New research is fundamentally challenging the way cities are planned, moving away from human-centric control towards a collaborative, multispecies approach that views nature not as a resource, but as kin.
Urban areas, long defined by their predictable, concrete structures, are finally being forced to confront their ecological realities. The concept of urban wilding, reimagining cities as vibrant, shared habitats, is emerging as a powerful movement. However, achieving this vision requires more than mere ecological planning; it demands a radical, collaborative shift in perspective.
This was the central thesis of the recent PhD research presented by Mairéad O'Donnell, a Fulbright-EPA scholar from the School of Natural Sciences, at a session hosted by E3. Her work, Urban Wilding for Systems Transformation: An Approach to Co-Designing Urban Wild Spaces, investigates how participatory methods can foster truly sustainable urban ecosystems. Crucially, the research bridges environmental theory and community practice.
The Pivot from Science to Society
Mairéad’s journey began with a frustration commonly felt across the environmental sector: the increasing volume of scientific data on climate change was not translating into action. "I realised that we could have all the science in the world, but unless we got people involved, nothing was ever going to change for the better," she explained. This foundational belief solidified her pathway into social science, focusing on the crucial societal components of ecosystems.
Her work focuses on urban wild spaces: heavily modified areas—often neglected plots or decommissioned industrial sites, where human management has ceased, allowing nature to reclaim the territory. These spaces are inherently social-ecological entities, which led Mairéad to explore the mechanisms for designing resilient urban futures.
The research makes a key distinction: urban wilding is not traditional rewilding. Whilst rewilding historically implied a purely ecological process, often requiring the removal of humans, urban wilding embraces a social-ecological understanding of cohabitation. It enables non-human species to exercise greater agency within the ecosystem, challenging the conventional planning paradigms that prioritise control and predictability.
Defining and Weaving Knowledge
To ground this transformative approach, Mairéad first addressed the definition of its core mechanism: co-design. A systematic literature review found that the term was seldom accurately defined in social-ecological systems research. This lack of clarity was seen as a barrier to robust implementation.
The study consequently proposed a clear and comprehensive definition:
Co-Design is an integrative participatory decision-making process incorporating reflexivity and creativity, whilst using diverse stakeholder perceptions and knowledge to determine challenges and explore solutions for navigating complex adaptive systems, enabling their transformation.
A crucial tenet of this approach is knowledge weaving, which stresses respectful engagement across varied knowledge systems, scientific ecology, local place-based understanding, and indigenous traditions. Rather than attempting to integrate them into a single, dominant framework, weaving ensures each system retains its integrity whilst contributing to a shared understanding. This is the foundation for creating situated, pluralistic responses to the complex reality of urban life.
The Multispecies Workshop: From Theory to Practice
Mairéad’s core methodology involved developing and running eight exploratory workshops across Ireland, Australia, and the USA. These sessions brought together diverse groups: Communities of Practice (planners), Epistemic Communities (academics), and Interest Groups (local citizens), with the goal of fostering transformative learning.
The workshops utilised three innovative multispecies co-design methods:
-
Wild Walk and Noticing: Participants engaged in solo, sensorial explorations of the unmanaged sites, reflecting on their personal connections and identifying species, threats, or opportunities.
-
Multispecies Role-Playing: In a powerful exercise, participants were assigned both human and non-human species identified on the site. They then debated the needs and wants of their assigned role, forcing them to adopt non-human perspectives and understand the ecosystem's interdependence.
-
Future Storytelling: The groups collectively envisioned the site at a future moment where "as many species as possible were flourishing," narrating the historical and present actions that led to that success.
The ongoing narrative analysis of these discussions is expected to clearly show how stakeholder views on green space management shift when they are actively compelled to consider multispecies justice.
The Sharp End of Implementation
Following the presentation, the discussion quickly turned to the practical challenges of applying this rigorous methodology in a real-world setting, addressing concerns over time, cost, and policy.
When advising an attendee on kickstarting a project for a canal site, Mairéad emphasised that success begins not with the bulldozer, but with collaboration. The first step is to assemble a robust team of local and ecological experts, alongside municipal actors, to build support and navigate ownership constraints.
Crucially, she stressed the need to incorporate social outcomes beyond just biodiversity, such as educational elements for local schools. This not only serves the community but also ensures a wider base of support for long-term project resilience.
Addressing the Cost Barrier
The question of embedding costly participatory workshops within public administration, where funding is tight, was acknowledged as critical. Mairéad made a key distinction between financial cost and resource expenditure:
"I think the biggest cost is time because these things take a lot of time with working with communities, building trust with those communities."
While the financial outlay for a facilitator and a venue may not be excessive, the dedication of time, to build genuine trust and dialogue, is paramount. She argued that the solution lies in ensuring co-design is embedded from the earliest planning stages of any project, acknowledging its non-negotiable importance for achieving better, more resilient public outcomes.
Finally, the potential to link urban wilding with broader initiatives, such as the National Circular Economy Campaign, was affirmed. This strategic link not only aligns ecological improvements with wider sustainability agendas but also provides crucial opportunities to access varied funding streams—a practical necessity for any project seeking success at scale.
The research offers a vital framework for cities globally, proving that lasting systems transformation will only occur when we move past traditional planning methods and start designing urban environments not for nature, but with it.