Urban Nature: Enriching Belonging, Wellbeing and Bioculture
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/175698 , vital:42616 , ISBN 9781000215182
- Description: This book showcases the diversity of ways in which urban residents from varying cultural contexts view, interact, engage with and give meaning to urban nature, aiming to counterbalance the dominance of Western depictions and values of urban nature and design. Urban nature has up to now largely been defined, planned and managed in a way that is heavily dominated by Western understandings, values and appreciations, which has spread through colonialism and globalisation. As cities increasingly represent a diversity of cultures, and urban nature is being increasingly recognised as contributing to residents' wellbeing, belonging and overall quality of life, it is important to consider the numerous ways in which urban nature is understood and appreciated. This collection of case studies includes examples from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and reflects on the multi-dimensional aspects of engagements with urban nature through a biocultural diversity lens.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Urban nature: enriching belonging, wellbeing and bioculture
- Authors: Cocks, Michelle L , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/433797 , vital:73001 , ISBN 9780367615918 , https://www.routledge.com/Urban-Nature-Enriching-Belonging-Wellbeing-and-Bioculture/Cocks-Shackleton/p/book/9780367615918
- Description: This book showcases the diversity of ways in which urban residents from varying cultural contexts view, interact, engage with and give meaning to urban nature, aiming to counterbalance the dominance of Western depictions and values of ur-ban nature and design. Urban nature has up to now largely been defined, planned and managed in a way that is heavily dominated by Western understandings, val-ues and appreciations, which has spread through colonialism and glob-alisation. As cities increasingly represent a diversity of cul-tures, and urban nature is being increasingly recognised as contributing to residents' wellbeing, belonging and overall quality of life, it is important to consider the numerous ways in which urban nature is understood and appreciated. This col-lection of case studies includes examples from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and reflects on the multi-dimensional aspects of engagements with urban nature through a biocultural diversity lens. The chapters cover several themes such as how engagements with nature contribute to a sense of wellbeing and belonging; the implications that diver-sity has on the provision, design and management of urban environments; and the threats inhibiting residents’ abilities to engage meaningfully with nature. The book challenges the dominant discourse, Western ideological understandings and meta-narratives of modernisation and unilineal urban transi-tions. A timely addition to the literature, Urban Nature: Enrich-ing Belonging, Wellbeing and Bioculture offers an alternative to Western ideological understandings of nature and values and will be of great interest to those working in human and environmental urban ecology. It will also be key reading for students in the relevant fields of anthropology, development studies, geography, social ecology and urban studies.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Urbanisation reshapes gendered engagement in land-based livelihood activities in mid-sized African towns:
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Drescher, Axel W , Schlesinger, Johannes
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/176346 , vital:42686 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.104946
- Description: Most sub-Saharan African countries are experiencing accelerating rates of urban migration, which bring with it many opportunities and challenges for migrating households, urban planners, governments and local and national economies. At the household level urbanisation may drive changes in the allocation of household labour and consequently social and economic relations. Yet how these are manifest in land-based livelihood strategies of arable cropping, livestock husbandry and the collection of wild products in urban settings has rarely been considered. Here we examine the changing participation rates in land-based livelihood activities by male- and female-headed households along the rural–urban continua of six sub-Saharan African secondary towns. To capture the gendered changes in land-based livelihood strategies along the urban–rural continuum, 1156 randomly selected households were sampled along transects radiating out from the urban through the periurban to rural surrounds. Participation in different land-based livelihood strategies was recorded by means of a questionnaire.
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- Date Issued: 2020