Urban re-generations: afterword to special issue on the politics of urban greening in Australian cities

Abstract

Urban re-generations' is written as an afterword to the special issue of Australian Geographer on 'The Politics of Urban Greening in Australian Cities'. The collection prompts a deep questioning of reparative and regenerative work associated with greening, green spaces and green infrastructures. The climate-driven 2019-2020 bushfire crisis and COVID-19 have amplified the visibility of the more-than-human connectivity of our cities and the deep underlying structures of social and environmental inequity underpinning a variety of urban green spaces and agendas. Inspired by the articles in this special issue, the afterword explores how we might call back the grammars and practices of regeneration from their service to the neo-liberal, settler-colonial city and instead nurture reparative de-colonial practices that aid in the collaborative work of re-composing, becoming into better relation with, and working in modes of situated historical and cultural difference, with green and just cities. KEYWORDSUrban greening; more-thanhuman cities; urban regeneration; environmental justice This special issue prompts a deep questioning of reparative and regenerative work associated with greening, green spaces and green infrastructures in Australian cities. The climate-driven 2019-2020 bushfire crisis and COVID-19 have amplified the visibility of the more-than-human connectivity of our cities and the deep underlying structures of social and environmental inequity underpinning a variety of urban green spaces and agendas.In the wake of crises, there are calls from urbanists, planners and scholars to think cities and spaces afresh, to nurture green, socially just, multispecies flourishing, even as state and city governments signal the cutting back of 'green and red tape' to fast-track shovel ready, post-viral development. The post-COVID 'snapback' in Australian cities and regions, already manifesting along the well-trodden pathways of middle-class entitlement (look no further than the HomeBuilder scheme) critically endangers progressive goals to imagine and produce the city otherwise. 1 And while life in COVID cities has urged a number of welcome public place-making strategies such as the provisioning of bicycle lanes, widened footpaths, greater pedestrian amenity, closing off local streets to traffic and the creation of parks, these are also reminders of the ground already lost to neoliberal urbanism.

One Health of Peripheries: Biopolitics, Social Determination, and Field of Praxis

“…Agroecology has learned from them, incorporates contemporary technologies, and brings equity to the center (63,64). Living cities, recombinant ecosystems, and other movements of sustainable urban systems offer alternatives for cities (65)(66)(67). However, the colonial mentality and capitalist order deplete resources and marginalize collective endeavors driven by well-being instead of profit.…”