| Interest in better understanding the nexus between social and environmental processes in cities has in the past two decades proliferated in Anglo Geography. Part of this literature revolves around the broader work in human-environment geography that problematises the prevalent nature-society dichotomy, which maintains an ontological separation between human society and 'nature'. Urban political ecology, in particular, has focused on such interactions in cities, drawing attention to the way in which urban social-environmental processes such as water networks are wrapped up in political, economic, social, and ecological factors at various scales.;Whereas the majority of urban political ecology research focuses on larger-scale urban social-environmental dynamics in the global north, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine household scale human-nature relations in the context of the global south. It looks specifically at homes in an informal settlement in Managua, Nicaragua. At the same time, the dissertation also analyses the concept of networks as an approach to examining these relations. Drawing on theories of nature-society and feminist geographic literature around the home, body, and subjectivities, this research has four aims. The first aim is to uncover the 'natures' of home, that what plants and trees inhabit the homes in Managua. The second aim of my research is to examine the human-nature relations in homes. Thirdly, it examines how the larger power geometries in which households are situated at the margins, revealing the ways in which the (shifting) power relations between urban, national and global processes manifest materially in the socialnatural spaces and relations of home. Finally, the fourth aim is to determine if the concept of networks is the best way to examine the above socialnatural relations.;The research found that the human-nature relations in homes simultaneously encompass economic, cultural and corporeal aspects of everyday life. It also revealed that these seemingly mundane relations are deeply political, embedded within complex power geometries involving different modes governmentality and biopolitical power. Given complexity of human-nature relations and dynamics of power, this research concluded that the concept of networks offer a satisfactory method of interrogation. |
