Seth Magle
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198753629
- eISBN:
- 9780191815225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198753629.003.0007
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
As our planet continues to urbanise, an increasing abundance and diversity of wildlife find ways to persist within cities and towns. I summarise general patterns of urban wildlife and also describe ...
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As our planet continues to urbanise, an increasing abundance and diversity of wildlife find ways to persist within cities and towns. I summarise general patterns of urban wildlife and also describe common interactions between people and wildlife in cities. Some of these encounters are very harmful, including property damage, transmission of disease, or attacks against humans or their pets. However, urban wildlife also have positive impacts on cities and urban residents, by providing ecosystem services such as pest control, and by inspiring a feeling of connection with nature. I discuss the implications of human attitudes for long-term coexistence between people and animals in cities, and point to areas for future research. As the biodiversity crisis continues to worsen, and as the planet continues to be modified by humans at an unprecedented rate, it is imperative that we make a place for wildlife within and near to our cities.Less
As our planet continues to urbanise, an increasing abundance and diversity of wildlife find ways to persist within cities and towns. I summarise general patterns of urban wildlife and also describe common interactions between people and wildlife in cities. Some of these encounters are very harmful, including property damage, transmission of disease, or attacks against humans or their pets. However, urban wildlife also have positive impacts on cities and urban residents, by providing ecosystem services such as pest control, and by inspiring a feeling of connection with nature. I discuss the implications of human attitudes for long-term coexistence between people and animals in cities, and point to areas for future research. As the biodiversity crisis continues to worsen, and as the planet continues to be modified by humans at an unprecedented rate, it is imperative that we make a place for wildlife within and near to our cities.
Christina Schwenkel
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888390595
- eISBN:
- 9789888390281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390595.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter examines shifts in the meaning and use of green space in socialist housing blocks in Vinh City, Vietnam, a ‘model’ socialist city rebuilt by East Germany (GDR) after its destruction by ...
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This chapter examines shifts in the meaning and use of green space in socialist housing blocks in Vinh City, Vietnam, a ‘model’ socialist city rebuilt by East Germany (GDR) after its destruction by US aerial bombing. Unique to the eight-year project was the central role that ecological design played in urban reconstruction owing to financial and material constraints on the one hand, and ideological imperatives on the other. Green technology transfers served to radically transform the landscape with parks and cultivated green spaces that catered to the needs of workers and their families. These ‘eco-socialist’ practices, as I refer to them, constituted a fundamental effort on the part of GDR planners to rationally manage and order urban space that was deemed disorderly and too rural for the city. Yet utopian visions of urban modernity often came up short as they revealed more about East German lifestyles than about the pragmatic possibilities for recovery in postwar Vietnam. Ensuing struggles over the appropriate use of urban nature emerged at the center of the modernizing project and the creation of new socialist persons in Vietnam. Less
This chapter examines shifts in the meaning and use of green space in socialist housing blocks in Vinh City, Vietnam, a ‘model’ socialist city rebuilt by East Germany (GDR) after its destruction by US aerial bombing. Unique to the eight-year project was the central role that ecological design played in urban reconstruction owing to financial and material constraints on the one hand, and ideological imperatives on the other. Green technology transfers served to radically transform the landscape with parks and cultivated green spaces that catered to the needs of workers and their families. These ‘eco-socialist’ practices, as I refer to them, constituted a fundamental effort on the part of GDR planners to rationally manage and order urban space that was deemed disorderly and too rural for the city. Yet utopian visions of urban modernity often came up short as they revealed more about East German lifestyles than about the pragmatic possibilities for recovery in postwar Vietnam. Ensuing struggles over the appropriate use of urban nature emerged at the center of the modernizing project and the creation of new socialist persons in Vietnam.
Frédéric Landy
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888390595
- eISBN:
- 9789888390281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390595.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
In Mumbai, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is besieged by a sprawling urban agglomeration of 20 million inhabitants. The first part of this paper documents the dangerous and sometimes deadly presence ...
