“I walk, I see, I do”: A more-than human perspective on urban gardening

Abstract

This article tells the story of how Tallinn urban gardener Anton turned from community gardening to guerrilla gardening. While both gardening types have recently been critically studied focusing on the tension between cooperation with or a rebellious act against neoliberal urban governance regimes, this paper investigates the topic from a more-than-human theory perspective. Building on Anton's practitioner memoirs and in-depth interviews with city officials and gardening activists, the paper emphasizes the role of materialities, encounters and emotions involved in governing and practicing urban gardening in Tallinn. In exposing the case, it shows how strong emotions driving early community gardening experiments elicited the institutionalization of a more controlled governance model for community gardening. This subsequently fostered an alienation of the first-generation community gardening activist from the gardens, in particular Anton, who consequently turned towards guerrilla gardening. Looking at this process from a more-than-human perspective allows us to paint a nuanced and interwoven picture of urban gardening without diminishing the actions undertaken as a mere opposition to the status quo.