| dc.description.abstract | Due to the propagation of the Internet and several other changing factors, the geographical sense of
community has somewhat become unnecessary. However, the quality of sense of community through
indirect communication via Internet or other mass media is not proven to be the same as that of direct
communication. Therefore, this research’s main purpose was to discover and understand the real
experience of urban vegetable gardeners in Metro Halifax, or so-called Halifax, which is the urban part of
Halifax Regional Municipality, and how a sample Haligonians perceive sense of community. Three main
research questions were:
1. How do urban vegetable gardeners perceive sense of community, and how does vegetable
gardening activity affect that perception?
2. What are their opinions about the social benefits and costs of participating in the vegetable
gardens?
3. What are their concerns and suggestions for future improvements of urban vegetable gardening in
Halifax?
In total 17 participants participated in this study. Face-to-face individual interview was conducted
with additional use of questionnaire. One of the most notable results was that the key elements of sense of
community were defined by participants as trust, sharing and reciprocity, which were consistent with past
research done related to the research questions. Furthermore, it was discovered that urban vegetable
gardening activity could both newly establish and enhance all these three elements of sense of community. | en_US |
