Urban wilderness ? The case of Parisians community gardens in La Goutte d’Or neighbourhood

This text presents the findings of a ethnographic research conducted as part of a master’s thesis developed in the Goutte d’Or neighborhood in Paris. The research focuses on three community gardens and explores the construction of their landscapes, drawing from Marimoutou’s (2017) concept of landscape.
The concept of wilderness plays a significant role in shaping the landscapes of these community gardens, and it is approached in two distinct ways by the participants of this research. The first approach views wilderness as the opposite of cultivated, aligning with Berque’s (2010) discussion of everything devoid of human intention and intervention. In these gardens, the concept of wilderness is often invoked in discourses related to the rights of nature. The idea is that by minimizing human intervention, these spaces can better respect the rights of nature.
However, the notion of reduced human intervention has its challenges in urban settings. The pursuit of low human impact can restrict public access to space. Therefore, the participants of this research employ strategies such as delineating areas for human access and implementing specific gardening practices to facilitate the coexistence of the called wild and the humans.
Another important agenda in the city of Paris is the promotion of biodiversity in urban areas, which raises questions about the concept of wilderness discussed thus far. Raymond and Simon (2012) highlight the homogeneity of urban biodiversity globally. To increase biodiversity within a short timeframe, intervention is necessary to transform the environmental conditions and create a habitat for species that were previously unable to establish themselves. However, this pursuit of biological diversity complexifies the discussion around low human intervention. As with human access, achieving a balance between increased biodiversity and minimal human intervention requires adapting gardening and space management practices, as described in this research.
In this discussion, I emphasize the pursuit of establishing a wild space characterized by minimal human intervention, as it significantly impacts the shaping of the landscape. Still, this pursuit exists in collaboration with other goals associated with these spaces. Therefore, when examining the landscape, it is crucial to consider the endeavor of creating wild spaces within cities in conjunction with other simultaneous pursuits that are interconnected rather than isolated from one another.
The second definition of wilderness discussed in this work often utilizes the concept of wild traits. A plant can be considered wild based on its aesthetic characteristics, even if it was introduced to the garden through human activity. These aesthetic features convey a sense of wilderness. By examining the presence of wild traits in plants, it seems possible to speculate on the level of human intervention involved in their installation. Thus, the aesthetics of the gardens also serve as a means of communicating the underlying practices. Gardens with plants or vegetation that retain wild traits may connote less human intervention in landscape construction.
In this work, I first examine the choice of practices contributing to landscape construction, considering the ideas of wildness, increased biodiversity, and public access. I then explore the reverse perspective: creating a landscape that communicates a sense of wildness. It acknowledges that garden landscapes can be constructed to convey an aesthetic that suggests low human intervention, even if the reality may differ.
In conclusion, this research investigates the influence of wilderness on the landscape construction of three community gardens in the Goutte d’Or neighborhood. It explores the interplay between practices, aesthetics, human intervention, and the pursuit of increased biodiversity in urban spaces. Considering all these factors, I seek to understand how they collectively shape the landscape.