Humans, Cities, and Nature: How Do Cities Fit in the Material World?

This paper explores how historians - and others - continue to create a barrier between the natural world and the city, and why the so-called declensionist narrative - humans as agents of harmful physical change - still dominates our understanding of the urban environment. It suggests several ways to reconsider the declensionist narrative; to evaluate the connection between "first nature" and "second nature;" to better understand the relationship between urban and ecological systems; and to assess how cities are natural.