CfP: Decolonising Nature in the Anthropocene: emerging
conceptualisations of nature & their challenges
RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2017: ‘Decolonising geographical knowledges:
opening geography out to the world’. London, 29th August – 1st September
2017
Session Convenor: Jessica Hope, University of Cambridge
Session Sponsor: Developing Areas Research Group (DARG)
The Anthropocene has posed a challenge to Nature as ‘a pure, singular
and stable domain removed from and defined in relation to urban,
industrial society’ (Lorimer 2012). It has prompted its rethinking and
the re-theorisation of relationships between humans and natures, animals
and humans, as well as humans and the non-human (see Whatmore, 2006:
Bingham and Hinchliffe, 2008; Lorimer 2012). However, post-colonial
scholars have argued that dominant explorations into such multi-natural
ontologies fail to adequately address not only the harm that Nature has
caused as an ‘artifact of Empire’ (Stoler 2008) but also continue to
‘subordinate other forms of knowing’ (Sundberg 2014) - namely the
ontologies of nature being developed and articulated by indigenous and
peasant movements, as well as by post-colonial and decolonial scholars
(Collard, Dempsey and Sundberg 2015).
However, recognising the diversity of indigenous and peasant movements
(and the sites of contradiction and contestation that can exist between
and within movements) demands that attention is also paid to the
political context of these new natures – for example, how they
negotiate, challenge or are challenged by claims for development. This
session will thus explore the ontologies of nature being proposed by
indigenous and peasant movements, as well as locate these ontologies in
their wider political context. This will enable the critical evaluation
of their power, as well as the ways they intersect with wider
indigenous, peasant, environmental and development politics.
We seek contributions that explore (but are not limited to) one or more
of the following themes:
• the ontologies of nature being developed and articulated by indigenous
and peasant movements and what these contribute to rethinking nature in
the Anthropocene.
• how indigeneity is being articulated in relation to nature and
development, including moments of conflict and contradiction.
• the ways indigenous and peasant ontologies of nature are being both
challenged and supported, for example by wider development processes.
Please submit abstracts of up to 250 words and full contact details to
Jessica Hope by Tues 14th February 2017.
Jessica Hope: [log in to unmask]
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Dr Jessica Hope | Lecturer | University of Cambridge | Department of
Geography
Recent papers:
Hope, J (in press) The constraints of an ‘ironic scholar’: negotiating
critical engagement with indigeneity and nature conservation.
Geoforum.(available until Jan 27th at
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1UAxA3pILAdFU)
Hope, J., 2016. Losing ground? Extractive-led development versus
environmentalism in the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National
Park (TIPNIS), Bolivia. The Extractive Industries and Society.
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