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Several issues emerge from the focus of this thesis on sustainability. Issues regarding notions of sustainability arose which were not pursued in this study, but which may bear further examination. These include the apparent reliance of some of the groups upon long distance private transport as discussed in Chapter 4 and issues surrounding site pollution levels. This latter issue is dealt with to an extent by gardens in the form of soil testing and site remediation; however, the impacts of pollution sources such as overhead flight paths, roads and rainfall were not discussed by any individuals. A full interrogation of the sustainability of these spaces, or of their potential as sites for organic practices and health improvement especially, would then require consideration of such issues. Further issues arose regarding the physical accessibility of the sites, which was consciously addressed in only a few gardens. Measures adopted include the provision of wide, smooth, low gradient paths and raised gardens beds for less mobile or agile gardeners. Consequently, the accessibility of the gardens in these terms may also bear further research.
Conflict over land use as documented in Chapters 3 and 4 highlights the need for structural frameworks allowing the incorporation of food production into urban spaces. This can be seen in South Sydney Council’s drive to create policy which asserts community gardens as a valid use of Open Space. This recognition of community gardening as a valid land use represents a channel for the normalisation of food production in ‘public’ urban spaces, which enhances access of the population to this production. Investigation of such access as mediated through networks highlights several issues for ‘sustainability’. Consideration of the porosity, flexibility and contingency of networks as discussed, implies that sustainability can only be planned for or aimed at to an extent, beyond which access will be mediated according to the bodies, technologies and spaces involved. Hence, while governmental planning and community network formation remain vital and set up the infrastructure for greater potential access to information, individuals and resources, this will always be mediated in unforeseen ways. Understanding that these need not be foreseen, but require engagement and consideration as they emerge, allows the bodies involved to do with the processes and structures established what they will. In this way, flexible, transparent and open-ended processes can embody the desired aspects of sustainability highlighted in Chapter 1. Such cooperation and negotiation between various bodies reveals much about current manifestations of urban community action. In contrast to structural portrayals of local community groups as small scale, collective entities acting in opposition to large scale, anonymous corporate or state bodies, current actions appear more hybridised entities. These entities were encountered in the study as a hybrid of the provision of funding or infrastructure by a regulatory or associated body, with the situated, informed actions and decisions of individuals or groups. That is, the provision of land, water, funding, training, tools, interpretive services or technology by one or more large scale bodies, was seen as a backdrop against which situated individuals and groups could then act for sustainability in ways deemed appropriate for themselves. Both government and corporate bodies were seen providing such support; further, these spaces are themselves comprised of and negotiated by situated individuals who mediate access as they see fit and act for sustainability in a number of realms or networks, including ‘community’ groups. This represents a significant shift away from conceptualisations such as Castells’ notion of urban social movements. Such hybridised, flexible, situated collaborations were repeatedly encountered throughout the study, varying according to the spaces, individuals, knowledges and resources they comprised. Addressing sustainability in terms of access, flexibility and resilience, such collaborations between broader infrastructure provision and the situated actions of individuals and groups were found to stand as examples of what current efforts for and models of sustainability entail. |
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