URBAN-NATURAL UTOPIAS IN CHALLENGING TIMES

Abstract

The issue of nature in the city appears as essential in the struggle for the right to the city, with the emergence of various alternative initiatives, apparently transformative, that point to a different relationship between society and nature, to the utopia of an urban-natural and, perhaps, to a different daily life. Thus, it is worth asking whether it is possible to speak of utopias and the virtuality of the utopia of an urban-natural considering the contemporary dystopian scenery. Understanding that another urban-nature relationship in a transformative horizon demands other spatial practices and the (de)construction of everyday life, this essay examines a series of urban greening alternative initiatives. Despite their shared intentions, these interventions have dissonant agendas. Therefore, an effort is made to differentiate them according to their character, degree of sanction, and their potential outcomes to effectively benefit vulnerable social groups sheltered from gentrification and hegemonic interests. A distinction is made between the reformist practices of tactical urbanism and the transformative initiatives of different interactions with nature conducted by communities of vulnerable social groups and social movements, among others, with or without the support of public authorities, in addition to actions of guerrilla urbanism, pointing to the flourishing of other spatial practices and other daily life. Finally, some ways of guaranteeing vulnerable social groups access to nature and interaction with it in daily life are considered, with a view to the construction of another society based on other spatial practices, with the virtual utopia of an urban-natural as a horizon.

Keywords: City, Urban, Nature, Daily Life; Urban-Natural.