This was all fields: Ecological value, cultural value, and volume housing production

Through a discussion of a place awaiting development this article asks: what is ecologically and culturally at stake in the production of large-scale, suburban housing? Examining a case study of a proposed 2,700-unit development in North Tyneside, UK, the article offers a multi-narrative account of the various political-economic, ecological, and cultural landscape factors at risk in these processes of building. The paper develops an approach which links a political-economy perspective - through a focus on the political and economic drivers and processes of housing development - to a micro-focus on affect and place attachment. Drawing on diary entries, ecological surveys, policy analysis, creative responses, interviews, and prose, the article highlights the cultural meaning the proposed development site holds for local people, and the importance of well-maintained arable environments for protecting biodiversity. The paper urges the need to rethink value and care in the production of housing, to get a better deal for both human and more-than-human nature.