Of parks and politics: the production of socio-nature in a Gujarati town

Anna Zimmer*, Natasha Cornea, René Véron

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
301 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Urban parks in India are often discussed as positive environmental projects, and their creation appears as unproblematic in public discourse. This paper presents the creation of a municipal park in a small city in Gujarat, India. Using insights from history and architecture, we stress the importance of reading parks as political and to some extent ideological projects in the larger context of city-making. The political ecology and history of the particular park studied here allow us to problematise the socio-ecological project of urban “beautification” via park creation. The municipal park, established in the centre of a small urban agglomeration after displacing a slum settlement from the site, is–as we argue–an integral part of a local geography of power. As such it expresses several registers of values upheld by local elites and brings into focus highly conflictive social relations. The case study contributes to further developing a situated urban political ecological approach that starts theorising cities from the South. It moreover offers a critical perspective on the understudied urban nature of small towns.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)49-66
Number of pages18
JournalLocal Environment
Volume22
Issue number1
Early online date17 Mar 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jan 2017

Keywords

  • India
  • Parks
  • slums
  • urban political ecology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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