An Asymmetrical Hybrid: Why is it Difficult to Encounter Nature in the City?

Abstract

This article examines certain characteristics of hybrids in urban theory. A hybrid describes the mixtures of heterogeneous entities, resulting in a constantly conflicted whole that threatens to be destroyed. Nature, contrasted with the city, acts as a destabilizing element. The inclusion of nature in the city continues to occur through various techniques of control and objective knowledge. This urbanization of nature disrupts the necessary balance of the hybrid, turning it into an asymmetrical network oppressing nature. The article examines such examples of nature’s response as zoonotic diseases and natural disasters, which are described as an ongoing struggle between the city and nature. The possibility of including these phenomena in the city is associated with the articulation of the social and political and with accepting the risk of an “encounter” in the city with the dangerous, variable, and unpredictable. The article outlines some techniques to establish the symmetry of the hybrid and open up the possibility for unpredictable encounters.