Nature within cities is socially produced and thus maintained unequally. Thus, access to urban green space, a key component of urban nature, must be recognized as an issue of socio-environmental justice. Earlier research has shown how urban green spaces, crucial for maintaining a healthy social, economic and ecological urban environment is unevenly distributed along class and race lines in U.S. cities. While literature exists on inequality of green spaces within cities, discussion is lacking on socio-economic, cultural and political processes that give rise to the formation of such inequalities. Using an urban political ecology lens, this research attempts to uncover the underlying processes responsible for unequal production of green spaces for inner-city Milwaukee's African-American community, with a focus on Walnut Way neighborhood. The following questions will be investigated: 1) How do current socio-economic and political conditions of inner-city African-American communities influence their access to green space?; 2) How do various public and civil society groups mediate the process of urban green space production?; 3) What are the implications of such management processes for marginalized communities?; 4) How successfully do grassroots organizations, like the Walnut Way Conservation Corp. mobilize community-based greening efforts? Whereas socio-economic influences on existing urban greens in the African American neighborhoods will be analyzed using census and urban canopy cover data, geographic information systems, and statistical techniques, the processes of how uneven urban green spaces are produced will be revealed through semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with appropriate public, private and civil society agents. Furthermore, participant observation within Walnut Way Conservation Corp. will be conducted to examine the role of grassroots regreening efforts. Research results will enable us to understand why and how environmental inequalities are formed and what roles public departments, as well as community based organizations, play to enhance or ameliorate such inequalities.
The significance of this research lies in finding a common ground between social justice concerns and urban-environmental management issues. By taking social justice studies beyond its traditional focus on pollution and waste facilities, this project will add new empirical work on positive urban amenities, like urban green space. Furthermore, this study will have positive implications for identifying and transforming present unjust processes of urban greening in Milwaukee and other U.S. cities. While uncovering the processes of urban green space production, the research will demonstrate the potential strengths and limitations of community participation as means for producing more equitable urban environments for minorities.
