This book focuses on the politics of street trees and the institutions, actors and processes that govern their planning, planting and maintenance. This is an innovative approach which is particularly important in the context of mounting environmental and societal challenges and reveals a huge amount about the nature of modern life, social change and political conflict.
The work first provides different historical perspectives on street trees and politics, celebrating diversity in different cultures. A second section discusses street tree values, policy and management, addressing more contemporary issues of their significance and contribution to our environment, both physically and philosophically. It explores cultural idiosyncrasies and those from the point of view of political economy, particularly challenging the neo-liberal perspectives that continue to dominate political narratives. The final section provides case studies of community engagement, civil action and governance. International case studies bring together contrasting approaches in areas with diverging political directions or intentions, the constraints of laws and the importance of people power.
By pursuing an interdisciplinary approach this book produces an information base for academics, practitioners, politicians and activists alike, thus contributing to a fairer political debate that helps to promote more democratic environments that are sustainable, equitable, comfortable and healthier.
Arvustused
"Deftly weaving together narratives of politics and landscape, this timely book brings a fresh, international perspective to the complex and contested subject of urban trees." Tom Williamson, Professor of Landscape History, University of East Anglia, UK
"The book provides unique insights into street trees and the broader politics that shape our cities. A compelling collection of case studies from different points in history and varied places around the world. It is essential reading for anyone interested in urban nature or the politics of urban spaces." Tenley Conway, Professor, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Canada
"Decision-makers, technicians, designers, and tree lovers will all benefit from this manifesto on the political dimension of urban trees. Explored within the perspective of long history as well as through recent dissensions around the world, this learned and sensitive work offers a challenging perspective, and enticement to conserve roadside planting as cultural heritage." Stéphanie de Courtois, Associate professor at Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture de Versailles, France
"Street trees not only beautify the cityscape, but city dwellers also often build an emotional bond with them. They play a central role in the discussion about biodiversity and adaptation to climate change. This book provides background information and helps to further develop this crucial component of urban green space in a forward-looking manner." Norbert Kühn, Professor, Head of the Department of Vegetation Technology and Planting Design, Technical University, Berlin, Germany
"Never before have so many authors contributed to a single volume focusing on the politics of street trees, taking perspectives from many different countries." Mark Johnston, review in Garden History
Part one: Historic perspectives on street trees and politics
1. The
Right to Plant: roadside tree planting in The Netherlands Jan Woudstra
2.
Trees even in their very roads: mid seventeenth-century English
perspectives on trees, streets, and politics Felicity Stout
3. Green lines of
power? The Apprentice Boys' trees and the walls of Derry/Londonderry Finola
OKane
4. Progress and economics: planting roadside fruit trees in German
regions in the 18th and 19th centuries Sylvia Butenschön and Thomas Thränert
5. Sylvan strife: tree conflicts in Victorian and Edwardian towns Paul A.
Elliott
6. Drivers of street tree species selection: the case of London
planetrees in Philadelphia Lara A. Roman and Theodore S. Eisenman
7. A
silent activist for trees: the life and legacy of Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel
in Mysore, India Gert Groening
8. A broken covenant: the creation and
desecration of Sheffields living memorials Camilla Allen
9. Roads of
modernisation: street tree planting in the Republic of China (1911-1949)
Yishi Liu and Jan Woudstra
10. Japanese cherry pride on foreign ground Wybe
Kuitert Part two: Street tree values, policy, and management
11. Highway tree
policies and management: an historical perspective of ownership and
responsibility Jan Woudstra and Camilla Allen
12. Street trees matter, so
whats the matter with street trees? How the ecosystem services and
disservices of street trees can and should influence attitudes Ross Cameron
13. Emerging challenges and developments with respect to street trees in
compact cities Kai Wang, Jian Hang and Julian C.R. Hunt
14. The opportunity
to interact with the urban forest is a human right Alan Simson
15. What
street trees mean: memory, beauty, hospitality John Miller
16. Climate
change, forest fires, and evolving street tree policies in Porto, Portugal
Cláudia Fernandes, Catarina Teixeira and Isabel Martinho da Silva
17. The
political economy of street trees John Henneberry and Philip Catney
18. The
economics of street trees Why we so often cant see the wood for the trees
Philip B. Whyman
19. Roadside trees and traffic safety policies Jan Woudstra
20. Streets Ahead or the Road to Hell? Analysing street tree strategies in
the UK Nicola Dempsey Part three: Community engagement, civic action, and
governance
21. Legal responsibility for street trees Charles Mynors
22.
Occupying public space, generating public spheres: street tree art and
activism in East and West Berlin in the 1970s and 1980s Sonja Dümpelmann
23.
The legacy of colonial and arpartheid eras on the distribution, composition
and representation of street trees in South Africa Charlie Shackleton,
Nanamhla Gwedla and Elandrie Davoren
24. Against all odds: making the case
for trees in Bogotá, Colombia Germán Tovar Corzo and Sylvie Nail
25. Legal
protection of street trees in Israel: Actors, process, and enforcement Yifat
Holzman-Gazit
26. Tracing the socio-political dynamics of street tree
contestation in the twenty-first century through the Sheffield case-study Ian
D. Rotherham and Matthew Flinders
27. Tree/House/Street: site lines as fight
lines Fionn Stevenson
28. Why green practitioners need to learn more about
engineering and get political! Russell Horsey
29. Conclusions Jan Woudstra
and Camilla Allen
Jan Woudstra trained in landscape architecture and horticulture in the Netherlands and at Kew and completed an MA at the University of York, at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies. His PhD at University College London looked at modernism in twentieth-century landscape design. After having worked in private practice with much tree-related business, he joined the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield, where he is a Reader in Landscape History and Theory. He has published widely, including: Jan Woudstra and Colin Roth (eds), A History of Groves (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2018), and Jonathan Finch and Jan Woudstra, Capability Brown, Royal Gardener: The Business of Place-making in Northern Europe (2020).
Camilla Allen is a landscape architect and environmental historian. She completed her doctorate, The Making of the Man of the Trees, in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield, on the forester and conservationist Richard St. Barbe Baker (18891982). Her research focuses upon the relationship we have with the natural world which she explores through particular places, people and events like Britain's three tree cathedrals, the designation of special groves within California's coast redwood forest, and the commemorative planting of trees in Sheffield during and after the Great War.