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In Mumbai, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is besieged by a sprawling urban agglomeration of 20 million inhabitants. The first part of this paper documents the dangerous and sometimes deadly presence of leopards in and around the park. In the second section, it is argued that leopards in Mumbai are not only a matter of human-nonhuman conflict: the panther attacks reveal conflicts of other kinds, between human stakeholders, and in particular highlight graduated levels of citizenship. Lastly, the leopards also reveal (or generate) spatial tensions – though they are also efficient go-betweens to help solve these conflicts.Less
In Mumbai, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is besieged by a sprawling urban agglomeration of 20 million inhabitants. The first part of this paper documents the dangerous and sometimes deadly presence of leopards in and around the park. In the second section, it is argued that leopards in Mumbai are not only a matter of human-nonhuman conflict: the panther attacks reveal conflicts of other kinds, between human stakeholders, and in particular highlight graduated levels of citizenship. Lastly, the leopards also reveal (or generate) spatial tensions – though they are also efficient go-betweens to help solve these conflicts.
Alex Russ (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501705823
- eISBN:
- 9781501712791
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501705823.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This book explores how environmental education can contribute to urban sustainability. Urban environmental education includes any practices that create learning opportunities to foster individual and ...
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This book explores how environmental education can contribute to urban sustainability. Urban environmental education includes any practices that create learning opportunities to foster individual and community well-being and environmental quality in cities. It fosters novel educational approaches and helps debunk common assumptions that cities are ecologically barren and that city people don't care for, or need, urban nature or a healthy environment. Topics within the book range from the urban context to theoretical underpinnings, educational settings, participants, and educational approaches in urban environmental education. Chapters integrate research and practice to help aspiring and practicing environmental educators, urban planners, and other environmental leaders achieve their goals in terms of education, youth and community development, and environmental quality in cities.Less
This book explores how environmental education can contribute to urban sustainability. Urban environmental education includes any practices that create learning opportunities to foster individual and community well-being and environmental quality in cities. It fosters novel educational approaches and helps debunk common assumptions that cities are ecologically barren and that city people don't care for, or need, urban nature or a healthy environment. Topics within the book range from the urban context to theoretical underpinnings, educational settings, participants, and educational approaches in urban environmental education. Chapters integrate research and practice to help aspiring and practicing environmental educators, urban planners, and other environmental leaders achieve their goals in terms of education, youth and community development, and environmental quality in cities.
Lindsay K. Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501707506
- eISBN:
- 9781501714795
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501707506.003.0009
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This 5,000 word chapter brings together the political, discursive, and material threads to consider the “city of forests” and “city of farms” as two different assemblages. It explores these pieces of ...
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This 5,000 word chapter brings together the political, discursive, and material threads to consider the “city of forests” and “city of farms” as two different assemblages. It explores these pieces of urban nature in the context of an early-21st century global city that has engaged in municipal long-term sustainability planning, investment in green infrastructure, and creation of food policy visions. It closes with conclusions and further probing questions about how, why, and for whom we create urban forests and farms. In examining what sort of nature we want to produce, the chapter explores possibilities for new governance arrangements, management practices, design strategies, and uses for urban land.Less
This 5,000 word chapter brings together the political, discursive, and material threads to consider the “city of forests” and “city of farms” as two different assemblages. It explores these pieces of urban nature in the context of an early-21st century global city that has engaged in municipal long-term sustainability planning, investment in green infrastructure, and creation of food policy visions. It closes with conclusions and further probing questions about how, why, and for whom we create urban forests and farms. In examining what sort of nature we want to produce, the chapter explores possibilities for new governance arrangements, management practices, design strategies, and uses for urban land.
Colin Fisher
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469619958
- eISBN:
- 9781469619972
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469619958.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This chapter explores some of the well-known urban and peri-urban landscapes that can be found in and around Chicago with the help of naturalist Leonard Dubkin. It examines six major ...
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This chapter explores some of the well-known urban and peri-urban landscapes that can be found in and around Chicago with the help of naturalist Leonard Dubkin. It examines six major nineteenth-century pastoral parks, dozens of smaller neighborhood athletic parks, the Lake Michigan shore, and an abundance of forest preserves, including commercial groves, beer gardens, and amusement parks. These are the places where Chicagoans “found nature,” as many felt that they could escape the work, exhaustion, illness, and artifice associated with urban Chicago. The chapter takes note of how the farthest nature reserves and wildlife parks were mostly visited by affluent families during vacation and that working-class Chicagoans typically stayed home. However, this lack of means does not imply that these Chicagoans were far from nature as they found it from the green spaces in the city. A member of the working class, Dubkin wrote stories about his adventures with “urban nature.”Less
This chapter explores some of the well-known urban and peri-urban landscapes that can be found in and around Chicago with the help of naturalist Leonard Dubkin. It examines six major nineteenth-century pastoral parks, dozens of smaller neighborhood athletic parks, the Lake Michigan shore, and an abundance of forest preserves, including commercial groves, beer gardens, and amusement parks. These are the places where Chicagoans “found nature,” as many felt that they could escape the work, exhaustion, illness, and artifice associated with urban Chicago. The chapter takes note of how the farthest nature reserves and wildlife parks were mostly visited by affluent families during vacation and that working-class Chicagoans typically stayed home. However, this lack of means does not imply that these Chicagoans were far from nature as they found it from the green spaces in the city. A member of the working class, Dubkin wrote stories about his adventures with “urban nature.”
