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Marginal spaces and cultural practice

The ambiguity of urban nature and the limits to scientific knowledge have been a focus for a variety of cultural interventions since the early 1970s. In these instances close observation, or the “botanical eye”, becomes a specific form of cultural-scientific practice that can reveal new insights into the production of space and the often arbitrary assignment of cultural and economic value. The multiplicity of cultural responses to urban nature, ranging from literature to cinema, is partly related to the diversity of such sites and their varied origins: whilst some spaces have developed spontaneously within ostensibly “empty” sites, others have emerged from neglect or abandonment.