ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a focus on the lawn, the simplified and standardized landscape of urban and suburban areas which, like capitalist agriculture in rural areas, manufactures scarcity through the creation of monocultures and the deployment of pesticides. Although lawns dominate many cities in North America, some species of bees thrive in urban areas. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, the motivations, knowledges, and experiences of ‘pollinator people’ are explored, with a focus on the practices of urban beekeeping and pollinator gardening. Both urban beekeepers and pollinator gardeners are motivated by feelings of ‘delight’, ‘awe’, and curiosity’ and, through engaging with the playful work of hobbyist beekeeping and pollinator gardening, become re-enchanted with the non-human world.