K. Sivaramakrishnan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888390595
- eISBN:
- 9789888390281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390595.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Courts, Public Cultures of Legality, and Urban Ecological Imagination in Delhi
Chapter abstract: This essay provides an analysis of the legal contests over the forests and groundwater in the city of ...
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Courts, Public Cultures of Legality, and Urban Ecological Imagination in Delhi
Chapter abstract: This essay provides an analysis of the legal contests over the forests and groundwater in the city of Delhi over the last three decades. It examines the ways in which the iconic Delhi Ridge, which runs along a north to south axis through most of the city, is imagined and litigated as a natural resource, an environmental amenity, and a provider of ecosystem services for the national capital region of India. Based on research in courts and among litigators, with activists and technocrats, this study describes the formation of legal public spheres around environmental disputes and the rights of urban residents of all classes in Delhi. This essay identifies emergent environmental jurisprudence in India; even as it considers the material consequences of the biotic and sedimentary ecologies of the Delhi Ridge for urban environmental change in the national capital territory.Less
Courts, Public Cultures of Legality, and Urban Ecological Imagination in Delhi
Chapter abstract: This essay provides an analysis of the legal contests over the forests and groundwater in the city of Delhi over the last three decades. It examines the ways in which the iconic Delhi Ridge, which runs along a north to south axis through most of the city, is imagined and litigated as a natural resource, an environmental amenity, and a provider of ecosystem services for the national capital region of India. Based on research in courts and among litigators, with activists and technocrats, this study describes the formation of legal public spheres around environmental disputes and the rights of urban residents of all classes in Delhi. This essay identifies emergent environmental jurisprudence in India; even as it considers the material consequences of the biotic and sedimentary ecologies of the Delhi Ridge for urban environmental change in the national capital territory.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 4 looks at what happens when environmentalism --and urban sustainability in particular-- becomes part of a language of power (and logic for policy) in major global city such as Paris. I show ...
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Chapter 4 looks at what happens when environmentalism --and urban sustainability in particular-- becomes part of a language of power (and logic for policy) in major global city such as Paris. I show how urban greening has been incorporated as strategy of inter-urban completion between global cities more broadly, and I shed light on the fact that sustainable urbanism is leading to the dislocation and gentrification of immigrant communities in and around Paris.Less
Chapter 4 looks at what happens when environmentalism --and urban sustainability in particular-- becomes part of a language of power (and logic for policy) in major global city such as Paris. I show how urban greening has been incorporated as strategy of inter-urban completion between global cities more broadly, and I shed light on the fact that sustainable urbanism is leading to the dislocation and gentrification of immigrant communities in and around Paris.
Victoria Derr, Louise Chawla, and Illène Pevec
Alex Russ and Marianne E. Krasny (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501705823
- eISBN:
- 9781501712791
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501705823.003.0017
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter examines successive schools of thought in early childhood education that have encouraged the exploration of urban environments by young children. These traditions have pursued similar ...
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This chapter examines successive schools of thought in early childhood education that have encouraged the exploration of urban environments by young children. These traditions have pursued similar aims, from creative self-expression and democratic decision making to collaborative learning among peers and multiple generations, communication skills, and a deepening of children's experiential, place-based education. The chapter explains how these aims can be achieved in cities through a variety of approaches such as participatory planning and design, mobile preschools, greening the grounds of schools and child care centers, gardening, and forest and nature schools in metropolitan areas. It looks at examples from both resourced and poorly resourced schools and child care centers in the Global North and South and shows that urban environmental education facilitates children's contact with and learning about urban nature and the built environment.Less
This chapter examines successive schools of thought in early childhood education that have encouraged the exploration of urban environments by young children. These traditions have pursued similar aims, from creative self-expression and democratic decision making to collaborative learning among peers and multiple generations, communication skills, and a deepening of children's experiential, place-based education. The chapter explains how these aims can be achieved in cities through a variety of approaches such as participatory planning and design, mobile preschools, greening the grounds of schools and child care centers, gardening, and forest and nature schools in metropolitan areas. It looks at examples from both resourced and poorly resourced schools and child care centers in the Global North and South and shows that urban environmental education facilitates children's contact with and learning about urban nature and the built environment.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 1 examines how northeast Paris was historically produced as a distinct social, cultural, and even ecological zone in the city. As I show, even before becoming strongly identified as immigrant ...
