Urban Greening as a Social Movement

The premise of this chapter is that human engagement of city dwellers in acts of urban greening, or environmental stewardship, collectively constitutes a social movement for greater access to the natural environment. The power of urban greening as a social movement is particularly salient for disadvantaged communities in promoting greater resilience, health, and well-being. Grounded in the geographies of urban greening associated with Buffalo and New York City, we consider how some civic environmental stewardship programs positively impact youth. More specifically, we contend that such programs provide vulnerable populations such as adolescents with opportunities for social interaction that include intergenerational bridges and mentoring relationships that confer the psychological resilience needed to sustain such local activism. We develop a systems perspective illustrating how participants in successful civic environmental stewardship programs develop an enhanced sense of control and belonging to a community. The connections that individual residents feel to their surrounding community manifest in a heightened concern for others and increased activism promoting public access to green space.