From the soil up. A transdisciplinary participatory experiment on urban soils to explore the relationships between society, science and ecosystems

Urban agriculture (UA) is characterised by deeply different features around Europe (Bell et al. 2016). In the Milan context (Lombardy region, Italy) UA initiatives differ on the basis of the public entities and private actors involved, the institutional sub-local context, their location as well as the type of agricultural practices applied (Cucchi et al. 2020). UA experiences originate from a variety of motivations, which often go beyond producing good quality food: e.g. recovering abandoned and/or degraded urban areas, searching a renewed relationship with the ecosystems, building and/or strengthening local communities (di Fiore et al. 2021). Whatever the case, UA always deals with a basic environmental but neglected matrix and its quality: soil.Soil health is related not only to food production, but also to complex socio-environmental and economic issues, thus involving a broad range of social actors, different underlying visions of development, as well as a diversity of epistemic sources.Soil is at the core of the BRIDGES (Building Reflexivity and response-ability Involving Different narratives of knowledGe and Science) project, aimed at developing innovative transdisciplinary ways of thinking and practising research. In particular, part of the BRIDGES' work is oriented to create an alliance between research and local urban agriculture experiences in investigating and trying to define soil quality trans-disciplinary indices. The research includes the use of techno-scientific analyses together with aesthetical and experiential approaches, enabling the co-production of knowledge starting from the competences embedded in the practice of care of the urban communities. Thus, the reflection on soil is conceived as a starting point for approaching complex socio-ecological issues in a post-normal and highly trans-disciplinary key towards the building of extended research communities as civic agents.