Beyond the green myth: a scoping review of spatial justice and structural barriers to therapeutic urban agriculture for vulnerable communities.

Authors

Xiaoyan Ye, Peili Lu, Qiang Chen

Published in

Frontiers in public health. Volume 14. Pages 1907463. Epub Sep 29, 2026.

Abstract

Motivated by the urgent need to address urban health inequities, this scoping review critiques the mainstream public health discourse that champions therapeutic urban agriculture (UA) as an accessible mental health intervention. This narrative often obscures the systemic spatial inequities and structural barriers marginalized populations face. To address this gap, we systematically mapped the physical, economic, and institutional mechanisms impeding therapeutic UA for vulnerable communities.
Adhering to JBI and PRISMA-ScR methodologies, we executed a systematic retrieval across Web of Science and Scopus from database inception to March 2026, yielding 304 records. Focusing on English-language empirical literature, the epistemic scope of this synthesis primarily reflects the socio-spatial dynamics and planning frameworks of the Global North, rather than claiming universal global applicability. By applying a Population, Concept, and Context (PCC) framework, we retained and analyzed 30 core empirical articles.
Our thematic synthesis reveals three primary structural barriers constraining UA's therapeutic potential. Physically, land tenure precarity frequently relegates growers to fragmented or marginalized geographies. Economically, the reliance on competitive short-term funding burdens grassroots initiatives, while successful greening interventions paradoxically trigger eco-gentrification. Institutionally, procedural exclusion and social stigmatization downgrade community-led agricultural spaces to transient interim uses within broader urban agendas.
Consequently, the synthesis indicates that implementing localized greening projects without resolving these structural vulnerabilities remains counterproductive. As its primary contribution, this review proposes a multidimensional "healing justice" framework, asserting that to transition UA into a permanent public health infrastructure, urban planning must prioritize structural interventions, such as Community Land Trusts (CLTs) and anti-displacement spatial policies, to secure spatial agency for marginalized groups.

PMID:
42871369
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Oct 2026.

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