Exploring desirable urban nature futures: a Q study on local planners’ perspectives in Germany

Abstract Positive future visions for cities are fundamental to transformative change in times of social polarisation against the backdrop of deep-rooted social-ecological crises. Our study examines the views and underlying values regarding desirable futures held by local planners working for the public administration in Dresden (Germany). We employed the Urban Nature Futures Framework as a heuristic to engage in pluralistic valuation of nature. Using the Q-method, we explored the subjective perspectives of 20 planners and identified three archetypes on desirable urban nature futures: the pragmatic advocate of nature’s benefits, the responsible steward of nature’s inherent worth, and the strategic navigator of nature’s diverse benefits. The identified archetypes highlight that, from the planners’ point of view, desirable urban futures are tied to a multi-layered and nuanced network of instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values. Nevertheless, our findings show that utilitarian and anthropocentric ethics continue to play a major role within a Western cultural context when valuing urban nature. Our study expands knowledge about individual inner experience of sustainable futures from a first-person perspective and demonstrates how subjective viewpoints can be used to derive collective archetypes of desirable futures. Moving forward, we outline ways to strengthen non-anthropocentric and relational approaches, such as through closer dialogue with the Global South, in order to broaden the scope of nature’s valuation and values, particularly within Western planning cultures.