Cape Verdean urban vegetable gardens: sociabilities and resistance in Lisbon

Abstract

Cape Verdean urban vegetable gardens are an unavoidable reality of the Lisbon metropolitan area. They are fond next to neighborhoods, on the slopes of the roads, and alongside waterlines. Arising from the fact of food needs, these garden plots also give rise to notable social activities and structures, connecting people to each other and to their neighborhoods. Based on ethnographic research with farmers from Cova da Moura and “Reboleira” – and with a focus on an urban garden at the border between Amadora and Lisbon – this article explores urban vegetable gardens as places of sociabilities and everyday resistance.