The work that parks do: towards an urban environmentality

Abstract

Cities today are typically framed as sites of capitalist development, while the urban park is theorized as an indirect response to the emerging hegemony of industrial production in the nineteenth century. Yet, this historical framing tells us little about the process through which our notions of 'the city' and of 'nature' are produced, or how this knowledge affects the formation of urban people's identities. The discursive formation of the capitalist city can be traced to specific historical moments, one of which is the construction of urban parks during the mid-to late-nineteenth century, which I argue was instrumental in producing a new knowledge of the capitalist city by creating a boundary between the social space of the city and the natural space of the park. Using Philadelphia's Fairmount Park as a case study, I draw on archival photographs and annual park commission reports to explore the formation of park subjects during this period and shed light on diverse economic practices that were once widespread in and around the city but whose erasure was ultimately a prerequisite for the successful formation of an urban discourse organized around the construction of the city/nature boundary.

Double Exposures and Decision Making: Adaptation Policy and Planning in Ireland's Coastal Cities during a Boom—Bust Cycle

“…This analysis also illustrates how these responses are shaped by (but also help to reproduce) particular discourses and framings of change. The importance of discourses in shaping how processes of global change are understood and responded to has been highlighted by Leichenko and O'Brien (2008) while other geographers have employed discursive approaches in a variety of contexts (Adger et al, 2001;Gabriel, 2011;Peet and Watts, 1996).…”

Everyday human (in)securities in protected urban nature – Collaborative conservation at Macassar/Wolfgat dunes nature reserves, Cape Town, South Africa

“…UPE analyses direct significant attention towards urban infrastructure and water flows (Lawhon et al, 2014), as well as to urban green spaces including urban parks (Brownlow, 2006;Gabriel, 2011), lawns (Robbins and Sharp, 2003), and forests (Heynen, 2003;McLain et al, 2014). UPE literatures address the politics of preservation of these urban natures, and contribute significant findings regarding socio-natures as political domains.…”

Embodied geographies of liveability and urban parks

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