Research & Consultancy
Wild in the City has been at the fore of research into people of colour’s relationship with nature. We provide indepth analysis on the dynamics of race within the environmental field, from political, anthropological and psychological perspectives. Our research has influenced the development of influential nature programmes including BBC Cities: Nature’s New Wild: Ep3. Outsiders and the first episode of BBC Countryfile to expore race, nature and the countryside.
Our leading ethnographic research has been published as articles, book chapters and presented as conference papers, which highlight Black perspectives on issues of engagement with nature.
Recommended reads:
- Black Absence in Green Spaces, The Ecologist, October 2019
- Collier, B. (2022). Not My Green Space? White Attitudes Towards Black Presence in UK Green Spaces. An Auto-ethnography. In: Plüschke-Altof, B., Sooväli-Sepping, H. (eds) Whose Green City? Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham.
In 2021 Wild in the City convened a panel at the Royal Anthropological Institute conference on Anthropology and Conservation: ‘Producing a Black Anthropology of the Conservation field; The experiences of BIPOC ethnographers conducting research within white dominated conservation frames.’
The panel explored the experiences of BIPOC ethnographers conducting research within the conservation field, turning the Anthropological lens on white people and institutions, re-centering narratives about belonging, relationships, power, practice and methodology.
Both Anthropology and Conservation have been dominated by a white, colonial framing about who and what is studied or conserved, by which methods and by whom. The panel explored the lived experience of BIPOC ethnographers whose presence challenged these norms and whose work decolonises through knowledge production and turning the lens on euro-centric conservation systems and spaces. The panel explored challenges within the research process related to euro-centric fields reacting to the inverted dynamics of BIPOC as observer with the power of the pen and camera. How are we responded to as BIPOC ethnographers within spaces that have traditionally seen us as only being worthy as a subject of study, how are power dynamics expressed by white people and institutions in response to being the subject of research? How do we as BIPOC ethnographers navigate resistance to our power as an observer and analyser – in the field and in the academy? What is the psychological and practical impact of being BIPOC and researching in spaces dominated by a white narrative and how does this affect our ethnography?
We presented a paper on ‘White attitudes towards Black presence in green spaces; overt and shadow expressions of colonial mediations of nature relationships.’
In 2019 we presented at ‘Belonging and Unbelonging in the English Countryside,’ a day long symposium convened by Professor Paul Gilroy and Ingrid Pollard, programmed to compliment an exhibition of Ingrid Pollard’s The Lie of the Land.
Understanding the dynamics of race within the environmental field
We provide research and consultancy on race and inclusion within the environmental field, and human-nature relationships.
We have been one of the first organisations to conduct in-depth ethnographic research into people of colour’s relationship with nature in the UK and additionally, attitudes of environmental organisations towards black, Asian and minority ethnic participation within nature based activity.
You can commission Wild in the City for consultancy, facilitation and research on programme needs, design and outcomes. We can support you through;
- lectures
- seminars
- research and report writing
- faciliation and workshops
- consultation
Contact us for more information if you are interested in how projects and programmes can be designed to increase participation from ethnic minority communities.
Facilitation – Reflective Groups
We facilitate reflective groups to help your organisation consider it’s current engagement with black, Asian and ethnic minority people and messaging which impacts on inclusion and participation.
Research programmes
Covid-19, Nature and Well-being
We conducted research into the role that parks and open spaces have played within our lockdown experience and the impact of nature on our well-being during the coronavirus outbreak.