Metropolitan metamorphosis : gardening in the city as a militant act and an instrument of protest

This presentation is inspired by a research entitled “Metropolitan Metamorphosis: Urban Agriculture and Sharing Economy in the city of Rome”, based on a research made in Rome in 2015. The research questions the issue of gardening in the city and shows how some forms of urban agriculture can become an instrument of protest. It has been conducted using an anthropological qualitative approach. The analysis focused on the different actors, human and non-human, involved in the urban public space, starting from the theories of Philippe Descola and Bruno Latour. We have explored how urban agriculture could become an important instrument to conceive and build new spatial and social interactions and configurations. We have investigated the activities that took place in several urban plots and gardens in different areas of the city. We have also followed the works carried out by the Collective Urban Fruit and the Group of Subversive Gardeners, who are active in guerrilla gardening around the city, expressing a strong criticism of urban planning by sowing plants where there are not and reclaim a space that belongs to everyone.