Publications

Barthel, S., J. Parker, H. Ernstson. 2015. Food and green space in cities: A resilience lens on gardens and urban environmental movements. Urban Studies 52: 1321–1338.

This article examines the role played by urban gardens during historical collapses in urban food supply lines and identifies the social processes required to protect two critical elements of urban food production during times of crisis—open green spaces and the collective memory of how to grow food. Advanced communication and transport technologies allow food sequestration from the farthest reaches of the planet, but have mark...

Jongerden, J., P. Swagemakers, S. Barthel. 2014. Connective storylines: A relational approach to initiatives in food provisioning and green infrastructures. Spanish Journal of Rural Development 5: 7-18.

Debates about the design and management of ecosystem services and interweaving of rural and urban spaces in metropolitan regions raise questions about how to conceptualize  “the local” . Rather than presupposing spatial settings or identities as rural-urban or local-global, attention here shifts to the immediacy of connections and relations. Conceptualized in terms of activity space, this paper presents a relational analysi...

Giusti, M., S. Barthel, L. Marcus. 2014. Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Casestudy of Preschool Children in Stockholm. Children, Youth and Environments 24(3): 16-42.

Do nature-deficit routines undermine affinity with the biosphere? We assessed social-ecological features in Stockholm that afford nature experiences and analyzed the accessibility of these natural areas to preschools. We then selected preschools with contrasting accessibilities. The nature routines resulting from differing outdoor possibilities in preschool life were investigated in relation to children's affinity with the bio...

Andersson E, Barthel S, Borgström S, Colding J, Elmqvist T, Folke C, Gren Å. 2014. Reconnecting cities to the biosphere: stewardship of green infrastructure and urban ecosystem services. Ambio 43(4):445-53. doi: 10.1007/s13280-014-0506-y

Within-city green infrastructure can offer opportunities and new contexts for people to become stewards of ecosystem services. We analyze cities as social–ecological systems, synthesize the literature, and provide examples from more than 15 years of research in the Stockholm urban region, Sweden. The social–ecological approach spans from investigating ecosystem properties to the social frameworks and personal values that driv...

Barthel. S. 2014. Resilience. In Donini, D. M. (ed.) A Companion to Urban Anthropology, Wiley-Blackwell, MA, USA. , 228-446. p, ISBN: 978-1-4443-3010-6

Colding, J., Marcus, L., Barthel, S., Andersson, E., Gren, J. and Borgström, S. 2013. Ekosystemtjänsterna i Stockholmsregionen. Ett underlag för diskussion och planering. Tillväxt, miljö och regionplanering Rapport 2013:3. Regional Growth, Environment and Planning, Stockholm County Council.

Barthel, S., C. L. Crumley, and U. Svedin. 2013. Biocultural refugia: combating the erosion of diversity in landscapes of food production. Ecology and Society 18(4): 71. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-06207-180471

There is urgent need to both reduce the rate of biodiversity loss caused by industrialized agriculture and feed more people. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of places that harbor traditional ecological knowledge, artifacts, and methods when preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services in landscapes of food production. We use three examples in Europe of biocultural refugia, defined as the physical p...

Barthel, S., J. Colding, H. Erixon, S. Grahn, C. Kärsten, L. Marcus, J. Torsvall. 2013. Principles of Social-Ecological Urbanism - Case Study: Albano Campus, Stockholm. Trita-ARK Forskningspublikationer 2013:3

Thomas Elmqvist, Charles L. Redman, Stephan Barthel and Robert Costanza (2013) History of Urbanization and the Missing Ecology, in: Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities (Thomas Elmqvist et al. (Eds.)), Springer Open, pp. 13-30

In this chapter, we explore the historical dimension of urbanization and why the ecology of urbanization has, until recently, been missing. We discuss the consequences of this for our perceptions of urbanization throughout history and also discuss the emerging reintroduction of ecology and the concept of natural capital into the global discourse on urbanization and sustainability. Humans and the institutions they devise for th...

Barthel, S. Parker, J. Folke, C and Colding J. 2013. Urban Gardens-Pockets of Social-Ecological Memory. In Tidball, KG and ME Krasny (eds.) Greening in the red zone: Disaster, resilience, and urgent biophilia, Springer, ISBN 978-90-481-9946-4

It is well known that urban allotment gardens provide important ecosystem services. Their potential to act as sources of local resilience during times of crisis is less appreciated, despite the role they have played as areas of food security during times of crisis in history. Their ability to provide such relief, however, requires that the skills and knowledge needed for effective gardening can be transmitted over time and a...