Glasgow Roots aims at tackling four main urban issues:

 

Underused - Derelict land

“When it singular asset can no longer be produced, a place can be abandoned” (Tsing, 2015). 

"According to the Scottish Government, it is land that is “incapable of beneficial use without treatment”. (gov.scot, 2018) 

Glasgow has the largest acreage of land in ruin of any other region in Scotland, which has a negative effect on the city and its citizens. (Maantay, 2013)

 

Contamination- Pollution

Contamination as the previous industrial use of land, and pollution as the introduction of both natural and human-made contaminants into the environment that causes disease, harm, instability, and destruction. (Tabb, 2021)

 

Disconnection

Disconnection due to fragmentation of habitats leads to a souless built environment. It can lead to placelessness, a negative by-product of urbanism. “Placelessness is a geographic territory devoid of four importnt ingredients necessary for healthy human habitation: diversity, authenticity, meaning, and nature”. (Tabb, 2021)

 

Disengagement

Access to communal life and interactivity increase the value of the urban commons as a shared resource, which is contrary to the single user exploitation and depletion of the environmental shared-resource system. As Foster explains, “the more that people come together to interact, the more they ‘reinforce the solidarity and well-being of the whole community.’” (Foster, 2016) In other words, we need public engagement to upgrade any plot of land.