Urban Space and Everyday Adaptations

This paper addresses Jem Bendell’s concept of “deep adaptation” in the Anthropocene through the lens of everyday urban practices in contemporary Northern Europe. It proposes that this “deep adaptation” should be defined less in relation to a socio-ecological “collapse” and more through everyday occ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mathilda Rosengren Mathilda Rosengren, Franziska Polleter, Josefine Sarkez-Knudsen, Flavia Mameli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Stichting OpenAccess 2022-07-01
Series:Spool
Subjects:
Online Access:https://spool.ac/index.php/spool/article/view/181
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850188803207069696
author Mathilda Rosengren Mathilda Rosengren
Franziska Polleter
Josefine Sarkez-Knudsen
Flavia Mameli
author_facet Mathilda Rosengren Mathilda Rosengren
Franziska Polleter
Josefine Sarkez-Knudsen
Flavia Mameli
author_sort Mathilda Rosengren Mathilda Rosengren
collection DOAJ
description This paper addresses Jem Bendell’s concept of “deep adaptation” in the Anthropocene through the lens of everyday urban practices in contemporary Northern Europe. It proposes that this “deep adaptation” should be defined less in relation to a socio-ecological “collapse” and more through everyday occurrences in presentday urban environments. Entering into a critical conversation with Bendell’s conceptual “4 Rs” framework, the paper draws on primary data from several cities in Sweden and Germany to show how, in practice, resilience can be found in the “quiet activism” of leisure gardeners; how ingrained notions of restricted land use may be relinquished through “commoning” urban space; how novel constellations of co-living restores old ideas of intragenerational urban cohabitation; and, finally, how a path to reconciliation may be articulated through an ontological shift away from an anthropocentric urban planning, towards one that recognises other-thanhuman beings as legitimate dwellers in the urban landscape. Accounting for urbanities of enmeshed societal, ecological, and spatial trajectories, the paper reveals an inhibiting anthropocentrism in Bendell’s framework and ultimately points to how his “creatively constructed hope” for the future may be found, not in an impending global collapse, but in everyday adaptations and embodied acts that stretch far beyond the human.
format Article
id doaj-art-52b80c92fc97417890d2971774a50481
institution OA Journals
issn 2215-0897
2215-0900
language English
publishDate 2022-07-01
publisher Stichting OpenAccess
record_format Article
series Spool
spelling doaj-art-52b80c92fc97417890d2971774a504812025-08-20T02:15:47ZengStichting OpenAccessSpool2215-08972215-09002022-07-0192Urban Space and Everyday AdaptationsMathilda Rosengren Mathilda Rosengren0Franziska Polleter1Josefine Sarkez-Knudsen2Flavia Mameli3Malmö University Technical University of Berlin Lund University University of Kassel This paper addresses Jem Bendell’s concept of “deep adaptation” in the Anthropocene through the lens of everyday urban practices in contemporary Northern Europe. It proposes that this “deep adaptation” should be defined less in relation to a socio-ecological “collapse” and more through everyday occurrences in presentday urban environments. Entering into a critical conversation with Bendell’s conceptual “4 Rs” framework, the paper draws on primary data from several cities in Sweden and Germany to show how, in practice, resilience can be found in the “quiet activism” of leisure gardeners; how ingrained notions of restricted land use may be relinquished through “commoning” urban space; how novel constellations of co-living restores old ideas of intragenerational urban cohabitation; and, finally, how a path to reconciliation may be articulated through an ontological shift away from an anthropocentric urban planning, towards one that recognises other-thanhuman beings as legitimate dwellers in the urban landscape. Accounting for urbanities of enmeshed societal, ecological, and spatial trajectories, the paper reveals an inhibiting anthropocentrism in Bendell’s framework and ultimately points to how his “creatively constructed hope” for the future may be found, not in an impending global collapse, but in everyday adaptations and embodied acts that stretch far beyond the human. https://spool.ac/index.php/spool/article/view/181AnthropoceneDeep adaptationRelinquishmentUrban commonsUrban co-livingGreen activism
spellingShingle Mathilda Rosengren Mathilda Rosengren
Franziska Polleter
Josefine Sarkez-Knudsen
Flavia Mameli
Urban Space and Everyday Adaptations
Spool
Anthropocene
Deep adaptation
Relinquishment
Urban commons
Urban co-living
Green activism
title Urban Space and Everyday Adaptations
title_full Urban Space and Everyday Adaptations
title_fullStr Urban Space and Everyday Adaptations
title_full_unstemmed Urban Space and Everyday Adaptations
title_short Urban Space and Everyday Adaptations
title_sort urban space and everyday adaptations
topic Anthropocene
Deep adaptation
Relinquishment
Urban commons
Urban co-living
Green activism
url https://spool.ac/index.php/spool/article/view/181
work_keys_str_mv AT mathildarosengrenmathildarosengren urbanspaceandeverydayadaptations
AT franziskapolleter urbanspaceandeverydayadaptations
AT josefinesarkezknudsen urbanspaceandeverydayadaptations
AT flaviamameli urbanspaceandeverydayadaptations