Political Ecology

Geographies of Nature
















GEGR10101 Political Ecology 2013
University of Edinburgh
Course Organiser: Dr Franklin Ginn

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Political Ecology: Geographies of Nature

Key information
Course Organiser Dr Franklin Ginn
Office 2.06 Drummond Street
Office Hours 1100-1300 Wednesdays

Course Lecturer Brett Matulis (bmatulis@gmail.com)

Course organisation Tuesdays 1400-15:50
Lecture Hall C David Hume Tower

Degree assessment Two hour examination (two questions from six) 50%
One degree essay (2000 words) 40%
One degree essay abstract (300 words) 10%

Class assessment Critical reading log (1000 words)
Reflective position statements (two of 250 words each)

Submission deadlines Degree essay abstract: 12 noon 6 February 2013
Degree essay: 12 noon 14 March 2013
Reflective statements: 22 January 2013 and 26 March 2013 (in
class)
Class reading log: 12 February 2013 (in class)
Course description
How can we understand the relationships between culture and nature? Where and how are
material and imaginary natures made? How do questions of nature become questions of
power and capital? The multiple scales and seeming intractability of current environmental
crises has prompted a number of critiques of mainstream environmentalism and
sustainability. The theoretical components of this course are devoted to exploring the
theories of relational natureculture, eco-Marxism and biopolitics. These concepts are
worked through a range of environmental problematics: wild nature; non-human species
mobility; biodiversity conservation; industrial food production; ecosystem services; geo-
engineering; apocalyptic imaginaries. Class sessions are split between traditional lectures
and more interactive activities. The course also encourages students to reflect on their own
position and develop their own ways of thinking about the politics of nature.

Course aims
Critical understanding of the problems with mainstream environmentalism
Synthesise current theoretical debates and bring them into critical dialogue with
real-world examples
Understand how nature is produced in different settings and contexts
Enable students to develop their own voice and way of thinking about the politics of
environmentalism

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Course organisation
Tuesday 14.00 - 15.50, Semester 2, Lecture Hall C, David Hume Tower. Each session will
comprise a combination of lectures and tutorial or workshop activities. Each lecture has
required readings that you must do in advance.
Course assessment
There are two elements of assessment for this course: Degree assessment and Class
assessment. Degree assessment counts towards the final grade you will be awarded upon
completion of the course, while Class assessment does not count towards your final grade
class assessment is compulsory nevertheless. This is an Honours Option so you will be
expected to submit work of a requisite standard.

Degree assessment
One degree essay (2000 words) 40%
One degree essay abstract (300 words) 10%
One 2 hour examination (2 questions from 6) 50%

There is no set title you will be asked to write an essay on a topic or theme from the
course of your own choosing. There will be tutorial time dedicated to helping you with this
process. You must submit a 300 word abstract of your proposed essay by 12 noon 6
February 2013. You will find out more about the nature of this assessment in class. The
degree essay must be handed in by 12 noon 14 March 2013. Criteria for assessment will be
as stipulated in the Geography Degree Programme handbook. In particular the nature of
assessment makes the following criteria important:

Grasp of themes and concepts
Use and understanding of the sources
Logical structure of your argument
Quality of the argument presented
Style and grace in presenting the argument
Originality and flair

The examination will include two questions from a choice of six. Check the University
Website for the time and location of this examination.

Class assessment
Reflective position statements (two of 250 words each)
Critical reading log (1000 words)

Reflective position statements. You will receive instruction on this in class in Week 1. They are
designed to provide a before and after record of your personal position on the politics of
nature. The first reflective position statement is due in 5 February 2013 (in class Week 2),
and the second 26 March 2013 (in class Week 10).

Critical reading log. It is all too easy to both let your schedule of reading slip and to read but
not really take in what you are reading. The task of keeping a reading portfolio helps to
tackle both of these tendencies. It is important to approach this formally: notes, whether by
hand or computer, must cover the material set and both summarise the key ideas and give
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your own critical thoughts and reflections on those ideas. They must also be well-organised:
a good reading portfolio is not a list of bullet points scribbled on scraps of paper.

The reading portfolio should be presented as a typed up set of entries. The length is 1000
words maximum so you will have to be very careful in setting the word limit for each entry.

