The Case of green infrastructure in New York City (USA) ecological spontaneity and infrastructuralization in the context of settler colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy

Here we review and synthesize existing scholarship on the green infrastructure (GI) of New York City, USA in order to expand the theoretical and methodological richness of green infrastructure studies. Rather than adopting a teleological narrative around the development of GI in NYC, we utilize a social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) framework to steer attention to the intersecting forces shaping GI in the city. In this paper we draw upon existing empirical research to examine how GI in the city is shaped by each dimension of SETS, both historically and in the present through ecological agency, social-ecological relationships, and social-technical assemblages infrastructuralizing ecological systems. Ecological agency requires an attentiveness to the auto-poetic characteristics of ecosystems, through which organisms, populations, and communities continuously self assemble in relation to external and internal dynamics, which can be understood quite differently through the lenses of classical ‘Western’ Ecology, Native science, and New Materialism. The social-ecological context of the city is largely examined through the frameworks of Native relations with land, settler colonial ‘ecocide,’ the imperatives of capital accumulation and ecological segregation, and the diverse biocultural relationships of diaspora communities. Lastly, we examine the current practices of making ecosystems infrastructure (infrastructuralization), which unearth the bureaucratic and technical practices that merge ecological and built systems in the city, through managing stormwater, heat waves, and coastal storms. We conclude with key lessons and research directions supporting the evolution of ecological stewardship in highly unequal and infrastructurally complex cities.