Urban Forest Stories
fostering intersectional environmental belonging through storytelling
The urban forest is nature close to home for many city dwellers. Yet, engagement with and access to the urban forest is unequal. Quantitative research indicates that human age, ethnicity, health, and socioeconomic deprivation exacerbate this unequal access. Further research suggests that equitable access can only be achieved when three specific dimensions of access are addressed. Current research focuses on achieving the dimensions of distributive and procedural access rather than addressing the dimension of a sense of access. This sense of access can also be understood as ‘belonging’. A key question is how such a sense of belonging in urban forests can be defined and fostered.
This PhD by Creative Practice aims to explore how to foster intersectional environmental belonging in urban forests. The methods used are based around a participatory storytelling practice, informed by intersectional environmental principles of advocating for the protection of both people and the planet. Storytelling sessions with more-than-human communities in Gateshead Riverside Park in the North East of England provide embodied invitations to engage with place-based, temporal, and more-than-human belonging on a collaborative and iterative basis.
The research outputs include an anthology of collaborative place-based Urban Forest Stories, an exhibition, and a guide with prompts and practices for Urban Forest Storytelling. The key findings from the research are twofold. First, intersectional environmental belonging can be defined as both a concept and a process, which can be practised through shared experiences. Second, intersectional environmental storytelling enables participants to explore and foster shared experiences of belonging, provided that these storytelling sessions invite participants to engage with the urban forest through interscalar, intersectional, and interconnected prompts. This understanding of and approach to intersectional environmental belonging can inform radical more-than-human community engagement practices in support of fair, inclusive, healthy and resilient urban forest planning, design and management.
keywords
inclusive urban forests
intersectional environmentalism
sense of belonging
experts from lived experience
more-than-human community engagement
Supervisors
Progress Review Panel
Funding and support
This PhD research on intersectional belonging and the resulting Urban Forest Stories are supported by partial funding from Newcastle University:
School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Forshaw Award in Architecture 2022-2024
Institute of Social Science HaSS Pioneer Award 2023
Jobs on Campus: Research Assistancy Grant 2023
The storytelling sessions in Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, England, are organised in collaboration with:
Kazusa Hayashi, MLA
Copyright
The research project is not-for-profit, with the results shared on an open-access basis. All are welcome to use the materials and amend prompts to their needs, as long as the source material is appropriately referenced, and any adaptations are shared under the same conditions. Prompts may not be amended by AI or other large language models.
Thesis submission
September 2025