Reading Judith Butler's 'Bodies that Matter' and wondering why dominant strains of Green thinking are apparently happy to put up with 'Environment' (as a 'domain of abjection'), as the absence of something, and all that this it entails.. #environmentalhumanities
To clarify, Butler is here, if I understand correctly, talking about how the disciplinary category of sex (the material dimension of of gender) is key to emerging as a subject (becoming a conscious *somewhere* as a particular subject shaped through the recursive work of power)
So, I contend (and am not the first to do so) we can extend this into the environmental domain by understanding the human subjectification process as one in which categories like 'nature' and 'environment' are required to become conscious subjects.
The notions of personhood / subjectification as attained in exchange have striking parallels between the work of Judith Butler (foucauldian power tradition) and Ubuntu (James Ogude)
According to Butler, subjects are produced within relations of power. According to Ogude, personhood is attained through recognition by other beings. In Ubuntu the 'environment' is just part of the totality. For Butler, subjects, emerge only vis a vis social power.
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Today is #Halfearthday2021, a plan to protect 50% of the earth, to stop #biodiversity loss & prevent #climate change. Wow, a plan to #restore the planet: that's hopeful!? Unfortunately, not. There is good science showing this is the wrong direction... 🧵 (1/5) #COP26#COP15
2/5. Every funder should know that if a Half Earth proposal lands on their desk, there will be social risks. Despite the cosy rhetoric, Fortress Conservation leads to #humanrights abuses. Protecting 50% of the globe could affect >1 billion ppl, per Schleicher et al., 2019
3/5. Ecologists, none the wiser, might consider this a price worth paying if species are protected from #extinction. It's a mistake made by Kim Stanley Robinson. The great myth is that people are bad for biodiversity, as shown by Ellis et al., 2021 👇 pnas.org/content/118/17…
"The recent radical ideas to save nature; namely ‘half earth’ (nature needs half) and ‘new conservation’ further threatens biodiversity conservation and community livelihoods" - Wilhelm Kiwango #pollen20
Challenging the mainstream narrative at this crucial time #rewilding
George Iordachescu highlights the long history of collective management of large forested and pasture areas. #Commons management goes back 1000 years, transcending nature-culture divide and drawing on local #knowledge. Conservation not the main goal (it's #livelihoods) #pollen20
Emmanuel Akanpurira unpacks some of the assumptinos Fortress Conservation is based upon.
He draws on Butler and Membe to deconstruct assumptions about human-wildlife conflict.
Work from Uganda shows conflict not inevitable but due to authority-grabs by conservation NGOs..
"Market based solutions dominate policy proposals but remain consisently marginal to actually addressing the problems" says @FoleyPfalzgraf, as part of her careful and revealing #POLLEN20 pres:
Foley places a carbon offsetting scheme in Vanuatu as part of a history marked by colonialism, deforestation and depopulation
Foley notes that since the introduction of customry forest management, deforestation has been reduced to virtually zero. Despite having zero responsibility for global emissions, Vanuatu's leaders have turned to tree growing as a mitigation strategy..
Ok here goes: The IPBES global assessment called for Transformative action to confront the nature crisis. Protection and making the economic case didn't feature highly as solutions.
So why is @IPBES working on behalf of an org that advocates these actions, these discourses?
There is a lot to say about power when a scientific organisation turns away from the transformative implications of its own scientific synthesis.
From the GA "indirect drivers of [biodiversity loss] – which are in turn underpinned by societal
values and behaviours that include production and consumption patterns, human population dynamics and trends, trade, technological innovations and local through global governance"