Greening with Care: Exploring Environmental Justice in Philadelphia's Urban Green Infrastructure Through a Feminist Labor Lens

Abstract

Cities around the United States are looking to urban green infrastructure (UGI) as a critical investment to help address a host of urban challenges, including stormwater management, climate change mitigation, rising heat temperatures and increased risk of flooding. As a result, volunteers are being asked to help construct, maintain, and contribute to UGI projects. Current investigations of UGI highlight the need to consider UGI from an environmental justice perspective, emphasizing a three-pronged approach including distribution, recognition, and procedural justice. This dissertation seeks to investigate UGI equity from a labor perspective, specifically how volunteer labor is acknowledged, valued, and contributed among race, class, and gender. Using UGI initiatives in Philadelphia, PA as a case study, it asks; to what extent are urban sustainability initiatives in Philadelphia relying upon the unpaid labor of citizens in the construction of new, UGI? How might this labor exhibit unrecognized forms of social reproductive labor, when observed from an intersectional feminist perspective? How has the contribution of UGI (such as trees, parks) labor changed over time? Drawing from a range of qualitative methods, including ethnographic fieldwork, online surveys, semi-structured interviews, oral histories and archival analysis, results reveal how volunteers play a significant role in the construction and maintenance of UGI over the past hundred years, including the often-invisible contributions of women and women of color. In applying a feminist labor lens, findings suggest gender and racial inequities in how UGI labor is acknowledged and paid as infrastructure work. Future research must consider intersectional labor dimensions as a key component in achieving a more ‘just’ urban green environment for all.