The motivations of urban agriculture practitioners in deprived neighborhoods: A comparative study of Montreal and Quito

Urban agriculture (UA) is increasingly used as a strategy to improve food environments and the aesthetic of urban areas in different socioeconomic contexts. However, little is known about the characteristics and motivations of UA practitioners and how socioeconomic contexts may shape their motivations. This study provides an empirically-grounded understanding of the characteristics and motivations of UA practitioners, as well as the challenges they face, in deprived neighborhoods of two cities with different socioeconomic contexts: Montreal, Canada and Quito, Ecuador. A total of n=36 UA practitioners and n=8 UA promotors were purposively interviewed. The interview guides included open-ended questions in order to capture relevant information and nuances of the participants regarding the origin of their interest, their perceptions, and motivations related to UA. Individuals' discourses were analyzed to identify similarities and differences between the two cities, through which we developed a typology based on the motivations of UA practitioners. We found that practitioners categorized as the Eco-engaged and Socio-engaged types are more predominant in Montreal, whereas the Econoexpert and Versatile-caretaker types characterized the practitioners in Quito. The findings also indicate that the motivations for participating in UA in both cities are related to the self-provision of healthy food, health and wellbeing, empowerment, social capital, and economic rewards. We argue that these motivations represent health-related outcomes that should influence urban planning policies, so as to encourage UA in deprived neighborhoods.