EVERYDAY IDENTITIES, EVERYDAY ENVIRONMENTS: URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHIES OF PHILADELPHIA

Abstract

This study examines the environmental identity processes of Philadelphians involved in volunteer local everyday urban environmental stewardship through tree plantings and prunings, urban gardening, and neighborhood cleanups. A hybrid theoretical framework for environmental identities that simultaneously incorporates structural, discursive, and material concerns through the ground of everyday life was adapted from the political ecology of the body developed by Hayes-Conroy and Hayes-Conroy (2013). Three qualitative methodological techniques were performed: in depth interviews, participatory observation, and neighborhood walking tours. Results highlight the emotional and affective connections that participants held with their neighborhoods, neighbors and other participants, and trees and other nonhuman others.