Post-Industrial Urban Greenspace ─ An Environmental Justice Perspective

Post-industrial urban spaces typically include abandoned factories, disused rail lines, old pits and quarries, and de-commissioned landfills. In these places, different visions compete for dominance with respect to current and future land uses. Neighbours often view such urban greenspace as polluted, unkempt and weedy, harbouring undesirable biophysical features and people. These are spaces that often become the focus of some form of revitalization, reinvestment and restoration. From the perspective of civic authorities and urban planners, transforming post-industrial landscapes into disciplined and tended greenspace creates the urban conditions and signals of popular contemporary taste that attract investors, gentrifiers, and tourists. But post-industrial spaces are also places where unique and unpredictable human and ecological associations can emerge spontaneously. Such places may contain considerable ecological integrity and biodiversity and host human populations who find a home and respite in such ecologies. They also tell stories of an industrial and urban past that should be acknowledged, understood and (if suitable) celebrated. This volume explores the environmental justice and injustice dimensions of emerging urban post-industrial landscapes, including the ecological politics, cultural representations and aesthetics of these spaces.

This book was published as a special issue of Local Environment.

Jennifer Foster is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies and Coordinator of the Urban Ecologies program at York University. She is a Registered Professional Planner (RPP) with the Canadian Institute of Planners. Recent projects include the contemporary art exhibition Land|Slide: Possible Futures and the critical urban ecology studyFrom Rubble to Refuge.

L. Anders Sandberg is a Professor and former Associate Dean in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Toronto, Canada. His two most recent books areThe Oak Ridges Moraine Battles: Development, Sprawl and Nature Conservation in the Toronto Region (2013) andUrban Trees, Forests, and Greenspace: A Political Ecology Perspective (2014).