Track: Masters Thesis Competition

Abstract

Cities and urban areas are under constant stress from natural disasters, and climate changes to pestilences and economic crises, due primarily to anthropological activities and demands. These extraneous circumstances have been highlighted by the recent epidemic, which changed the modus-operandi of the world as we know it. The pressure exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the cities' ability to be resilient, further revealing the imbalances in the flawed governing systems that cities and nations possess. The premise of this study is located around regenerative and sustainable Urban Agriculture and effective strategy to achieve urban resilience. City and urban sustainability, specifically for developing countries, particularly in the Global South, will shift from the conventional concrete jungle urban design. Therefore, this paper explores urban agricultural perspectives through the microscope of bee technology and how this simple practice and its principles can be incorporated within the urban space to enable resilience, food and nutrition provision, and promote economic accessibility. The methodological approach to the research was completed qualitatively, through the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the social aspects affecting resilience in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. The results reveal that urban agriculture is multifaceted, inclusionary, viable and subject to failure should supporting structures such as legislative handicaps and participant apathy continue. Furthermore, there is a desperate need to make the data available in a quantifiable manner so that there can be simulations that can predict urban agriculture as a resilience strategy.