Green thumb and other metaphors: Exploring urban-nature relationships

Åberg, IdaLinköpings universitet,Statsvetenskap,Filosofiska fakulteten (författare)

This paper explores metaphors used when organizing the meanings of agriculture and gardening generally, and urban agriculture in particular. Urban agriculture is, according to common interpretations in research, an activity that urban dwellers can use to de-alienate or re-appropriate the relationship with nature, thus implying there was ever a real or more accurate relationship between humans and nature. Urban relationship to vegetation is often expressed as ambiguous, where the urban dwellers have little or no relationship to plants. One interviewee typically stated about himself: “Imagine that a kid from the concrete jungle can get a green thumb”. The metaphors ‘concrete jungle’ and a ‘green thumb’ relate to the place where the respondent reside and the type of nature available (the jungle), but also relate to qualities attached to human bodies. The ‘green thumb’ can thus be interpreted as both the physical link between plants and human bodies and a symbolic understanding of nature. Metaphors are of critical importance in political studies, not only in determining institutional politics, but also in the mapping of how the production of meaning as such is political. Metaphors will be studied here to explore imaginaries placing humans beside or within nature. Metaphors do not only transfer meaning; they also shape the relations between subjects or objects.

Fridolfsson, CharlotteLinköpings universitet,Statsvetenskap,Filosofiska fakulteten(Swepub:liu)chafr44 (författare)
Linköpings universitetStatsvetenskap (creator_code:org_t)

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