Bringing People Back In: Civic
Ecology in Urban Social-Ecological
Systems
Keith G. Tidball
Civic Ecology Initiative
Dept. Of Natural Resources, Cornell University
kgtidball@cornell.edu
2008 Summer Joint Session of the Northeast Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative
Extension Directors, and the Council for Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching.
Washington, DC
Introduction- Urban Challenges
Foundations- Theory and Key Concepts
Civic Ecology Initiative- What is it?
Examples of Civic Ecology Programs
Examples of Civic Ecology Research
Examples of Civic Ecology Teaching
Conclusions
An Urban challenge?
United Nations World Urbanization . www.un.org/.../publications/WUP2005/2005wup.htm
“[Urban] people cannot
care about what they
have
not
Urbanization
& Sustainability
are
two
experienced. Neither will they have much interest in paying
important
andthe
overlapping
that
the
taxes or providing
political support“systems”
which is necessary
to require
maintain [natural
areas
like] national
parks.”
study
urgently
and
have
both
— JUDY LING WONG
societal and ecological implications.
Humans: In or Out?
• James Watt, US Secretary of the
Interior during the Reagan
administration, expressed a
popular belief when he wrote
that the earth is “merely a
temporary way station on the
road to eternal life … The earth
was put here by the Lord for His
people to subdue and use for
profitable purposes on their way
to the hereafter.”
• “...humans are part of the
landscape, have always been so,
and...if managed, do not have to be
viewed as destructive agents” Aldo
Leopold
• “Scientists (and extensionists) are
key participants in the struggle to
maintain the world’s biodiversity
and manage its natural resources...
(we) cannot effectively contribute
without models that incorporate
the activities of our own species.”
Collins et al
The Urban Environment Is Complex!
See:
http://resilientgreen.wordpress.com/200
8/06/25/a-new-map/
System Dynamics entails making three fundamental
shifts of mind relative to our traditional way of
thinking.
1. From linear, laundry list thinking to a circular,
closed-loop view of causality.
2. A shift from an external to an internal focus on
performance, how we, not others, are
responsible for most of the results we get.
3. A focus on an operational view of how things
actually work. This is in contrast to traditional
analysis methods based on statistical correlation
of trends from the past.
Resilience
Panarchy diagram courtesy of The Sustainable Scale Project.
http://www.sustainablescale.org/ConceptualFramework/UnderstandingScale/MeasuringScale/Panarchy.aspx
Resilience theory is an expanding body of ideas that
attempts to provide explanations for the source and role of
change in adaptive systems, particularly the kinds of change
that are transforming.
Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb
disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so
as to still retain essentially the same function, structure,
identity, and feedbacks Walker, B., C. S. Holling, S. R. Carpenter, and A. Kinzig. 2004. Resilience,
adaptability and transformability in social–ecological systems. Ecology and Society 9(2): 5. [online] URL:
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/art5
We combine these notions in our urban Civic Ecology Initiative...which asks:
“How might we better understand civic environmentalism, so that we can
help foster its positive ecological and social outcomes in cities?”
...a Philosophy
...a Science
...a Practice
Civic Ecology is... a Philosophy, a Science, a Practice...
...a Philosophy
...a Science
...a Practice
Values
Urban Ecology
Community Gardening
Ethics
Resilience Theory
Community Forestry
Human Dimensions
Biophilia
Watershed restoration
Land Ethic
Benefits of
nature exposure
Civic Agriculture
Ecological/Environmental
& Conservation Anthropology
Other Urban Restoration
Civic Ecology Education
...a Philosophy
...a Science
...a Practice
For civic ecology practices to endure, they
must continue to integrate new participants,
including young people. Civic ecology
education refers to the learning and social
and ecological outcomes that occur when
young people and other novices become
engaged in civic ecology practices.
Program Examples
Research Examples- Resilient Green
"Resilient Green" / Civic Ecology Publications
•Civic Ecology Education: A Systems Approach to Resilience and Learning In Cities - Krasny & Tidball, Civic
Ecology Initiative
•From Risk to Resilience: A Role for Community Greening and Civic Ecology in Cities- Tidball & Krasny, in Wals,
Arjen (editor) (2007), Social Learning Towards a more Sustainable World, Wageningen Academic Publishers,
Wageningen, The Netherlands.
•Environment-shaping: An Alternative Approach to Applying Foreign Development Assistance- Weinstein & Tidball,
Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, March 2007.
"Resilient Green" Presentations
•2008 Resilience Alliance Conference: "Raising" Urban Resilience: Urban Community Forestry in Post-disaster and
Post-Conflict Contexts
•2007 World Environmental Education Congress: Civic Ecology Education
•2006 Science Education for Civic Participation Seminar: Adaptive Learning To Enhance Community Resilience
•Toward a Natural Resource Intervention: Community Greening as a First Response Tool for Post-Crisis In Urban
Contexts
•Urban Community Greening and Community Resilience
"Resilient Green" funded research proposals
Role of Community Forestry in NOLA, 9th Ward Disaster Recovery. 2007
Urban Community Greening: Exploring a Comprehensive Strategy for Building Sustainable Cities 2006
Survey of Urban Community Greening Efforts to Reduce Violence and Conflict in Cape Town, South Africa Townships. 2007
Research Examples- Civic Ecology Education
Teaching examples
Urban Environments Course
Cornell, Natural Resources 494/694 “Urban Environments/Alternative Spring Break
NYC.” Spring 2008.
Green Cities Course
Cornell, City and Regional Planning 384/584 “Green Cities.” With Elan Shapiro, Fall
2007.
Cayuga Lake Watershed Course
Cornell, Natural Resources 694 “Transdisciplinary Approaches to Environmental
Challenges: Towards a Report Card for Cayuga Lake. Spring 2008
In Conclusion...
“Conservationists will be a lot more effective if they take cities
and the people who live in them much more seriously. Cities
have a bad name in many quarters of the conservation
community . . . Conversely, the conservation movement has a
bad name among many who work on urban problems . . . The
truth is that protecting nature and improving city life are
interdependent goals. Conservation and urban leaders are
natural allies. The challenge is in making the right connections.”
— TED TRZYNA
"...the weeds in a city lot convey the same lesson as the redwoods."
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of
the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
-- Aldo Leopold
Thank you!
References
• Collins, J. et al. 2000. A New Urban Ecology. American
Scientist. Vol. 88, No. 5.
• Flader, S. L. & Callicott, J. B., eds. (1991). The River of the
Mother God and other essays by Aldo Leopold. Madison WI:
Univ. WI Press.
• United Nations World Urbanization .
www.un.org/.../publications/WUP2005/2005wup.htm
• Walker, B., C. S. Holling, S. R. Carpenter, and A. Kinzig. 2004.
Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social–
ecological systems. Ecology and Society 9(2): 5. [online] URL:
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol9/iss2/art5/
• Watt,J. “Ours is the Earth,” Saturday Evening Post,
January/February 1982, pp. 74‐75.