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Shared gardens may be seen as a fad for urban dwellers in search of greenery, but they have a long history of reclaiming land in response to privatisation or abandonment. As well as being a simple area to cultivate, they raise many questions about social organisation as we know it. Managed as a community, these areas raise questions about democracy as a mode of organisation. Through her ethnography in Strasbourg and Rome, Victoria Sachsé shows how the garden can be a place for citizen participation and become a vehicle for emancipation and politicisation. The author also highlights the challenges of involvement in the garden, which changes the relationship with land and food, overturning the perception of the roles of consumer and producer, and even calling into question the conventional agricultural model. Finally, the book shows how gardeners' associations are becoming legitimate players in the co-production of public space alongside institutions, redefining ownership and introducing the notion of the 'commons' in response to the social and environmental crisis.

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