Failing to Grow "Their" Own Justice? The Co-Production of Racial/Gendered Labor and Milwaukee's Urban Forest

Volunteered geographic information, urban forests, & environmental justice

“…The simplest of these is similar to one put forward regarding environmental disamenities: that poor and racial/ethnic minority populations are so disadvantaged by other structural inequities that there are greater concerns for them than the presence or absence of urban forests and parks in their neighborhoods (Cutter, 1993). Others (Brownlow, 2006;Brownlow, 2011;Heynen et al, 2007) have suggested that the poor condition of urban trees in minority neighborhoods often causes them to be seen as disamenities rather than amenities. Martin (2004) hypothesizes that media generated racialized constructions of nature and wilderness have perpetuated a lower demand for natural areas among minorities, especially African Americans.…”

“…While environmental justice research has maintained its focus on hazards and disamenities (Heynen, Perkins, & Roy, 2007;Perkins, Heynen, & Wilson, 2004), researchers are beginning to also examine unequal and inequitable spatial distributions of rural and urban amenities, including urban forests. It is important to ensure that all city residents and visitors who so desire achieve equal opportunities to enjoy these amenities and the benefits that they provide.…”

The Wood for the Trees: Ordinary Environmental Injustice and the Everyday Right to Urban Nature

“…There is an extensive literature devoted to analysing the political economies of metropolitan arboriculture (see Nowak and Dwyer, 2000; Heynen, 2003; Perkins et al. , 2004; Heynen et al. , 2007).…”

“…, 2004: 292). Within the emerging analytical area of metropolitan arboriculture it is Nik Heynen's work on the politics of urban forests in Milwaukee that has provided the most sustained and sophisticated analysis of the connections between systems of urban justice and woodlands (see Heynen, 2003; Heynen et al. , 2007).…”

“…Working with Harold Perkins, Parama Roy and Joe Wilson, Heynen has revealed how the creation and maintenance of metropolitan woodland is not only marked by questions of distributional justice (who gets which trees where), but also by more insidious forms of procedural justice that generate both racial and class‐based inequalities (pertaining to who is able to engage in the different forms of work that surround urban forestry) (see Perkins et al. , 2004; Heynen et al. , 2007).…”