Behaviour change and agriculture in urban society and environments (BeCAUSE)

Project details

Full project title: Behaviour change and agriculture in urban society and environments (BeCAUSE)

Duration: November 2011 - 30 June 2012

Sponsor: Start-up funding from the EPSRC-funded heat@uwe: Bridging the gaps in Health, Environment And Technology Research programme (Grant Reference: EP/H000380/1).

Funding figure: £6,399

Project summary

Aims

The pilot project aims to determine if and how a behavioural change towards urban agriculture is being realised in Bristol, and how this could be further supported with improved knowledge and communication.

Through a thorough review of the literature and through semi-structured interviews with those working on urban agriculture projects, an understanding of the barriers and drivers to undertaking these projects will be examined.

In particular the barriers we will look at will include:

• Barriers and support from planning authorities
• Food and contaminated land- how to protect the public and how the public protect themselves?
• Inclusivity of projects
• Interchange of ideas and knowledge between groups and between policy makers and agriculturists

Objectives

The aim of the project is to work up to a full funding bid to expand the research beyond Bristol and track, how the behavioural change in favour of urban agriculture is being played out worldwide.

Key output

• Sinnett, D., Joynt, J., Wilkinson, C. (2013) Urban agriculture: experiences, knowledge and communication. UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference, 11-13 September 2013, University of the West of England, Bristol.

Project contact

For further information, please contact Dr Danielle Sinnett (Danielle.Sinnett@uwe.ac.uk).