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Weaving Protective Stories: Connective Practices to Articulate Holistic Values in the Stockholm National Urban Park

Author

Listed:
  • Henrik Ernstson

    (Stockholm Resilience Centre and Department of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Sverker Sörlin

    (Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden; and Division for History of Science and Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden)

Abstract

With rapid worldwide urbanization it is urgent that we understand processes leading to the protection of urban green areas and ecosystems. Although natural reserves are often seen as preserving ‘higher valued’ rather than ‘lower valued’ nature, it is more adequate to describe them as outcomes of selective social articulation processes. This is illustrated in the Stockholm National Urban Park. Despite strong exploitation pressure, a diverse urban movement of civil society organizations has managed to provide narratives able to explain and legitimize the need for protection—a ‘protective story’. On the basis of qualitative data and building on theories of value articulation, social movements, and actor-networks, we show how activists, by interlacing artefacts and discourses from cultural history and conservation biology, managed to simultaneously link spatially separated green areas previously seen as disconnected, while also articulating the interrelatedness between the cultural and the natural history of the area. This connective practice constructed holistic values articulating a unified park, which heavily influenced the official framing of the park's values and which now help to explain the success of the movement. In contrast to historically top-down-led designation of natural reserves, we argue that the involvement of civil society in protecting nature (and culture) is on the rise. This nonetheless begs the question of who can participate in these value-creating processes, and we also strive to uncover constraining and facilitating factors for popular participation. Four such factors are suggested: (i) the number and type of artefacts linked to an area; (ii) the capabilities and numbers of activists involved; (iii) the access to social arenas; and (iv) the social network position of actors.

Suggested Citation

  • Henrik Ernstson & Sverker Sörlin, 2009. "Weaving Protective Stories: Connective Practices to Articulate Holistic Values in the Stockholm National Urban Park," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(6), pages 1460-1479, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:6:p:1460-1479
    DOI: 10.1068/a40349
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hanna Erixon Aalto & Lars Marcus & Jonas Torsvall, 2018. "Towards a Social-Ecological Urbanism: Co-Producing Knowledge through Design in the Albano Resilient Campus Project in Stockholm," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Ernstson, Henrik & Sörlin, Sverker, 2013. "Ecosystem services as technology of globalization: On articulating values in urban nature," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 274-284.
    3. Colding, Johan & Barthel, Stephan, 2013. "The potential of ‘Urban Green Commons’ in the resilience building of cities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 156-166.
    4. Andersson, Erik & Tengö, Maria & McPhearson, Timon & Kremer, Peleg, 2015. "Cultural ecosystem services as a gateway for improving urban sustainability," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 165-168.
    5. Claudia Canedoli & Craig Bullock & Marcus J. Collier & Deirdre Joyce & Emilio Padoa-Schioppa, 2017. "Public Participatory Mapping of Cultural Ecosystem Services: Citizen Perception and Park Management in the Parco Nord of Milan (Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-27, May.

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