ABSTRACT
For most people, ecology and the urban are polar opposites, as are the city and nature. This chapter shows how the very idea of urban ecology fits into a conceptual framework in which city and nature were long opposed, a framework that would subsequently come to include a concern with the ecological impact of cities and a first generation of research on urban ecology. It examines the adjustments made to this conceptual framework by a second generation of research, which led to considerable disciplinary diversification in the notion of urban ecology, part of a 'paradigm shift', a new concept through which to think about the city and nature in their reciprocal relations. Finally, the chapter explores how this new ecology is being transposed into urban policies that increasingly make space for modern and postmodern urbanistic ideas that emphasize 'nature in the city'.
