The ‘garden approach’ to landscape management: Reflexive feedback from the parcLAB experience conducted on the right bank of the Bordeaux metropolis

Abstract

Abstract This article revisits a doctoral research project (2015–2018) carried out via an Industrial Agreement for Training through Research (CIFRE) for a public interest group located on the right bank of the Bordeaux metropolis (Grand Projet des Villes Rive Droite, GPV), in France. It draws theoretical and practical lessons from the conduct of a landscape project aimed at ‘greening’ the gardening practices of a group of public/private parks, Parc des Coteaux. The parcLAB (Laboratoire du Parc des Coteaux), an experimental action mechanism set up by the landscape researcher, constituted the main field of research. Based on a reflexive approach to the conditions of this experience, the author puts forward a hypothesis about the concept of a ‘garden approach’ to landscape management and discusses its principles and orientations. Such a garden approach to landscapes is based on double cooperation, involving human actors cooperating among themselves and the cooperation of these actors with non-human actors.