- Title
- The sum of its parts? Complexity theory, geophilosophy, and the urban forest
- Creator
- Jones, Ryan
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Cities are increasingly positioned as the engine for sustainable growth and the site where our 21st century problems will be won or lost. This is creating fertile ground for urban greening as we learn about the social, economic, and environmental benefits of well managed trees. Urban trees are gaining new found policy importance at a time when canopy cover is declining in many of our major cities. To address this problem, authorities are turning to a holistic style of arboriculture and greenspace management called urban forestry. Urban forestry seeks to manage all of the city’s individual trees as an integrated urban forest. It presents the urban forest as a metabolic ecosystem that can be managed as a technology for sustainability and liveability. Human geographers have responded to this development by investigating the cultural, political, and economic forces shaping urban tree cover. They have brought a critical edge to investigating urban forestry and supported efforts to enhance the density and equity of the urban forest. This thesis extends this critical endeavour by interrogating the concept of an urban forest and the framework of ecosystem management informing urban forestry research and practice. The thesis notes the benefits of managing the urban forest as a metabolic ecosystem, but also identifies some practical, political, and ethical concerns with this approach. This supports the search for a mode of systems thinking less prone to these risks. The thesis identifies complexity theory as a viable alternative and a worthy line of inquiry for urban forest research. The turn to complexity theory raises the question of how to engage with complexity theory in a cultural geography of the urban forest. In order to do this, the thesis turns to the geophilosophy Deleuze and Guattari developed in A Thousand Plateaus. The thesis engages the ethos of complexity theory and tests the value of Deleuze and Guattari’s geophilosophy for urban forest geography. It begins by drawing a line between the ontology of complexity theory, Deleuze and Guattari’s geophilosophy, and non-representational methodology in social and cultural geography. This yields an experimental and non-representational method of practicing complexity theory. This approach seeks to induce qualitative differentiation from an engagement with existing modes of organising the matter and meaning of the urban forest. It experiments with concepts and practices that might enhance our capacity to self-organise for survival and sustainable co-habitation with the urban forest. This method of practice is employed across the four articles and one book chapter that constitute the empirical component of this thesis by publication. The first three publications augment urban forestry’s metabolic imagery by writing with the urban forest as a multiplicity. They use textual analysis and semi-structured interviews to amplify the historical mobility and ontological, ethical, and spatial multiplicity of the urban forest. This raises some novel questions for the urban forest and identifies some concepts and practices geographers might use to address them. The final two publications explore the issue of inter-species cohabitation by engaging the sensual dimensions of human-tree sociality. They use participant observation and walk-and-talk interviews to highlight the embodied practices and affective relations enhancing people’s desire to live with, and care for, the trees and greenspaces in their neighbourhoods. These publications introduce a dyadic concept of care to urban forest geography and offer the phenomenon of arboreal atmospheres for deeper consideration. The five publications are accompanied by reflective pieces that draw out their individual conclusions, contributions, and connections to other publications. As a collective enterprise, the thesis makes contributions to three fields of research and practice: critical geography, urban forest geography, and urban forestry. The thesis offers a method of practicing complexity theory that suits the skills, methods, and customs of qualitative and critical geographers in social, cultural, and urban sub-disciplines. The thesis offers empirical insights that advance urban forest geography by building on minor lines of inquiry concerned with qualitative difference and the non-representational dimensions of human-tree sociality. Finally, the thesis raises some issues urban forestry could ruminate on. It calls for a broader dialogue about the power and perils of ecosystem management. It suggests urban forest multiplicity could be a strategic opportunity, and it argues experimentation could help cultivate space for challenging the political and ethical status quo.
- Subject
- urban Forestry; urban Greening; ecosystem management; complexity theory; geophilosophy
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1395250
- Identifier
- uon:33838
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Ryan Jones
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
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