| This thesis is a response to recent changes in urban greenspace practices, which attempt to bring "nature" back into the city. The author explores meanings of nature in relation to urban greenspace in Ontario on three levels: history, policy, and grassroots perspectives. What emerges is an argument about how "nature" has played an important role in justifying different visions of urban greenspace. Furthermore, the meaning of nature is far from static: settlers, urban theorists, members of local groups in Peterborough, and the staff and volunteers at an urban greenspace project called the Peterborough Ecology Park---all have put forth different understandings of nature's place in the city. The meaning of nature, however, remains tied to people's personal values and ideas about "community." Nature and urban greenspace become projections of people's visions of the "good" society. Bioregionalism must accommodate a variety of understandings of nature in order to promote an on-going conversation about what a sustainable relationship to "nature" through "place" means. This thesis hopes to make a unique contribution to this conversation by connecting ideas from environmental history and landscape architecture with ideas from bioregionalism and from the grassroots level. |
