Final presentation of student project
- Archiv
Abstract of the final report of M02 "Co-productice gardening as part of the IGA 2027"
This study explores how migrant communities participated in and contributed to the My Garden Project at the International Gardening Exhibition (IGA) 2027. Using three My Garden projects and one Future Garden in Dortmund in the Ruhr region of Germany as case studies, the study analyses the influences, barriers and potential contributions of immigrants' participation through a mixed research approach (quantitative questionnaire and qualitative interviews).
The study found that immigrants' participation was significantly influenced by social capital (e.g. sense of belonging, trust and neighborhood cooperation), but that current participation rates were low, mainly attributed to information asymmetry (98.4% of the migrants interviewed had not heard of IGA (2027) and language barriers. Although the immigrant community possesses a wealth of agricultural knowledge and cultural diversity (e.g., experience in traditional crop cultivation), these resources have not yet been fully integrated into the project. In addition, structural constraints in project design and management (e.g., linguistically monolingual promotional materials, complex administrative processes) further hindered migrant participation.
Based on the findings, the report makes the following recommendations:
- Enhance communication and information transparency: expand project visibility through multilingual materials and community ambassadors.
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Enhance linguistic inclusiveness: Provide translation support and multilingual activities to lower communication barriers.
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Flexible Participation Mechanisms: Design diverse activity formats that accommodate migrants' time needs.
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Cultural integration: Encourage migrants to share traditional agricultural techniques to enrich the biodiversity and culture of the gardens.
Project optimization: propose specific improvements for different cases (e.g. the public nature of Kokerei Hansa, maintenance problems in Piko Park).
Research has shown that the participation of migrants not only enhances social cohesion, but also brings ecological and cultural value to the My Garden project. In the future, a more inclusive co-production model needs to be realized through institutional support (e.g. multilingual governance structures) and community empowerment.
