AIS

Nature and society have traditionally been kept separate in the modern age, with the identity of the latter based on excluding the former from its boundaries. While in the seventies the environmental crisis brought nature to the forefront of public debate, framed as «the environment», the natural world now seems to be acquiring increasing appeal, mostly in everyday practices and, quite unexpectedly, in the context of urban life. This article focuses on a specific array of civically engaged urban practices relating to nature, which can be grouped under the label of collective and critical gardening. The questions we wish to explore are whether and in what ways nature offers an imaginary and practices effective in coping with the crisis experiencerd by Western societies since the end of the last century.