IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envval/v33y2024i5p511-528.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Every tree fixed with a purpose: Contesting value in Olmsted's parks

Author

Listed:
  • Eric S. Godoy

Abstract

Olmsted was an influential landscape architect whose works include many parks, recreation grounds and more. Inspired by Romantic and transcendentalist thinkers, he developed ‘pastoral transcendentalism’, a style of designing parks that mimicked natural spaces to reproduce their values within cities. Although environmental justice scholars have pointed out how these designs limit access to parks, I argue that environmental philosophers have not adequately discussed Olmsted, particularly his axiology of nature. Reflecting on it reveals how environmental injustice consists not only of restricting access to nature to protect its essential value – for Olmsted, scenery that could induce a contemplative mindset – but in delimiting nature's value without consideration of how people actually appreciate it.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric S. Godoy, 2024. "Every tree fixed with a purpose: Contesting value in Olmsted's parks," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(5), pages 511-528, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envval:v:33:y:2024:i:5:p:511-528
    DOI: 10.1177/09632719231220425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09632719231220425
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09632719231220425?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envval:v:33:y:2024:i:5:p:511-528. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.