You should have enough space to give the main ideas and to add a critical comment or two
on a total of five readings from weeks one to five. Although you have at least two required
readings set for each week, because of the short length of the reading portfolio, in the
version you submit you are only asked to write an entry for one reading per week. You are
free to choose which one it is.

Reading portfolios must be submitted 12 February 2013 (in class Week 5). Criteria for
assessment for class assessment includes:
grasp of the main issues or arguments
critical discussion of readings (as space allows): reflect on strengths and
weaknesses of the arguments presented by the author; raise your own questions in
relation to the reading.
coherent structure and organisation
clarity, fluency and succinctness of the writing
originality

Formatting assessments
Please use 1.5 or double spacing and a standard font in size 10 or 12. Do not bind your essay
or use a cover page. Headings are optional, but should not normally be needed for essays.
Harvard referencing should be used as described in your course Handbook. Word limits for
assignments should not be exceeded. The word limit excludes the bibliography or reference
list; appendices should not normally be required but are excluded from the word limit.

Important information
See your degree handbook for notice of late penalties for degree assessment. Class
assessments that are handed in late will not be marked.
Extensions will only be granted in exceptional circumstance: please contact the
Geography Degree Programmes Student Support Officer, not the Course Organiser.
Two copies of degree assignments should be handed in. One electronic copy online
via Learn and the second to the Geography Office in Drummond Street.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of including in ones work the work of another person without
providing adequate acknowledgement of having done so, either deliberately or
unintentionally. At whatever stage of a students course, whether discovered before or after
graduation, plagiarism will be investigated and dealt with. Students must ensure that any
work they submit for assessment is their own. Where their work includes quotations,
theories, ideas, data or any other materials which are the work of another person or persons,
they should ensure that they have taken all reasonable steps to acknowledge the source.
Students should ensure that they are familiar with the referencing requirements of their
programme of study. Further guidance is available:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academic-services/staff/discipline/plagiarism
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http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academic-
services/students/undergraduate/discipline/academic-misconduct

Reading
All students must read the required readings in advance of each session. Required readings
are available on the course Learn website. You must come prepared to discuss your
understanding of these readings. Some of these readings are more difficult than others, and
they are written for different audiences and with different purposes; when there is
something you do not understand, make notes on it and come prepared to ask questions and
discuss in class. The required readings are a beginning only. You will perform poorly in
assessment if you use only lecture notes and core readings. You are not expected, however,
to read everything in this handbook. It is perfectly acceptable to focus in more depth on
topics that are of interest to you.

Course references
There is no set text book, but the following will provide useful overviews. It is
recommended that you use these books as ways into thinking about particular debates and
for ensuring breadth of engagement.

Castree, N. (2005). Nature. London, New York: Routledge.
Castree, N., & Braun, B. (Eds.). (2001). Social nature: theory, practice, and politics. Malden,
Massachusetts: Blackwell.
Hinchliffe, S. (2007). Geographies of nature: societies, environments, ecologies. London: Sage.
Peet, R., Robbins, P., & Watts, M. J. (Eds.). (2011). Global Political Ecology. London & New
York: Routledge.

There are many excellent monographs relevant to this course which cut across the sessions
or offer more sustained reflection on certain of the underlying concepts we draw on through
the course. You are highly recommended to engage with one or more of the following as we
move through the semester as a way to improve the depth of your thinking. There are other
options, I am happy to advise you further.

Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: a political ecology of things. Durham: Duke University
Press.
Haraway, D. J. (2008). When species meet. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Latour, B. (2004). Politics of nature: how to bring the sciences into democracy. Cambridge MA:
Harvard University Press.
Morton, T. (2010). The Ecological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Plumwood, V. (2002). Environmental culture: the ecological crisis of reason. London: Routledge.
Smith, M. (2011). Against Ecological Sovereignty: Ethics, Biopolitics, and Saving the Natural
World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Whatmore, S. (2002). Hybrid geographies: natures, cultures, spaces. London: Sage.


