ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how post-industrial urban greenspaces can be interpreted as the conjunction of political and biophysical dynamics that are socio-culturally mediated. There is a need to deepen the interplay between urban research and ecological research and to advance the field of urban political ecology through insights relating to racial capitalism, queer ecologies and anti-colonial and decolonial ecological perspectives. Distinct attributes of urban ecosystems are identified, and an appreciation of novel ecologies is explored as the most fitting lens for understanding the unique biophysical opportunities and challenges of urban post-industrial greenspace. The histories and experiences of environmental injustice in these spaces are described through brief case studies, and community-based strategies for multi-faceted environmental justice achievements are profiled. Coalitions of diverse groups often couple concerns relating to the social determinants of health, housing, employment and grief with concerns around access to greenspace and the right to the city. Environmental aesthetics is situated as a critical interface for how urban spaces are experienced and understood, and the concepts of terrain vague and délaissés urbains are proposed as generative conceptualizations of indeterminate, unregulated spaces that offer opportunities for rich ecological systems, enhanced contact with nature and forms of access and inhabitation that are otherwise unavailable in the city.
