Decolonizing the State of Nature: Notes on Political Animism (original) (raw)
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The Problem of Nature in Contemporary Social Theory
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This work examines the ways in which the relationship between society and nature is problematic for social theory. The Frankfurt School’s notion of the dialectic of enlightenment is considered, as are the attempts by Jurgen Habermas to defend an ‘emancipatory’ theory of modernity against this. The marginalising effect Habermas’ defence of reason has had on the place of nature in his critical social theory is examined, as is the work of theorists such as Ulrich Beck and Klaus Eder. For these latter authors, unlike Habermas, the social relation to nature is at the centre of contemporary society, giving rise to new forms of modernisation and politics. ¶ Michel Foucault’s work on biopolitics and governmentality is examined against the background of his philosophical debate with Habermas on power and rationality. The growth of scientific ecology is shown to have both problematised the social relation to nature and provided the political technology for new forms of regulatory intervention in the management of the population and resources. These new forms of intervention constitute a form of ecological governmentality along the lines discussed by Foucault and others in relation to the human sciences.
POLITICAL ECOLOGIES: Nature, Humans and Non-Humans
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With our planet having entered a new geological epoch- “Anthropocene”- defined by the unprecedented material effects of human activity, human and non-human lives and futures are now deeply entangled, and endangered. The ensuing environmental crises have brought engagements with the non-human world to the center of public and political debates. As a discipline that explores various thresholds of difference, anthropology has long been concerned with the figure of the non-human (trees, totems, storms, animals) and the relation between human and non-human worlds. In this course, we consider what critical tools anthropology may offer for rethinking ethics and politics beyond the human. This includes the politics of marking distinctions between the human and the non-human, as well as engaging themes of access, equity and justice with an emphasis on colonialism, race and political economy. We will explore diverse ideas relating to the themes of nature, wilderness, natural resources, animalities, the environment and the state, and ecological justice in a cross-cultural and comparative perspective. Guided by ethnographic analysis, our studies will be in conversation with explorations of nature and the non-human in neighboring disciplines like philosophy, cultural studies, literature, psychology and feminist science and technology studies (STS). The course emphasizes the political dimension of engaging non-human worlds with an aim to historicize and pluralize environmental thought, within Europe and elsewhere. The first part of the course attends to how different epistemologies (ways of knowing) and cosmologies (world-making) produce concepts and methods for studying nature and the non-human world. The second part of the course examines how these different ways of knowing and thinking about the non-human world shape political and public debates about the environment. The course will emphasize making connections between theoretical ideas and debates and current issues. An individual research paper will provide an opportunity to apply insights from the course and make concrete and creative connections between academic theory and lived social reality. By focusing on the long disciplinary engagement with non-human worlds and entities in anthropology, we hope to better equip students to devise independent research projects on themes in environmental anthropology.
There is an assumption that political ecology deals mainly with the access and control over resources and material conditions. However, the interconnections between nature, culture, and politics go beyond the simple notion of actors mobilizing to corner natural resources within a capitalist world-system. In fact, “nature” has been understood and lived in different ways according to particular cultural histories, social positions, and relations of production. It could even be argued that there is nothing natural about the idea of “nature”. Nonetheless, “nature” is not constructed without friction; there are “phenomenologies of nature” and “politics of dwelling” that demands us to consider that other worlds are possible. Situated at the intersection of these trends, this review article focuses not only on the power relationships under which politic ecologic orders are shaped and cultural meanings are disputed, but also on the production of multiple natures and alternative understandings and experiences of economic and ecologic difference.
In this introduction to a Special Section, we outline three recent interrelated research tendencies with regard to how to understand the practices and politics of 'nature': 1) a major attention towards non-anthropocentric environmental ideologies; 2) more complex analyses of environmental movements; and finally, 3) attention to unconventional every-day practices of environmental justice. In all three tendencies, we argue, a renewed attention to socio-economic power relations of the wider context becomes crucial for a better understanding of environmental dynamics. Ethnographically engaged studies from the European context offer examples of how it becomes possible to assess the impact of new grass-root practices, to pay attention to good micro-practices, and understand the unexpected outcomes of the engagement with nature. Dans cette introduction trois tendances de la recherche en référence aux pratiques et politiques de la «nature» sont mis en évidence: 1) une plus grande attention à des idéologies non-anthropocentriques 2) une analyse plus complexe des mouvements environnementaux 3) l'attention aux pratiques quotidiennes non- conventionnelles pour la justice environnementale. Il est souligné que l'émergence d'une écologie politique qui accorde une attention croissante aux relations de pouvoir socio-économique dans un contexte large permets une meilleure compréhension de la dynamique de l'environnement dans les trois tendances de recherche. des études ethnographiquement engagé de contexte européen offre des exemples de la façon dont il est possible d'évaluer l'impact de nouvelles pratiques des études ethnographiques engagés de l'offre des exemples de contexte européen de la façon dont il est possible d'évaluer l'impact de nouvelles pratiques de base, de prêter attention aux bonnes micro-pratiques et comprendre les résultats inattendus de l'engagement avec la nature. In questa introduzione vengono evidenziate tre recenti tendenze di ricerca in riferimento alle pratiche e alle politiche della "natura": 1) una maggiore attenzione nei riguardi delle ideologie non antropocentriche 2) analisi più complesse dei movimenti ambientalisti, e infine 3) attenzione a pratiche quotidiane non convenzionali di giustizia ambientale. Viene sottolineato come per una migliore comprensione delle dinamiche ambientali diventi cruciale in tutte le tre tendenze, l’affermarsi di una ecologia politica che presti attenzione alle relazioni di potere socioeconomico in un più ampio contesto. Studi etnografici europei offrono esempi concreti come diventa possibile di comprendere l’impatto delle nuove pratiche dal basso, incentivare delle pratiche buone e analizzare le conseguenze spesso imprevedibili dei tentativi di proteggere l’ambiente.
Notes on the Biopolitical State of Nature
Foucault's notion of biopower and his reflections on barbarism and savagery in 'Society Must Be Defended' are part of Western philosophy's theorization of the state of nature. In order to show the implications of this epistemic constellation, the article concentrates on the semantic history of primitivism, providing an alternative genealogy for the biopolitical paradigm and 'Italian Theory's' engagement with life and nature. From this perspective, Leopardi stands out as a precursor to contemporary 'Italian Theory'.
Reconsidering the Politics of Nature
2019
ly through linguistic and visual codes that are "tied to the relations of production and to the 'order' which those relations impose ...." Representational spaces are often interpreted as aesthetic practices that, in contrast to representations of space, embody a "lived 45~ichael Burawoy, The Politics of Production (London: Verso, 1985), pp. 13-14, 32-35. 4 6 ~ f . Andy Merrifield, "Henri Lefebvre: A Socialist in Space," in Mike Crang and Nigel Thrift, eds., Thinking Space (London: Routledge, 2000), p. 176. space" that is more autonomous and "directly lived through its associated images and symbols."47 Just what is the relationship between these three moments is open to i n t e r p r e t a t i ~ n . ~ ~ They may be represented as more or less discrete, but practically they are intertwined in daily practice and in their theoretical and political implications. The material practices of the production of space, spatial practices, are alre...