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Course Overview

WEEK DATE ACTIVITY

1 15/1/13 Session 1 - Introduction: De-constructing nature

Class assessment confirmed: reflective position statement

2 22/1/13 Session 2 - Theory: Hybrid nature-cultures

Class assessment submitted: reflective position statement

3 29/1/13 Session 3 - Wild: After nature


4 5/2/13
Session 4 Invasion: mobile species and new natures

Degree assessment abstract submitted: 12 noon 6 February

5 12/2/13
Session 4 Aotearoa: Indigenous natures

Class assessment submitted: reading log


Spring break

6 26/2/13 Session 6 - Theory: Capitalism and neo-liberal natures


7 5/3/13 Session 7 - Ecosystem: Neoliberal environmental
governance [Guest Lecturer: Brett Matulis]

8 12/3/13 Session 8 - Chicken: Biosecurity and producing life

Degree essay submitted: 12 noon 14 March 2013

9 19/3/13 Session 9 - Atmosphere: Geo-engineering the climate


10 26/3/13 Session 10 - Apocalypse! Living in the End Times

Class assessment submitted: reflective position statement

11 2/4/13 Session 11 - Conclusion and Course Review








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Session 1 - Introduction: De-constructing nature

This session begins by asserting that nature is more than something that is just out there
and asking why that matters. In so doing it introduces some of the history of how nature
has been treated in geography. We examine in particular several modes of critique, that is,
of exposing how nature is always socially constructed.

Required reading:
Cronon, W. (1996). The trouble with wilderness or, getting back to the wrong nature.
Environmental History, 1(1), 7-28.
Castree, N. (2005). Nature. London, New York: Routledge. C3 De-naturalisation.

Further reading:
Castree, N. (2001). Socializing Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics. Social Nature:
Theory, Practice and Politics. N. Castree and B. Braun. Oxford, Blackwell. [provide a useful
bridge into Session 2]
Daston, L., & Vidal, F. (Eds.). (2003). The moral authority of nature. Chicago & London:
University of Chicago Press.
Demeritt, D. (2002). What is the social construction of nature? A typology and
sympathetic critique. Progress in Human Geography, 26(6), 767-790.
*Fitzsimmons, M. (1989)."The Matter of Nature. Antipode 21(2): 106-120.
Ginn, F., & Demeritt, D. (2009). Nature. In N. Clifford, S. Holloway, S. Rice & G. Valentine
(Eds.), Key concepts in Geography (pp. 300-311). London: Sage.
Glacken, C. (1967). Traces on the Rhodian Shore. Los Angeles and Berkeley, University of
California Press.
Hacking, I. (1999). The social construction of what? Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, UK:
Harvard University Press. [reflective and critical take on constructivism]
Sauer C O (1925) The morphology of landscape Univ. Calif. Publ. Geogr., 2(2):19-53, 1925,
reprinted in J. Leighly, editor, Land and Life: a Selection From the Writings of Carl Ortwin
Sauer (Berkeley: University of California Press), 315-350
Semple, Ellen (1911) Influences of Geographic Environment (New York: Holt). Excerpts
reprinted in Agnew et. al, eds. Human Geography: An Essential Anthology. Cambridge:
Blackwell. pp. 252-267. Also available on line [last accessed 06.01.09]:
http://www.colorado.edu/geography/giw/semple-ec/1911_ige/1911_ige_toc.html
On wilderness:
Cronon, W. (Ed.). (1995). Uncommon ground: toward reinventing nature. New York & London:
Norton. [many classic essays within]
Denevan, W. (1992). "The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492." Annals
of the Association of American Geographers 82(3): 369-385.
Grove, R. (1995). Green imperialism: colonial expansion, tropical island Edens and the origins of
environmentalism, 1600-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [seminal work on
the colonial origins of wilderness]
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Hunter, J. (1995). On the other side of sorrow: Nature and people in the Scottish Highlands.
Edinburgh: Mainstream.
Katz, C. (1998). Whose Nature, whose culture?: private productions of space and the
"preservation" of nature. Remaking Reality: Nature at the millennium. B. Braun and N.
Castree. London, Routledge.
MacDonald, F. (1998). "Viewing Highland Scotland: ideology, representation and the
'natural heritage'." Area 30(3): 237-244.
Mackenzie, F. D. (1998). "The Cheviot, the Stag ... and the White, White Rock?"
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 16(509-532).
Neumann, R. P. (1998). Imposing wilderness: struggles over livelihood and nature preservation in
Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press. [seminal critique of African wilderness]
Whatmore, S., & Thorne, L. (1998). Wild(er)ness: reconfiguring the geographies of wildlife.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 23, 435-454.
Braun, B. (2002). The intemperate rainforest: nature, culture, and power on Canada's West coast.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.


