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Centering Community Perspectives to Advance Recognitional Justice for Sustainable Cities: Lessons from Urban Forest Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Amber Grant

    (Urban Forest Research & Ecological Disturbance (UFRED) Group, Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto ON M5B 2K3, Canada)

  • Sara Edge

    (Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto ON M5B 2K3, Canada)

  • Andrew A. Millward

    (Urban Forest Research & Ecological Disturbance (UFRED) Group, Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto ON M5B 2K3, Canada)

  • Lara A. Roman

    (USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Riverside CA 92507, USA
    USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Philadelphia Field Station, Philadelphia PA 19103, USA)

  • Cheryl Teelucksingh

    (Department of Sociology, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto ON M5B 2K3, Canada)

Abstract

Cities worldwide are grappling with complex urban environmental injustices. While environmental justice as a concept has gained prominence in both academia and policy, operationalizing and implementing environmental justice principles and norms remains underexplored. Notably, less attention has been given to centering the perspectives and experiences of community-based actors operating at the grassroots level, who can inform and strengthen urban environmental justice practice. Through ethnographic, participant-as-observer methods, interviews, and geovisualizations, this study explores the perspectives, experiences, knowledge, and practices of community-based urban forest stewards in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States) who are invested in addressing environmental injustices through urban tree-planting and stewardship. Interviewees were asked how they were addressing issues of distribution, procedure, and recognition in urban forest planning and practice, as well as the socio-political and institutional factors that have influenced their perspectives and practices. Particular attention is given to how urban forest stewards implement recognitional justice principles. Findings from this study exposed several complex socio-political challenges affecting steward engagement in community-led tree initiatives and the broader pursuit of environmental justice, including discriminatory urban planning practices, gentrification concerns, underrepresentation of Black and Latinx voices in decision-making, volunteer-based tree-planting models, and tree life cycle costs. Nevertheless, urban forest stewards remain dedicated to collective community-building to address environmental injustices and stress the importance of recognizing, listening to, dialoguing with, and validating the perspectives and experiences of their neighbors as essential to their process.

Suggested Citation

  • Amber Grant & Sara Edge & Andrew A. Millward & Lara A. Roman & Cheryl Teelucksingh, 2024. "Centering Community Perspectives to Advance Recognitional Justice for Sustainable Cities: Lessons from Urban Forest Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-28, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:12:p:4915-:d:1411081
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Benz, Susanne A. & Burney, Jennifer, 2021. "Widespread race and class disparities in surface urban heat extremes across the United States," OSF Preprints r5svd, Center for Open Science.
    2. Fraser, Nancy, 1998. "Social justice in the age of identity politics: Redistribution, recognition, participation," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Organization and Employment FS I 98-108, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. Claire Davis & Sara Edge, 2022. "Strengthening Equity and Inclusion in Urban Greenspace: Interrogating the Moral Management & Policing of 2SLGBTQ+ Communities in Toronto Parks," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, November.
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