The work that parks do

Towards an Urban Environmentality

Bibliographic Data

ID3977790
AuthorsNate Gabriel (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume12
Issue2
Pages123-141
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2011.545139
OpenAlexW1974993075
LanguageEN
Citations received32
References cited19

Cities today are typically framed as sites of capitalist development, while the urban park is theorized as an indirect response to the emerging hegemony of industrial production in the nineteenth century. Yet, this historical framing tells us little about the process through which our notions of 'the city' and of 'nature' are produced, or how this knowledge affects the formation of urban people's identities. The discursive formation of the capitalist city can be traced to specific historical moments, one of which is the construction of urban parks during the mid- to late-nineteenth century, which I argue was instrumental in producing a new knowledge of the capitalist city by creating a boundary between the social space of the city and the natural space of the park. Using Philadelphia's Fairmount Park as a case study, I draw on archival photographs and annual park commission reports to explore the formation of park subjects during this period and shed light on diverse economic practices that were once widespread in and around the city but whose erasure was ultimately a prerequisite for the successful formation of an urban discourse organized around the construction of the city/nature boundary. Des villes d'aujourd'hui sont typiquement cadrées comme des sites du développement capitaliste pendant que le parc urbain est théorisé comme une réponse indirecte à l'hégémonie émergeante de la production industrielle dans le dix-neuvième siècle. Néanmoins, cet encadrement historique ne nous dit peu sur le processus à travers lequel nos notions de 'la ville' et de 'la nature' sont produites ou comment ces connaissances affectent la formation des identités urbaines des gens. La formation discursive de la ville capitaliste peut être tracée au moments spécifiques historiques, dont l'un est la construction des parcs urbains pendant la deuxième moitié du dix-neuvième siècle, ce que je soutiens était utile dans la production des nouvelles connaissances de la ville capitaliste en créant une frontière entre l'espace sociale de la ville et l'espace naturelle du parc. En utilisant le Parc Fairmount de Philadelphie comme cas d'étude, j'exploite des photographes d'archives et des rapports annuels des commissions des parcs pour explorer la formation des sujets des parcs pendant cette époque et je mets la lumière sur des pratiques diverses et économiques qui étaient une fois très répandues dans et autour la ville mais dont l'effacement était en fin de compte un préalable pour la formation réussie d'un discours urbain organisé autour de la construction de la frontière ville/nature. Hoy las ciudades están caracterizados como sitios de desarrollo capitalista, mientras el parque urbano está caracterizado como una repuesta indirecta al hegemónico de producción industrial del siglo XIX. Aún está caracterización histórica nos informa poco del proceso que produce concepciones de 'la ciudad' y 'la naturaleza' o como este conocimiento se afecta la formación de identidades urbanas. Se puede ubicar la formación discursiva de la ciudad capitalista a momentos históricos específicos, uno siendo la construcción de parques urbanos durante el siglo XIX, y discuto que este evento fue instrumental en producir un conocimiento nuevo de la ciudad capitalista, creando un límite entre el espacio social de la ciudad y el espacio natural del parque. Investigando el caso del Parque Fairmount de Philadelphia, utilizo fotografías históricas y reportes anuales del parque para explorar la formación de visitantes al parque durante este período y la cantidad de pràcticas económicas que fueron muy común en la ciudad pero su borrado fue necesario para la formación exitosa de un discurso urbano basado en la construcción del límite entre ciudad y naturaleza. Keywords: urban political ecologyenvironmentalitydiverse economiesparksPhiladelphiaKeywords: écologie urbaine politiqueenvironmentalitééconomiques diversesparcsPhiladelphieKeywords: ecología urbana políticamedio ambientalidadeconomías diversasparquesPhiladelphia Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the assistance provided by the people at the Philadelphia City Archive and Fairmount Park Commission. In particular, Rob Armstrong, archivist at the Fairmount Park Commission, was gracious enough to provide digital copies of the images included here. I would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. Notes 1. No data are available that specifically addresses the number of people living in Philadelphia who could read in English, but indirect data can help arrive at the conclusion that, while not all visitors to the park could read the signs posted, a majority probably could. According to the 1870 US census, 88.5 per cent of whites above age 14 could read, though not necessarily in English (literacy among blacks was much lower, about 20 per cent) (National Center for Educational Studies n.d. National Center for Educational Statistics (n.d.) 120 years of literacy, http://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp (accessed 15 July 2010) [Google Scholar]). About 75 per cent of Philadelphia residents were US-born in 1870, while many immigrants at the time hailed from Ireland, England, and Scotland (Golab 1977 Golab, C. 1977. Immigrant Destinations, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. [Google Scholar]). Clearly not all native-born Philadelphians were English speakers; on the other hand, many English, Scottish, and Irish immigrants were. 2. In class terms, because members of the guard were drawn in part from the ranks of the working class, park management in this case might be read as an instance of self-suppression. Such a reading, however, would risk reducing the values and activities of guards to those of a monolithic working class. It would also presume that only members of the working class engaged in non-capitalist economic activity in the park, which would be inaccurate. The overarching point is that the regulation of gathering reinforced the growing discursive divide between urban and natural spaces, of which the notion of a 'working class' itself is part

Archaeology · Civil engineering · Commission · Framing (construction · Geography · Hegemony · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Urban planning · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law

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