Call for Papers

Call for Papers: Trees, Governance, and the Making of Urban Natures Trees constitute an integral component of the urban fabric. As urban environmental history has demonstrated (Horta Duarte, 2009), tracing the evolution of urban green governance offers valuable insights into shifting socio-political arrangements and the emergence of hegemonic values, as well as into the formation of new coalitions that underpin processes of socio-environmental reproduction (Kanai and Cometta, 2025). The management of trees in particular —embedded within the metabolic flows that have long shaped cities (Heynen et al., 2006)—acquires heightened significance in an era marked by climate emergency and accelerating biodiversity loss. Increasingly, trees are positioned as key agents in the pursuit of sustainable urban transformation and peri-urban transitions, contributing not only to environmental resilience but also to livability (Maurer, 2024; Dobbs et al., 2018). Yet historical and contemporary examples alike remind us that policies of greenification across the urban-rural continuum may also conceal processes of displacement and exclusion, reinforcing spatial segregation and deepening existing inequalities (Anguelovski and Connolly, 2024). Tree-centred interventions in the urban realm also present a productive entry point for examining the complex entanglements between cities and the rural operational landscapes upon which they depend (Akiwumi, 2006; Hurducaş, 2018). These relations are evident not only in pre-industrial contexts—when timber was indispensable to construction, economic expansion, and the material growth of urban areas (Cronon, 1991)—but also today, as forestry economies experience renewed attention and restructuring. This call invites contributions that explore the intersections between trees and urban governance from interdisciplinary perspectives, including but not limited to urban political ecology, ecology, and environmental history and humanities. Our aim is to cultivate an interdisciplinary network of scholars working broadly on these questions, with the intention of producing an edited volume or a special issue dedicated to the theme. We welcome abstracts of up to 200 words by 15 December. Selected authors will be asked to submit a four-page draft by 6 April. A four-day in-person workshop will be held on the week of 11 May at the Università della Svizzera italiana, in Southern Switzerland, during which contributors will collectively discuss their work and advance their papers, fostering a genuinely dialogic and collaborative environment. Subject to availability, financial support may be provided to assist with travel and accommodation costs. Please send your abstracts to the following addresses: miguel.kanai@sheffield.ac.uk and mose.cometta@usi.ch