The shadow of urban greening initiatives: A Pluralistic Discursive Space approach to the High Line and the BeltLine

While various cities across the globe are becoming greener, urban greening initiatives, often lauded for their positive contributions, can create injustices in the communities they purportedly serve. This study examines two well-known modern urban greening initiatives, the High Line in New York City and the BeltLine in Atlanta that have both been criticized for falling short on delivering on social justice and for perpetuating a profit-oriented economic growth discourse that does not fundamentally address the root causes of urban inequalities and environmental decline. In this context, we see a hegemon-centric discursive space which is quite restricted in whose voices are heard and whose voices are co-opted or silenced. We therefore ask how a theory of Pluralistic Discursive Space furthers the cause of justice in green gentrification. We use discourse analysis and narrative inquiry learn how nonhegemonic narratives are repoliticizing the space, how nonhegemonic narratives interact with hegemonic narratives, and what just new imaginaries emerge. Our findings contribute a new perspective, what we call ‘contextual justice’, to the emerging field of Critical Environmental Justice Studies.