10 10 11 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 cu ase colorado edu http ecenter colorado edu environmental justice INFORMATION SEMINAR Global Seminar Tanzania THIS WED Oct 12th 5 to 6 in the UMC 382 Contact Laura DeLuca laura deluca yahoo com Finish Review of Political Economy Lecture Outline Social Construction Perspective key concepts Selling nature to save It Examples Limits Nature Wilderness national parks Discourse and narrative power knowledge Examples National parks desertification 1 10 10 11 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 10 10 11 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 10 10 11 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 10 10 11 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 10 10 11 Disneyification of Nature http awf org content solution detail 4506 Romanticization of Maasai Recreation of African nature in theme parks http www youtube com watch v k EudJ4ZGfM Impacts of Discourse Knowledge Power Policies Prevalence of a particular view to the exclusion of other knowledges The discourse becomes truth 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 10 10 11 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 1933 obliged European powers to set up parks in their colonies on the Yellowstone Model 7 10 10 11 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