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ABSTRACT
Urban spaces have long been places to think through human relationships with nature. The recent shift in thinking from urban green space as outcome to urban greening as a process provides an opportunity to consider more explicitly how we engage with more-than-human worlds in urban spaces, in more differentiated ways, and for what ends. In this paper we contribute to growing interest in improved urban sustainability and well-being by bringing human geography perspectives on more-than-human worlds into conversation with the literature on urban greening. Drawing on key examples oriented around urban trees, we consider two main themes: sensibilities and belonging. We argue for an understanding of urban places as collective achievements that not only involve knowing and living with diverse humans and non-humans but also involve the re/making of sensibilities and belongings. Through this paper, we aim to open dialogue about how more-than-human geographies might help us to differently understand urban trees, contemporary urban greening, and people–plant relations.
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to participants in the urban greening sessions at the 2017 Institute of Australian Geographers meeting, where a version of this paper was presented, and in an urban greening workshop, where the paper was conceived. We are also grateful for constructive comments from the editors of this special issue, two anonymous reviewers, and the journal’s associate editors. This paper draws on a larger research project, funded in part by an MSSI-Geography Award and a Melbourne Engagement Grant. Final thanks go to all the urban trees with whom we think, feel, and work.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Similar concerns in Sydney led to community group lobbying of Councils to stop planting plane trees, as well as to research into allergic reactions in areas of high-density plane trees (Tovey Citation2012).
2 We use the term more-than-human studies to encompass a diverse field referred to variously as multispecies, multinatural, posthuman, and/or more-than-human (see, for example, Haraway Citation2008, Citation2016; Kirksey and Helmreich Citation2010; Latour Citation2004; Whatmore Citation2002, Citation2006).
3 As with any data set, there were limitations. Only trees managed by the City of Melbourne were included, leaving out trees on private land and those of the Greater Melbourne area. In addition, only trees were mapped, excluding all the other creatures and elements involved in an urban forest. Various initiatives are underway to deal with some of these limitations, but at the time of writing the urban forest visualisation remained as described.
4 Useful life expectancy takes account of a tree’s age, health, form, and growth patterns to provide an estimate of how long a tree will remain healthy (with no changes to growing conditions) (Aspect Studios and Tree Logic Citation2011).
5 Greenery, much like the category forest, offers a means of thinking through the contribution of trees in collective rather than individual terms and works to smooth the complex and dynamic assemblages of plant, animal, and other life involved.
6 The economic and social valuations of dead (and dying) urban trees may not yet be a major consideration in urban greening discussions; however, the projected death rate in relation to climate change (see Nitschke et al. Citation2017) suggests that exploration of these possibilities would be of value.