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Chapter 1 examines how northeast Paris was historically produced as a distinct social, cultural, and even ecological zone in the city. As I show, even before becoming strongly identified as immigrant area, it was always a marginal zone associated with the “soiled fog” of railroad yards, the noxious domain of slaughterhouses, and even the charnel ground as it was the location of one of the largest municipal funeral homes. When the area become predominately North African and West African, the discourse of cultural belonging took on an ecological tinge.Less
Chapter 1 examines how northeast Paris was historically produced as a distinct social, cultural, and even ecological zone in the city. As I show, even before becoming strongly identified as immigrant area, it was always a marginal zone associated with the “soiled fog” of railroad yards, the noxious domain of slaughterhouses, and even the charnel ground as it was the location of one of the largest municipal funeral homes. When the area become predominately North African and West African, the discourse of cultural belonging took on an ecological tinge.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
On a rainy day in May 2007, the mayor of Paris inaugurated the Jardins d’Éole, a park whose completion was hailed internationally as an exemplar of sustainable urbanism. The park was the result of a ...
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On a rainy day in May 2007, the mayor of Paris inaugurated the Jardins d’Éole, a park whose completion was hailed internationally as an exemplar of sustainable urbanism. The park was the result of a hard-fought, decadelong protest movement in a low-income Maghrebi and African immigrant district starved for infrastructure, but the mayor’s vision of urban sustainability was met with jeers. Drawing extensively from immersive, firsthand ethnographic research with northeast Paris residents, as well as an analysis of green architecture and urban design, Andrew Newman argues that environmental politics must be separated from the construct of urban sustainability, which has been appropriated by forces of redevelopment and gentrification in Paris and beyond. France’s turbulent political environment provides Newman with insights into the ways in which multiethnic coalitions can emerge⎯even amid overt racism and Islamophobia⎯in the struggle for more just cities and more inclusive societies. A tale of multidimensional political efforts, Landscape of Discontent cuts through the rhetoric of green cities to reveal the promise that environmentalism holds for urban communities everywhere.Less
On a rainy day in May 2007, the mayor of Paris inaugurated the Jardins d’Éole, a park whose completion was hailed internationally as an exemplar of sustainable urbanism. The park was the result of a hard-fought, decadelong protest movement in a low-income Maghrebi and African immigrant district starved for infrastructure, but the mayor’s vision of urban sustainability was met with jeers. Drawing extensively from immersive, firsthand ethnographic research with northeast Paris residents, as well as an analysis of green architecture and urban design, Andrew Newman argues that environmental politics must be separated from the construct of urban sustainability, which has been appropriated by forces of redevelopment and gentrification in Paris and beyond. France’s turbulent political environment provides Newman with insights into the ways in which multiethnic coalitions can emerge⎯even amid overt racism and Islamophobia⎯in the struggle for more just cities and more inclusive societies. A tale of multidimensional political efforts, Landscape of Discontent cuts through the rhetoric of green cities to reveal the promise that environmentalism holds for urban communities everywhere.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 2 tells the story of group of activists who successfully fought to transform a brownfield into a 27 million dollar, 4 hectare city park that was Paris’ first sustainable green space. The ...
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Chapter 2 tells the story of group of activists who successfully fought to transform a brownfield into a 27 million dollar, 4 hectare city park that was Paris’ first sustainable green space. The chapter argues that movement didn’t simply demand a park, but used the language of French gardens and nature to articulate a wide variety of urban and social ills. It also examines how the fortunes of mobilization of Paris’ emerging Socialist Mayor become intertwined.Less
Chapter 2 tells the story of group of activists who successfully fought to transform a brownfield into a 27 million dollar, 4 hectare city park that was Paris’ first sustainable green space. The chapter argues that movement didn’t simply demand a park, but used the language of French gardens and nature to articulate a wide variety of urban and social ills. It also examines how the fortunes of mobilization of Paris’ emerging Socialist Mayor become intertwined.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 3 examines how ideas of about nature and the environment infuse the way that citizenship is talked about, lived, and contested in northeast Paris. I focus on urban parks, urban gardeners and ...
