Vegetable Gardening in the City. Social Norms and Control of Nature in Allotment Gardens
This research focuses on a particular urban space, the allotment gardens. It investigates the relative weight of the norms of the controlled garden, without any spontaneous vegetation, and the natural garden, cultivated without pesticides. It looks at the effect of the gardeners’ status (ordinary gardeners versus gardeners-managers) and gender, and of the urban gradient, apprehended by the density of the built environment (low, intermediate or dense). Semi-structured interviews on the motivations and representations of gardening were conducted with 46 gardeners (16 women and 30 men; 17 manager-gardeners and 29 ordinary gardeners). The textual analysis was carried out using Alceste software. Three lexical universes, relating to gardening practices, the relationship with nature and garden management, emerged from the discourses. The results highlight the effect of the gardener’s status and the urban gradient. The preponderance of the aesthetic norm leading to the search for a chimerical “beautiful vegetable garden” is discussed.