8. Green Infrastructure

• Political ecology - who benefits and loses out from how systems are set up
• Political ecology theory not very well developed
• Most people live in urban areas. Why?
• Major infrastructure projects have political, economic & ecological impacts
• Cities complex places, assymetric power structures
• How we manage infrastructure will be affected by those inequalities and demands of different groups
• Henri Lefebre classic philosophic books used by geographers “The Right to the City” 1960s. Theorises about urbanisation and role of capitalism. Capitalism less reliant on production and more on rent exploitation. Particularly urban rents. “The production of space”
• Yanis ? has a book about new rentier class of Big Tech, called Technofeudalism, the end of capitalism, so very interesting about the rentier economy and cities
• Green Infrastructure is under dispute. There is nothing neutral, there is nothing merely technical.
• Who creates, manages, controls new green infastructure
• Environment Act 2021 - applies to Wales as well. Read outline. Has clear provisions for Green Infrastructure.
• Natural England - good examples of green infrastructure on website “creating greener neighbourhoods”. What %? people don’t have access to green space.
• Is green space/infrastructure defined anywhere?
• https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/henri-lefebvre-right-to-the-city#:~:text=Notes%3A%20The%20%27right%20to%20the,a%20to%2Dcreated%20space%20%E2%80%94%20a
• Wales - The Green Infrastructure Statement Look at this
• ((democratise economics))
• apply political ecology ideas to green infrastructure
• “Jake Rayson,this gives a good overview of the different scales of GI (from section 6.2)https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2023-10/annex-addressing-the-nature-emergenc…”
• Tensions around Green Infrastructure
• another of Henri Lefebvre’s important books on urban politics is “The Urban Revolution” (1970)

Seminar

• List of priorities from people
• “Home Not Spikes”
• ((direct democracy threatens existing power structures))
• the technocrat and the resident - working together