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Chapter 3 examines how ideas of about nature and the environment infuse the way that citizenship is talked about, lived, and contested in northeast Paris. I focus on urban parks, urban gardeners and youth activists to show how the “nature” of cultural belonging in France is one that is not only expressed but reinvented through the idiom nature and environmentalism.Less
Chapter 3 examines how ideas of about nature and the environment infuse the way that citizenship is talked about, lived, and contested in northeast Paris. I focus on urban parks, urban gardeners and youth activists to show how the “nature” of cultural belonging in France is one that is not only expressed but reinvented through the idiom nature and environmentalism.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
The conclusion not only synthesizes the major points about, but argues that urban anthropology (and urban ethnography more broadly) has hitherto neglected the symbolic and practical importance of ...
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The conclusion not only synthesizes the major points about, but argues that urban anthropology (and urban ethnography more broadly) has hitherto neglected the symbolic and practical importance of environmental issues. Not only will addressing urban ecology reconnect urban ethnographers with issues facing residents (and those being addressed by policy makers) but a focus on nature in the city offers a way to reconceptualize the meaning of both ideas, which are falsely imagined as opposites. Finally, on a somewhat different note, the book uses the example of the Jardins d’Éole to propose that the key to maintaining a socially, culturally, and politically vibrant urban space lays concept of a commons, which should remains somewhat unpredictable: not quite chaotic, but beyond any one group’s monopolistic control. The book demonstrates how spaces like the Jardins d’Éole show how promising—and ephemeral—such places can be.Less
The conclusion not only synthesizes the major points about, but argues that urban anthropology (and urban ethnography more broadly) has hitherto neglected the symbolic and practical importance of environmental issues. Not only will addressing urban ecology reconnect urban ethnographers with issues facing residents (and those being addressed by policy makers) but a focus on nature in the city offers a way to reconceptualize the meaning of both ideas, which are falsely imagined as opposites. Finally, on a somewhat different note, the book uses the example of the Jardins d’Éole to propose that the key to maintaining a socially, culturally, and politically vibrant urban space lays concept of a commons, which should remains somewhat unpredictable: not quite chaotic, but beyond any one group’s monopolistic control. The book demonstrates how spaces like the Jardins d’Éole show how promising—and ephemeral—such places can be.
William G. Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226901459
- eISBN:
- 9780226901473
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226901473.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter first explores what it means to value something, then examines how people value vegetation, and finally investigates whether people gain social and psychological benefits from ...
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This chapter first explores what it means to value something, then examines how people value vegetation, and finally investigates whether people gain social and psychological benefits from vegetation. The development of an agrarian lifestyle subjected various plants and animals to artificial selection through their value as food and resources. A recent effort finds environmentalists pushing the idea of valuing nature for the economic benefits it provides humans through “ecosystem services.” The pursuit of itemizing ecosystem services primarily involves the economics and values of marketable goods that can be bought and sold. This market valuation gained recent favor as a response to lawsuits involving environmental damage, but also as a result of several presidential “directives” that required the analysis of costs and benefits when instituting new environmental regulations. Urban nature also gets shaped by values of another sort, so-called nonmarket goods, things that can't be easily packaged and sold.Less
This chapter first explores what it means to value something, then examines how people value vegetation, and finally investigates whether people gain social and psychological benefits from vegetation. The development of an agrarian lifestyle subjected various plants and animals to artificial selection through their value as food and resources. A recent effort finds environmentalists pushing the idea of valuing nature for the economic benefits it provides humans through “ecosystem services.” The pursuit of itemizing ecosystem services primarily involves the economics and values of marketable goods that can be bought and sold. This market valuation gained recent favor as a response to lawsuits involving environmental damage, but also as a result of several presidential “directives” that required the analysis of costs and benefits when instituting new environmental regulations. Urban nature also gets shaped by values of another sort, so-called nonmarket goods, things that can't be easily packaged and sold.
Gavin Van Horn
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226444666
- eISBN:
- 9780226444970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226444970.003.0016
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
This chapter explores negative and positive connotations for the term wildness through conversations with crew members from Greencorps Chicago, a program of the City of Chicago that specializes in ...
