Creating a Community Pollinator Garden: Values and Emotion Work in a Grassroots Initiative

Research shows that community gardens contribute to sustainable environments, create and cultivate a sense of belonging, and improve human and environmental well-being and health. This qualitative study applies the social-symbolic work framework to explore values and emotion work within a community pollinator garden project at a regional university in Australia. The focus is on how self-work, organisation work, and institutional work are woven into this grassroots initiative, which promotes environmental sustainability and strengthens local community ties. Interviews with university staff, students, and community members reveal themes related to the values and emotions that motivate volunteers to collaboratively create a community pollinator garden on campus. The key findings indicate that the garden fosters connections and meaning through self-work, creates a shared sense of belonging via organisation work, and links academia with the wider community through institutional work. These interactions are crucial for both the university and the local community to thrive. The study offers several theoretical contributions, including insights into values and emotion work, the pollinator garden as a social-symbolic object, the community garden movement, and education. The findings can also help organisational practitioners develop innovative grassroots initiatives driven by values and emotion work to enhance social and organisational life.