A new class is giving MIT students the opportunity to examine the historical and practical considerations of urban farming while developing a real-world understanding of its value by working alongside a local farm's community.
Course 4.182 (Resilient Urbanism: Green Commons in the City) is taught in two sections by instructors in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and the School of Architecture and Planning , in collaboration with The Common Good Co-op in Dorchester.
The first section was completed in spring 2025 and the second section is scheduled for spring 2026. The course is taught by STS professor Kate Brown , visiting lecturer Justin Brazier MArch '24, and Kafi Dixon, lead farmer and executive director of The Common Good.
"This project is a way for students to investigate the real political, financial, and socio-ecological phenomena that can help or hinder an urban farm's success," says Brown, the Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in History of Science.
Brown teaches environmental history, the history of food production, and the history of plants and people. She describes a history of urban farming that centered sustainable practices, financial investment and stability, and lasting connections among participants.
Brown says urban farms have sustained cities for decades.
"Cities are great places to grow produce," Brown asserts. "City dwellers produce lots of compostable materials."
Brazier's research ranges from affordable housing to urban agricultural gardens, exploring topics like sustainable architecture, housing, and food security.
"My work designing vacant lots as community gardens offered a link between Kafi's work with Common Good and my interests in urban design," Brazier says. "Urban farms offer opportunities to eliminate food deserts in underserved areas while also empowering historically marginalized communities."
Before they agreed to collaborate on the course, Dixon reached out to Brown asking for help with several challenges related to her urban farm including zoning, location, and infrastructure.
"As the lead farmer and executive director of Common Good Co-op, I happened upon Kate Brown's research and work and saw that it aligned with our cooperative model's intentions," Dixon says. "I reached out to Kate, and she replied, which humbled and excited me."
"Design itself is a form of communication," Dixon adds, describing the collaborative nature of farming sustenance and development. "For many under-resourced communities, innovating requires a research-based approach."
The project is among the inaugural cohort of initiatives to receive support from the SHASS Education Innovation Fund , which is administered by the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC).
Community development, investment, and collaboration
The class's first section paired students with community members and the City of Boston to change the farm's zoning status and create a green space for long-term farming and community use. Students spent time at Common Good during the course, including one weekend during which they helped with weeding the garden beds for spring planting.
One objective of the class is to help Common Good avoid potential pitfalls associated with gentrification. "A study in Philadelphia showed that gentrification occurs within 1,000 feet of a community garden," Brown says.
"Farms and gardens are a key part of community and public health," Dixon continues.
Students in the second section will design and build infrastructure - including a mobile chicken coop and a pavilion to protect farmers from the elements - for Common Good. The course also aims to secure a green space designation for the farm and ensure it remains an accessible community space. "We want to prevent developers from acquiring the land and displacing the community," Brown says, avoiding past scenarios in which governments seized inhabitants' property while offering little or no compensation.
Students in the 2025 course also produced a guide on how to navigate the complex rules surrounding zoning and related development. Students in the next STS section will research the history of food sovereignty and Black feminist movements in Dorchester and Roxbury. Using that research, they will construct an exhibit focused on community activism for incorporation into the coop's facade.
Imani Bailey, a second-year master's student in the Department of Architecture's MArch program , was among the students in the course's first section.
"By taking this course, I felt empowered to directly engage with the community in a way no other class I have taken so far has afforded me the ability to," she says.
Bailey argues for urban farms' value as both a financial investment and space for communal interaction, offering opportunities for engagement and the implementation of sustainable practices.
"Urban farms are important in the same way a neighbor is," she adds. "You may not necessarily need them to own your home, but a good one makes your property more valuable, sometimes financially, but most importantly in ways that cannot be assigned a monetary value."
The intersection of agriculture, community, and technology
Technology, the course's participants believe, can offer solutions to some of the challenges related to ensuring urban farms' viability.
"Cities like Amsterdam are redesigning themselves to improve walkability, increase the appearance of small gardens in the city, and increase green space," Brown says. By creating spaces that center community and a collective approach to farming, it's possible to reduce both greenhouse emissions and impacts related to climate change.
Additionally, engineers, scientists, and others can partner with communities to develop solutions to transportation and public health challenges. By redesigning sewer systems, empowering microbiologists to design microbial inoculants that can break down urban food waste at the neighborhood level, and centering agriculture-related transportation in the places being served, it's possible to sustain community support and related infrastructure.
"Community is cultivated, nurtured, and grown from prolonged interaction, sharing ideas, and the creation of place through a shared sense of ownership," Bailey argues. "Urban farms present the conditions for communities to develop."
Bailey values the course because it leaves the theoretical behind, instead focusing on practical solutions. "We seldom see our design ideas become tangible," she says. "This class offered an opportunity to design and build for a real client in the real world."
Brazier says the course and its projects prove everyone has something to contribute and can have a voice in what happens with their neighborhoods. "Despite these communities' distrust of some politicians, we partnered to work on solutions related to zoning," he says, "and supported community members' advocacy efforts."
