A NATURVATION inspired special issue been has published in “Cities”. On the one hand the volume provides a diagnosis of the justice implications embedded in recent efforts to renature cities. Placed in the breadth of existing scholarship, it aims to explore the type of socio-environmental contradictions and contestations emerging through the deployment of nature-based solutions (NBS) in a range of geographies. On the other hand, this volume works towards shaping a prognosis, or a potential future for the governance of NBS, that brings social justice, indigenous knowledge and more-than-human thinking into the design and execution of NBS projects.
More generally, this special issue contributes to the growing literature in critical urban geography, planning and ecology on how different types of ‘natures’ are deployed and instrumentalized to defend dominant economic representations. Yet, for nature-based solutions to truly stand up to their promise, the logic and apparatus of urban development need to be decoupled from the ‘growth-at-all-costs’ mental cage by exploring degrowth narratives, for example as only then can environmental justice in its various manifestations be sought, defended and unfolded.
Article “Governance of nature-based solutions in the city at the intersection of justice and equity” (new window)