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Ambivalent landscapes—wilderness in the urban interstices (2007)

2020-06-20

Jorgensen, A. and Tylecote, M. (2007), Landscape Research, 32(4), pp. 443–462

A paper, preluding the Urban Wildscape anthology, that discusses ambivalent responses to contemporary urban landscapes where nature is in control. Furthermore, a wilderness is discussed in relation to successional nature found in urban interstitial spaces. Being that ambivalency is a core theme in relation to the urban landscape, this paper was appropriate reading for my essay as well as an introduction to historic anthropocentric views on land and nature. Some of the references and themes are featured and expanded within Jorgensen’s Urban landscape, however, this paper on its own has merit given its focus on liminal ambivalence and ambiguity in relation to culture and nature.

Quotes

From early on in northwest European culture, distinctions have been made between the cultivated area under human control and the surrounding wilderness. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (1989) defines a wilderness as ‘‘a wild or uncultivated region or tract of land, uninhabited, or inhabited only by wild animals; ‘a tract of solitude or savageness’ (quoted from Johnson’s dictionary)’’. Wilderness is therefore not only the antithesis of human habitation and cultivation, but is also the haunt of wild animals, and may be a place of savagery and danger. (Jorgensen and Tylecote, 2007, p. 445).

The idea of wilderness as outside of and opposed to civilization was informed by an anthropocentric world view which sorted the world and everything in it into things humans could derive benefit from, which were therefore good, and things that were useless, which were consequently imbued with moral badness. Thus wilderness, including woodland, was not just outside of civilization, it was an affront to it, and it was a human duty to eradicate it, if the land could be put to better use, which was usually to fields, but the metal industries and especially iron smelting had also taken a heavy toll on forests in England by the 13th century (Jorgensen and Tylecote, 2007, p. 447).

Just as the pre-modern terra nullius was regarded as a void awaiting colonization and exploitation, so contemporary wasteland is frequently regarded as a non-entity, fit for nothing but improvement or development; and as with the old terra nullius, it is often shown as literally blank space on maps and plans (Jorgensen and Tylecote, 2007, p. 452).

If natural and human influences are all mixed up it is impossible to tell whether humans are in control. (Jorgensen and Tylecote, 2007, p. 445)

The apparent relaxation of legal and social conventions in interstitial spaces creates welcome opportunities for people to do things that they would not be able to do in any other urban setting, such as young people gathering and travellers setting up encampments (Jorgensen and Tylecote, 2007, p. 445).