Urban Narratives about Nature: Socio-Ecological Imaginaries Between Science and Entertainment

When more than half of the Earth population lives in cities, and living conditions worldwide suffer from a steady increase in environmental issues, historical inquiry provides useful reflections and new perspectives on the present. Urban Narratives about Nature: Socio-Ecological Imaginaries between Science and Entertainment aims at generating specific historical knowledge concerning processes of production, circulation, and management of natural history narratives and the associated struggles for meaning within the socio-ecological relations involved. The city is a powerful storyteller, and this book, upon a relational perspective, provides a diverse and interrelated collection of case studies of urban-based production and circulation of narratives about nature. Altogether, these cases probe the complex relationships among scientific authority, public awareness, policymaking, corporate and political interests, and environmental advocacy, in effect expanding the interdisciplinary linking of urban and environmental history within a global history view.

Carlos Tabernero is associate professor in the Institute of History and Science at The Autonomous University of Barcelona.