Publication Details
Recognizing urban environmental stewardship practices as indicators of social resilience: The case of living memorials
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Year Published
2019
Publication
In: Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika; Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Hines, Sarah J.; Maddox, David, eds. Green readiness, response, and recovery: A collaborative synthesis. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-185. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 170-187.
Abstract
Urban environmental stewardship (UES) is the act of caring for the environment to enhance the quality of life for the greater public good (Burch et al. 1993) "with the underlying assumption that doing so will improve the social– ecological functioning of specific urban areas" (Connolly 2013, p. 76). Indeed, a critical motivation for urban environmental stewards is to nurture places that are valuable for social as well as ecological reasons (Krasny et al. 2014, Tidball 2014). Though important, the contributions of UES to ecological resilience (e.g., promoting biodiversity) are under-recognized (Barthel et al. 2005), yet the contributions of UES to social resilience are perhaps even less recognized (Clayton and Meyers 2015). Natural resource agencies, including our own, the USDA Forest Service, tend to focus on ecological resilience (Benson and Garmestani 2011). This is likely because natural resource management (both the academic field as well as the practice) emphasizes the biophysical resource rather than social structure and organization that cares for, governs, and benefits from the resource. More integrated fields of study (e.g., those that are based in social-ecological systems and biocultural approaches) and practice are increasingly recognizing the need to address both, and in fact, understand the reciprocity and synergy that exists between the biophysical and social worlds.
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Citation
McMillen, Heather; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika. 2019. Recognizing urban environmental stewardship practices as indicators of social resilience: The case of living memorials. In: Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika; Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Hines, Sarah J.; Maddox, David, eds. Green readiness, response, and recovery: A collaborative synthesis. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-185. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 170-187. https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-P-185-paper12.