Evolution of the “parks as lungs” metaphor: is it still relevant?

Abstract

ABSTRACTConceptualizing urban parks as “the lungs of the city” is one of the parks field’s most enduring metaphors. Indeed, it is often uttered unthinkingly as a cliché. Its roots date back over 200 years. The reason it was so widely adopted in the nineteenth century is that it was unusually powerful and resonant in the context of the ubiquitous filth and stench in the industrial cities where it originated. This paper describes the conditions which fostered the metaphor; explains its private and public good dimensions; traces its genesis and diffusion, including its transition from England to the US and concludes with an assessment of its potency in contemporary society.