Cultivating a Social Neighbourhood

Abstract: As urbanisation continues throughout the world, issues of sustainability have been raised. Discussing ecological sustainability is becoming increasingly common, where green space in urban planning, has been given a particular function. At the same time, this sustainability goes beyond the environment and nature, since it also relates to social interaction and trust between people. The city of Malmö, Sweden's third largest city, has in recent years been a hot topic in media and society overall,where two discourses arise; one presenting Malmö as a city of crime and immigration, and another emphasising the city's cultural diversity and sustainability. Through garden projects, green space could serve as a tool for supporting cultural diversity and social sustainability. This bachelor thesis will investigate the theoretical reasoning behind green space and its affects on the social neighbourhood, contextualised in an urban garden project in the city of Malmö. The thesis is based on participant observations and interviews conducted at Odlingsnätverket Seved (“The Cultivation- Network Seved”) during April and May 2015, as well as a literature review that sets the theoretical framework. The results of the field study seems to validate the findings argued in previous literature to a large extent, where there seems to be a positive relation between green space and social interaction.