Tackling Social Inequality in the City of Porto, Northern Portugal: Grassroots Horticultural Practices and the Desired City

Abstract

Grassroots urban horticultural plots (hortas), part of the Porto Metropolitan Area in Northern Portugal, are presented as liminal spaces that hold a richness of community life and a “gift economy.” Often in existence for several decades and encompassing groups of over 20 or 30 people, these informal communities are, nevertheless, not cherished by the instances of city governance that do not stand in the way of the destruction of these low‐income urbanite horticultural communities. The use of de Certeau’s concepts of “strategy” and “tactics” are used to try and explain this incompatibility between these two forms of urban (self) governance that hinders the right to the city by the low‐income urbanites who have created these horticultural grassroots communities.

Keywords

• food security
• gift economy
• informal communities
• porto – portugal
• right to the city
• strategy and tactics
• urban horticultural plots