Announcements. Lecture Outline 10/10/11. Geog 2412: October 11, Social Construction of Nature

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1 Geog 2412: October 11, 2011 Social Construction of Nature Announcements! WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE? THURSDAY, OCT. 13, 12-1 P.M, UMC 35 Join the Assembly for Sustainability & Equity for an informal discussion about environmental justice, locally and globally, including food justice, environmental racism, and pollution inequalities. UMC 353, Thursdays, Oct. 13-Dec. 1, 12-1 p.m! Contact: Meghan Montgomery, INFORMATION SEMINAR: Global Seminar Tanzania THIS WED Oct 12th. 5 to 6 in the UMC 382 Contact: Laura DeLuca: laura.deluca@yahoo.com Lecture Outline! Finish/Review of Political Economy! Selling nature to save It! Examples! Limits! Social Construction Perspective: key concepts! Nature! Wilderness/national parks! Discourse and narrative! power/knowledge! Examples! National parks! desertification 1

2 A Political Economy Take on Market Environmentalism! We are selling nature to save it McAfee, 1999.! Merely shifting the burden to the poor, disenfranchised abroad ( underpolluted countries ala Lawrence Summers), but with lots of natural wealth, w/o the means to utilize/develop them Examples! Carbon sequestration: Northern Companies and individuals continue to pollute and buy forests in the South! Ecosystem Services for Biodiversity: Communities are paid to protect forests, biodiversity. Who consumes the nature saved?! Uneven distribution of costs and benefits: nature becomes a product for some, a cost for others Limits of Political Economy Perspective! Anthropocentric view of Nature: nature as resource! Economistic: hard to fit in ethics, eco-centric or biocentric perspectives! Reifies capitalism: ignoring other complex relations! What about social construction? 2

3 A Social Construction Approach! What is nature?! Context! History! Discourse! Perspective! power What is nature?! Raymond Williams (1976) keywords! The essence of something! Biological determinism! Environmental determinism: Environmental factors determine cultural characteristics and fates! Ellen Churchill Semple (1911)! The non-human world! An inherent force Nature as the non-human world 3

4 Nature as The state, condition, or quality that is before, separate from, or outside of society, human history, and volition. - Robbins et al, 2010: 119 mother nature at her best Just across the border Tourists Nature Outside the Reserve?! A Different Nature? 4

5 And This? Social Construction! Does not deny material existence (of forests, wildlife, etc)! Exposes the construction of particular kinds of natures, based on! Ideas! Culture! History! Environmental Discourse! Narratives! Power/knowledge Environmental Discourse! Nature and our knowledge of it is socially constructed! Powerful discourses that reproduce particular narratives! Pristine Wilderness (New World, Africa)! frameworks that embrace particular combinations of narratives, concepts, ideologies, and signifying practices (E&S: 122)! Where does our information about African nature come from?! Why does it matter? 5

6 Disneyification of Nature! Romanticization of Maasai! Recreation of African nature in theme parks: Impacts of Discourse! Knowledge/Power! Prevalence of a particular view to the exclusion of other knowledges! The discourse becomes truth! Policies:! Wilderness: removal of people from natural areas! Continued promotion (and sale!) of certain kinds of nature at the expense of others! Desertification: settlement of migratory peoples, de-stocking of herds, land use change! Creation of certain kinds of natures A social Construction Perspective! Deconstructs Discourse! Exposes the history, ideology, culture, CONTEXT! Unveils assumptions! Critically analyzes assumptions AND sources of knowledge! Power/Knowledge 6

7 Examples of African Nature! National Parks in Africa! Early hunters, colonial powers! Certain views of African Nature: wild, in need of taming, then to be saved! Africans: savage! Desertification! Colonial powers! Certain views of Nature: forested, green! Africans deforesting, destroyers of the environment Teddy Roosevelt! Leading Conservationist in the U.S. Leading hunter in Africa The National Park Model! An island of protected space separated from people! A tourist destination and place for ecological research! A model replicated around the world! The London Convention of > obliged European powers to set up parks in their colonies, on the Yellowstone Model 7

8 The Yellowstone Model! March 1, 1872, Yellowstone declared first national park in the world.! Used by Native Americans for about 11,000 years! Native Americans removed on basis that:! Misused the land (hunting, burning)! Ruined the pristine beauty of the landscape The National Park Ideal! As a cultural construct! As historically Euro-American! sublime nature! pristine nature! Places to visit but not to stay! Recreating Eden! Africans?! Missing from the picture or! Nobel savage - closer to nature Cautions with Social Construction view! Relativism: if all knowledge counts then how do we decide?! A difference between giving up on science and understanding the social, historical roots of knowledge production! Denying a material reality?! co-production of nature and society 8