After studying Sustainability at Murdoch University, I was inspired by Prof. Peter Newman to become an urban planner to implement sustainability as a planning tool. After working as an urban planner for a few years, I found myself in Istanbul, within a diverse, vibrant, creative community in Moda, a small community in a megacity. Moda partially reflects Florida’s creative class that represents the skills needed for the knowledge economy 1 where many artists and musicians reside and operate tiny unique workshops producing boutique services and creations. As a relatively wealthy yet diverse demographic that shares political and environmental values, this community could be considered as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS)2 from which emergent leaders grow from.
Coming from Perth, where the private automobile and thus roads tend to dominate the urban environment 3, I was delighted to see Turkish developers give extra efforts to conserve the existing environment, weaving fences around trees, and creating holes in verandahs for trees to access sunlight. Yet the conflict between urban development and protection of green space remains a significant issue.
This push for continued urban development at the expense of the environment and the community represents the crux of the sustainability challenge of our time and is considered as a ‘wicked problem’ 4. Given that land in Istanbul is typically primed for urban development rather than gardens, food production or green space, a curious anomaly has occurred on a street called ‘Moda Bostan’ which directly translates to ‘Moda’s market garden’ whereby an underutilized green space was planned to be a permaculture garden, the first of its kind in an otherwise dense urban environment. With hope for a greener future on an aptly named street, it was disappointing to see the permaculture park plan be shelved and the vacant land locked from any public access. Meanwhile, real estate agents continue to tell renters they may only grow flowers on the land surrounding rentals but not vegetables due to neighbour concerns. It is this issue that I explored by challenging the public’s reluctance to growing food in urban areas and green spaces via Complexity Leadership Theory using emerging Entrepreneurial Leadership 5.
As an emerging enabling leader, I capitalized on the existing tensions and context by creating small ‘seeds of resistance’ to foster interaction amongst individuals and groups6 by enabling the experience of beauty and flavour from a home-grown tomato seedling. This sparked conversation and mobilised Moda’s creative class in response to the wicked problems posed by general attitudes to environmentalism and food production with peaceful resistance and guerilla gardening. This direct individual experience could trigger a community conversation about the idea that vegetables belong in an urban environment and that all types of nature can be valued.
By anonymously placing cherry tomato seedings on balconies that have sunny south facing windows or in already reticulated public gardens, with posters accompanied by a hashtag or Insta handle, I enabled other entrepreneurial leaders to emerge to tackle the missing Moda Bostan garden plan, demonstrating that vegetable gardens can be a productive space, empowering communities by fighting inflation and rising food prices, and boosting household-resiliency 7.
This project was considered a ‘courageous and creative’ success8 as the Mayor officially opening the permaculture garden 6 months later. Residents of Kadikoy can register for a small plot for 6 months here.
References:
- Florida, Richard L. 2005. Cities and the Creative Class / Richard Florida. New York, N.Y.: New York, N.Y. : Routledge. ↩︎
- Uhl-Bien, Mary, and Michael Arena. 2017. “Complexity Leadership: Enabling People and Organizations for Adaptability.” Organizational Dynamics 46 (1): 9-20. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.12.001 ↩︎
- Kunstler, James Howard. 1993. The Geography of Nowhere : The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape / James Howard Kunstler. New York: New York : Simon & Schuster ↩︎
- Australian Public Service Commission. 2007. Tackling Wicked Problems : A Public Policy Perspective. Canberra, ACT. http://www.enablingchange.com.au/wickedproblems.pdf. ↩︎
- Uhl-Bien, Mary, and Michael Arena. 2017. “Complexity Leadership: Enabling People and Organizations for Adaptability.” Organizational Dynamics 46 (1): 9-20. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.12.001 ↩︎
- Marion, Russ, and Mary Uhl-Bien. 2001. “Leadership in Complex Organizations.” The Leadership quarterly 12 (4): 389-418. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(01)00092-3. ↩︎
- Taylor, John, and Lovell, Sarah. 2014. “Urban Home Food Gardens in the Global North: Research Traditions and Future Directions.” Agriculture and human values 31 (2): 285-305.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-013-9475-1. ↩︎ - Mouritz, Mike, Peter Newman, Renée Newman, Jayne Bryant, Aimee Smith, and Elaine Olsen. 2022. “Leadership in Sustainability: Collective Wisdom, Conversations, Creativity, Contemplation and Courage, the Five Pillars of a Master’s Teaching Unit.” Sustainability 14 (9): 5070. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5070. ↩︎