Order and Disorder in the Urban Forest: A Foucauldian/Latourian Perspective

L. Anders Sandberg, Adrina Bardekjian, and Sadia Butt (eds.), Urban Forests, Trees, and Green Space: A Political Ecology Perspective (Routledge/Earthscan), pp. 132-146, 2014

SUNY Buffalo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2016-006

22 Pages Posted: 30 Aug 2015 Last revised: 26 May 2016

See all articles by Irus Braverman

Irus Braverman

University at Buffalo Law School

Date Written: 2014

Abstract

We pass by street trees everyday. Their existence as well as their particular location in the city seems obvious, innocuous, natural. But, as is the case with most taken-for-granted "things" (Brown, 2011), some excavation is bound to reveal a more complicated and even ideological story. This study focuses on such a story: the story of the clandestine governance of nature and of humans by way of nature - all through the construction and regulation of city street trees. This story problematizes the mundane display of urban space in general, and of urban street trees in particular, as technical and apolitical, and instead promotes an understanding of nonhumans and humans as constantly negotiating spatial order and disorder through law.

Keywords: trees, city, order and disorder, urban forest, Foucault, Latour, grid, grate, Dig-Safe procedure

Suggested Citation

Braverman, Irus, Order and Disorder in the Urban Forest: A Foucauldian/Latourian Perspective (2014). L. Anders Sandberg, Adrina Bardekjian, and Sadia Butt (eds.), Urban Forests, Trees, and Green Space: A Political Ecology Perspective (Routledge/Earthscan), pp. 132-146, 2014, SUNY Buffalo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2016-006, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2652767

Irus Braverman (Contact Author)

University at Buffalo Law School ( email )

School of Law
528 O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
United States
716-645-3030 (Phone)
716-645-2064 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~irusb/

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