RGS-IBG Annual Conference Tuesday 29 August to Friday 1 September 2017
Call for papers:
"Decolonising Wild–Life: Critical Geographies of Rewilding".
Sponsor: Participatory Geographies Research Group (PyGyRG)
Session Organisers:
Cara Clancy (Plymouth University), Kim Ward (Plymouth University), Sophie Wynne-Jones (Bangor University) and Kieran O’Mahony (Cardiff University)
For a long time, geographers and political ecologists have found fault with the ‘fortress’ model that has characterised much of conservation for the last century. The spatial demarcation of nature enacted in the form of protected areas (PAs) and national parks (NPs) has been shown to have (often violent) territorialising effects on both the human and non-human communities involved (Adams and Mulligan, 2003; Merchant, 1992, 2005; Brockington, 2002). In recent years, scholars have noted a wave of new interests within European and North American environmental conservation circles. These include shifts away from practices governance and control (often associated with wilderness creation) toward geographies of the ‘wild’ and ‘unruly’ (Lorimer and Driessen, 2014; Taylor, 2005; Whatmore, 1998). These moves have often been accompanied by a “new ecology” (Botkin, 1990) that emphasises disequilibrium in ecosystem dynamics and the unpredictable yet crucial role of nonhuman ‘disturbance’ within wider ecological assemblages (Zimmerer, 1998; Baker, 1989). In particular, rewilding is an emerging paradigm that fits these trends and has received much attention within both conservation and popular discourse. As noted by Jørgensen (2015), the term rewilding has been used in a myriad of ways within conservation, scientific, and academic literature and as such a broad range of activities is now identified within the rewilding umbrella. Therefore critical approaches are needed to understand how and why conservation and ‘wild-life’ is increasingly being framed in this way, the cultural and political factors influencing such moves, and the consequencces of these framings for both human and non-human life.
This session seeks to critically engage with the nexus between post-colonial conservation and the development of rewilding initiatives at both the theoretical and practical level with cognisance of their historical precedence. In particular, to fully understanding these framings it is imperative that scholars examine and identify regimes of knowledge which can often monopolise rewilding discourse and practice, and critically examine and identify the centres of power (and those residing within) where decisions concerning rewilding are actually being made.
In addition this session also seeks to explore the role ‘participation’ plays in current rewilding discourse and practice. Participation as a key dimension for natural resource management has been endorsed by the international environmental community since Rio (1992) and in this session we are particularly interested in the interplay between discourse and institutions across levels of governance in producing participatory rewilding conservation initiatives, as well as the dynamics of participation ‘on the ground’.
As such, we welcome papers that help to critically situate rewilding within these wider contexts and offer insights into the environmental knowledges that are being produced with and around such narratives, particularly as they contribute to ideas of post-colonial conservation and political ecologies of rewilding.
Key themes include, but are not limited to:
• Postcolonial ecocriticism that connects discourses and practices of empire to rewilding
• Political ecologies of rewilding – e.g. the appropriation of ‘cultural’ land associated with the revalorisation of the wild
• Non-European perspectives on rewilding
• Examples of community-based rewilding and participation in novel conservation practice
• Typologies of participation: how people participate in rewilding initiatives
• Political ecology of participation in rewilding
• Rewilding research with the more-than-human world – novel, experimental and creative methods that are underpinned by political ecology or post-colonial theory
Please send abstracts of ~250 words to Cara Clancy at [log in to unmask]
by 13th Feb 2017. We welcome a range of paper formats and interventions – including shorter and more interactive modes of presentation, please get in touch to discuss any ideas or requirements you have. We are also working with the RGS to ensure guest passes for non-academic partners who wish to participate in the session.
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