shared gardens’ members, of rather similar social status, education level and cultural practices, are encouraged to repeatedly meet outside of said gardens. These gatherings end up creating very strong local networks. Consequently, they can be used individually to provide solidarity and support between group members, yet they also reinforce social inequalities as they empower established middle-classes, which already have enough resources to occupy urban spaces.