The Evolving Relationship Between Open Space Preservation and Local Planning Practice

This work argues that open space has been utilized by local planning practice for numerous reasons that have reflected the shifting concerns of the planning profession since the nineteenth century. An intellectual movement that romanticized nature as distinct from social processes and a changing political economy made it possible for open space to serve an interventionist role in addressing social concerns. Consequently, it has been used to address urban concerns of health and sanitation, suburban concerns of exclusionary zoning, and more recently, protect ecological functions, and guide urban development. This has prevented a more thorough examination of the relationship between nature and society.