Care as a Method and Methods for Care: Researching Multispecies Relationships in Urban Gardens in Finland

Abstract

Care as an ethical guide and practice is paramount in multispecies relationships in urban gardens. This article contributes to the discussion on the diversity of care in urban gardens. We assert that the choice and combination of methodological approaches play a crucial role in noticing and acknowledging new forms of care among multispecies gardeners. Furthermore, a better understanding of care in urban gardens, as a specific form of nature, extends to broader perspectives on urban relationships with nature in cities. We analyse care from two disciplinary entry points, social anthropology and ecology, thereby adding to the multidisciplinary toolkit for addressing the complexities of researching multispecies relationships in urban settings. We focus on the specifics of visual methods such as videos, photos, sketching, observational drawings, and plant identification apps. We demonstrate how these methods provide a "closer look" at the human and more‐than‐human communities of care and their broader implications. More specifically, we view care as a process that encompasses actions ranging from loving care to indifference and even killing, often all at once. We challenge the notion of "plant blindness" that affects the care implications in gardens. Finally, we contribute to the discussion about anthropocentrism and analyse who has the "right" to care, who cares for whom, and how this affects who can be considered a gardener in multispecies entanglements in urban gardens.