As a team of socio-cultural workers and educators in Flanders (Antwerp) we try to pick up significant interventions that evolve around us, especially those involving local communities and sharing activities. One of our points of interest arose visiting a community garden at the Left Bank Neighborhood in Antwerp. What seemed to be a meeting point for ecological gardeners became a reception area for an exhibition and later on a concert place and a restaurant! For a moment people were part of a local community, simply because they where there. Is it that simple?
Building and supporting communities is a main focus in our education. Initiatives as ‘The BIO-DREAM-project’ tickle us to find out more about the role of this kind of community gardens, regarding the professional role of a social-cultural worker. It also gives us a more in depth understanding of the needs of people and helps us defining our dynamic role in the city or society. In this paper we search for the different types of ‘community gardens’ and their value for people and society. We then focus on the Antwerp situation and introduce the BIODREAM-project as a specific case. We present the results of a small research project on this case and formulate questions for future research. After setting out these lines, we focus on the role of social-cultural work, as we define it in Flanders, regarding community gardening.
Projectmedewerkers: Els De Ceuster, Hilde Maelstaf
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Rapport
Referentie: De Ceuster, E., Maelstaf, H. (2013). Dreaming the BIO-DREAM? Community gardening and the role of social-cultural work. Antwerpen: Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool.