*********Apologies for cross-postings*************
CALL FOR PAPERS
AAG Annual Meeting
April 15-19, 2008
Boston, MA
The Cultural Politics of Consuming Nature: Race, Place, Nation and Identity
Organizers
Pablo Bose (University of Vermont)
Stephanie Rutherford (York University)
In recent years, there have been a number of studies that interrogate the
intersections among nature, race, nation and identity in a myriad of
contexts (cf. Anderson, 2003; Haraway, 1992; Kobayashi, 2003; McCarthy and
Hague, 2004; Moore, Kosek & Pandian, 2003; Neumann, 2002; Vanderbeck, 2006).
This work has been particularly useful in considering the ways that
subjectivities and sites are constituted in and by a range of (post)colonial
contexts. Moreover, this literature has generated important insights about
the ways in which varying notions of nature - homeland, wilderness, human
behaviour - can be deployed to make discourses and practices which are
infused with history, politics and power instead appear as either natural or
unnatural.
This session seeks to expand and extend these discussions by exploring the
complex ways in which race, nation, place and identity are brought together
through both the discursive and the material consumption of nature. We
suggest that the inclusion of consumption through activities such as
eco-tours, photography or rock-climbing, branding urban spaces, or eating
organics and purchasing green products, adds a different dimension to
current debates regarding the links between race, nation and nature. More
specifically, we are interested in how nature consumed in these particular
ways can stabilize notions of race, nation and identity, while
simultaneously reinforcing a dominant view of nature as commodity.
Theoretical and empirical papers that draw from historical or contemporary
examples are welcome. Papers might consider:
*nature tourism and the consumption of 'national natures'
*the implication of race, nature and nation in various recreational
activities, such as camping, rock-climbing, and pilgrimages to national
parks and monuments
*the physical consumption of natures -such as the rise of organic foods and
products - and their relation to race and nation
*nature without people - conservation, eco-tourism and population
displacement
*green citizenship and nationalism
*associations between specific cultural or racial heritage and forms of
environmental behaviour (e.g. notions of stewardship, neglect, etc)
*nature and culture in the branding of 'ethnic' urban neighborhoods and
enclaves
*environmentalism, anti-racism, and geographies of whiteness
*shopping green: environmentalism and the 'ethical consumer'
Potential session participants are invited to send an abstract of no
more than 250 words to Pablo Bose ([log in to unmask]) and Stephanie
Rutherford ([log in to unmask]) by October 8th, 2007.
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