Urban treescapes as everyday workplaces and knowledge battlegrounds: Lessons from Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Urban greening expertise and programs are pursued and circulated globally to enhance urban livability and sustainability, but the outcomes are often mixed and are accompanied by side effects. Drawing on the concept of “worlding,” this paper examines the processes and outcomes of a training program that introduced tree climbing techniques from overseas to reduce the aggressive pruning practices by the municipal workforce in Bangkok, Thailand. Steered by Thai civil society organizations (CSOs) and international arborists, the training program was supported by the city government and local forestry experts. However, the outcomes were limited. A variety of temporal, logistical, and place-specific factors (including traffic, weather, size and accessibility of trees), constrained the applicability of the introduced techniques for pruning street trees in Bangkok. These crucial urban contextual factors were neglected in the training program design due to knowledge conflicts between the “civic experts” and “lay practitioners,” which undermined the potential of the training program. Illustrating urban treescapes as everyday workplaces and knowledge battlegrounds, this paper argues that aspirations for world-leading expertise might hamper the expression of tacit knowledge that stems from and coordinates with a specific urban context. The conclusion highlights the importance of inclusivity to achieve successful transnational circulation of greening expertise and broader urban transformative attempts involving global knowledge exchange.