The International Green Academy: School Gardens and Progressive Urban Ecologies

A major challenge UK cities face is providing fresh food, green space and ecological diversity to deprived urban areas. How can new generations of city dwellers thrive in these increasingly stressed urban futures? School gardens embody potential to nurture socially progressive urban ecologies: spaces for experiential education, food production, wildlife, health, well-being and ecological sustainability. Yet there is little geographic research on the contribution of school gardens to social and ecological remediation: can these spaces transform students and connect to other urban communities, human and non-human? This project will build a garden in a Glasgow secondary school and “twin” it with an established school garden network in Arizona. The Glasgow garden will be designed and evaluated by a team of interdisciplinary researchers. The goal is to empower educators, connect students to their environment, produce innovative curricula and create transformative ecologies that bridge distinct “urban biomes” in the UK and US.