A Good Tree: The Articulation of Nature within a Built Environment Discourse

Abstract

Planning and built environment practices deal with construction of the built environment within a natural environment context. The outcomes of such practices can be traced back to a particular discursive practices that establish and organise the ways and means such outcomes can be achieved. It could be suggested that our built environments in the wider sense are our discourses made real. However what is less well understood is the way in which nature is ‘constructed’ in the process of achieving built form outcomes. Discourse Analysis focuses on investigating the different kinds of meta- discourses that create meaning for different kinds of objects and groups of people in the world. Aspects of Discourse Analysis are used as a basis for investigation into how nature is constructed within a built environment / planning discourse. Six individuals having particular roles associated with two areas of green-field development resulted in six cases for analysis. Interviews were carried out with the individuals. Qualitative methods were employed to analyse the transcribed interviews. The results confirm that nature, like the built environment, is discursively constructed, and that there are three outcomes. The first outcome places nature within different regimes that enables the achievement of built environment / planning outcomes. The second construction sees nature having an experiential effect on individuals, who seek to recreate their experiences within such built form outcomes. The third sees nature being constructed as an independent agent. Paying attention to the way in which nature is discursively constructed by individuals, and to the way in which it influences professionals and other associates within the planning field, holds the promise of more sensitive and appropriate developments.