ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the concept of urban agency with respect to its potential value for environmental history using the development of Berlin and its hinterland from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Special attention is given to water as an interesting potential trigger of ‘non-human agency’ in regional development. The chapter starts by briefly examining some relevant theoretical approaches in the field, like Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Urban Ecology, before exploring the specific heuristic value that these concepts can have for environmental history. The second part of the chapter analyzes the transformation of the Berlin region from the early seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century. It emphasizes the impact of the state and of capital investment on environmental transformation but also discusses the role of environmental conditions such as swamps and wild animals as representations of an ‘agency of nature’. It then evaluates the metabolism of Berlin in the nineteenth century by reconstructing the complex socio-ecological ties between the Prussian capital and its hinterland with regards to cycles of building materials, food, energy supply and so forth. Finally, the chapter also focuses on the role of water as a strong ‘actor’ in the landscape. The ‘intrinsic logic’ of hydrological processes can easily be framed in terms of Actor-Network Theory, as is demonstrated by elaborating the role of water in landscape planning and in the design of urban infrastructures for drinking water and wastewater. Concluding the chapter, the concept of the co-evolution of city and nature as well as a modified concept of human agency are discussed as fruitful new perspectives in urban environmental history.