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This chapter explores negative and positive connotations for the term wildness through conversations with crew members from Greencorps Chicago, a program of the City of Chicago that specializes in contractual landscaping and ecological restoration work and whose participants are typically ex-offenders from the South and West Sides of Chicago. In conservation circles, wild is a kind of shorthand for healthy. For people in Greencorps Chicago, the word wild suggests lawless humans, as well as the chaos and disorder of life on the streets of Chicago. While wildness carries these negative connotations for many Greencorps participants, their work in and increasing familiarity with the forest preserves often leads them to regard these natural areas as places of peace, serenity, relief, fascination, and clarity of mind—places that are safe not wild. This chapter explores these divergent views as well as themes of mutual restoration between people and place, and suggests that a more inclusive form of wildness can be cultivated as attention is given to the land’s needs amidst, alongside, and with human enterprise.Less
This chapter explores negative and positive connotations for the term wildness through conversations with crew members from Greencorps Chicago, a program of the City of Chicago that specializes in contractual landscaping and ecological restoration work and whose participants are typically ex-offenders from the South and West Sides of Chicago. In conservation circles, wild is a kind of shorthand for healthy. For people in Greencorps Chicago, the word wild suggests lawless humans, as well as the chaos and disorder of life on the streets of Chicago. While wildness carries these negative connotations for many Greencorps participants, their work in and increasing familiarity with the forest preserves often leads them to regard these natural areas as places of peace, serenity, relief, fascination, and clarity of mind—places that are safe not wild. This chapter explores these divergent views as well as themes of mutual restoration between people and place, and suggests that a more inclusive form of wildness can be cultivated as attention is given to the land’s needs amidst, alongside, and with human enterprise.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 5 examines how group of various groups concerned citizens are increasingly adopting the surveillance and watching role traditionally used by state authorities. Such vigilance is a ...
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Chapter 5 examines how group of various groups concerned citizens are increasingly adopting the surveillance and watching role traditionally used by state authorities. Such vigilance is a double-edged sword, as it can lead to disempowerment of fellow residents (especially immigrant origin youth) or itself be a way to maintain and inclusive space. Ultimately, gentrifying cities such as Paris reveal themselves to be spaces where middle-class resident’s “right to the city” rests on their willingness and capacity to keep watch of their neighbors. I argue this form of surveillance society, though decidedly low-tech is far more insidious than the more widely publicized imposition of surveillance camera’s and other technological forms of control.Less
Chapter 5 examines how group of various groups concerned citizens are increasingly adopting the surveillance and watching role traditionally used by state authorities. Such vigilance is a double-edged sword, as it can lead to disempowerment of fellow residents (especially immigrant origin youth) or itself be a way to maintain and inclusive space. Ultimately, gentrifying cities such as Paris reveal themselves to be spaces where middle-class resident’s “right to the city” rests on their willingness and capacity to keep watch of their neighbors. I argue this form of surveillance society, though decidedly low-tech is far more insidious than the more widely publicized imposition of surveillance camera’s and other technological forms of control.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.003.0006
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 6 rethinks the political important of public spaces in cities. Instead of past approaches, which see public space as important as stage for free speech by social movements, this chapter cites ...
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Chapter 6 rethinks the political important of public spaces in cities. Instead of past approaches, which see public space as important as stage for free speech by social movements, this chapter cites various types of evidence (the analysis of protests, interviews with park guards, and participant observation with neighborhood groups) to show, first, that “public” space does not always “free or just” and “private” does not equal enclosure or lack of democracy. I show that in urban politics, residents seeks to control the definition of private and public more than simply fight for more access to public space. Instead of public space as concept for urban politics, I develop the idea of the urban commons, as a space that seemingly belongs to no one and everyone, and therefore provides a sight for social, cultural, and political creativity. I show how the Jardins d’Éole has veered in and out of being an important commons since it was a vacant lot.Less
Chapter 6 rethinks the political important of public spaces in cities. Instead of past approaches, which see public space as important as stage for free speech by social movements, this chapter cites various types of evidence (the analysis of protests, interviews with park guards, and participant observation with neighborhood groups) to show, first, that “public” space does not always “free or just” and “private” does not equal enclosure or lack of democracy. I show that in urban politics, residents seeks to control the definition of private and public more than simply fight for more access to public space. Instead of public space as concept for urban politics, I develop the idea of the urban commons, as a space that seemingly belongs to no one and everyone, and therefore provides a sight for social, cultural, and political creativity. I show how the Jardins d’Éole has veered in and out of being an important commons since it was a vacant lot.