Session 2 - Theory: Hybrid nature-cultures

In this session we lay the theoretical groundwork for the course by considering how
geographers have moved beyond the division between nature and culture. We examine the
seminal critiques of Bruno Latour and actor-network theory, as well as the associated fields
of social nature and hybrid geographies.

Required reading:
Callon, M. (1986). Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops
and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. In J. Law (Ed.), Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology
of Knowledge? London, Boston & Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp196-233.
Murdoch, J. (1997). Inhuman/ nonhuman/ human: actor-network theory and the prospects
for a nondualistic and symmetrical perspective on nature and society. Environment and
Planning D: Society and Space, 15, 731-756. [if you find this too difficult replace it with one of
the applied examples listed below]

Further reading:
Braun, B. (2004). Nature and culture: on the career of a false problem. In J. Duncan, N.
Johnson & R. Schein (Eds.), A companion to cultural geography. Malden, Massachusetts &
Oxford: Blackwell. [great accessible review]
Braun, B. and N. Castree, Eds. (1998). Remaking Reality: Nature at the millennium.
London, Routledge. [classic collection of essays]
Castree, N. (2003). Environmental issues: relational ontologies and hybrid politics. Progress
in Human Geography, 27(2), 203-211.
Castree, N. (2005). Nature. London, New York: Routledge. C5 After Nature.
Callon, M., & Law, J. (1995). Agency and the hybrid collectif. South Atlantic Quarterly, 94,
481-507.
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Cloke, P., & Jones, O. (2004). Turning in the graveyard: trees and the hybrid geographies of
dwelling, monitoring and resistance in a Bristol cemetery. Cultural Geographies, 11, 313-341.
[accessible worked example]
Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs and women: the reinvention of nature. London: Free
Association Press.
*Hinchliffe, S. (2007). Geographies of nature: societies, environments, ecologies. London: Sage.
Chapter 3 [this is an excellent place to start after the required readings]
Shillington, L. (2008). Being(s) in relation at home: socio-natures of patio "gardeners" in
Managua, Nicaragua. Social & Cultural Geography, 9(7), 775-776. [applied study]
Whatmore, S. (1997). Dissecting the autonomous self: hybrid cartographies for a relational
ethics. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 15, 37-53.
*Whatmore, S. (2002). Hybrid geographies: natures, cultures, spaces. London: Sage.
Whatmore, S. (2006). Materialist returns: practising cultural geography in and for a more-
than-human world. Cultural Geographies, 13, 600-609.
Zimmerer, K. S. (2007). Cultural ecology (and political ecology) in the environmental
borderlands: exploring the expanded connectivities within geography. Progress in Human
Geography, 31(2), 227-244.
On actor-network theory:
Burgess, J., Clark, J., & Harrison, C. (2000). Knowledges in action: an actor network analysis
of a wetland agri-environment scheme. Ecological Economics 35, 119-132.
Head, L., & Muir, P. (2006). Suburban life and the boundaries of nature: resilience and
rupture in Australian backyard gardens. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers,
31(4), 505-524. [accessible worked example]
*Hitchings, R. (2003). People, plants and performance: on actor network theory and the
material pleasures of the private garden. Social and Cultural Geography, 4(1), 99-113. [if you
are struggling with the theory this makes for an accessible worked example]
Law, J. & J. Hassard (Eds.), Actor-network theory and after. Oxford: Blackwell.
*Latour, B. (1993). We have never been modern. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. [classic ANT
and epochal argument]
Murdoch, J. (1997). Towards a geography of heterogeneous associations. Progress in Human
Geography, 21(3), 321-337.
*Murdoch, J. (2006). Post-structuralist geography. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage.
[while not directly about nature, this is one of the most lucid explanations of post-
structuralist geography highly recommended for this and Session 3]
Strathern, M. (1996). Cutting the Network. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
2(3), 517-535. [seminal critique of ANT provides a good link to Session 3]

Additional material:
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/centres/css/ant/ant.htm. This website has lots of resources
on actor-network theory usefully organised by theme.



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Session 3 Wild: After nature

In this session we begin by noting that while critiques of nature and the idea of
natureculture have removed the idea that nature has foundational authority, recently
geographers have attempted to offer a more affirmative philosophy of nature. We identify
several problems with hybridity, including its erasure of difference and otherness, and then
turn to recent attempts in geography and beyond to recuperate a sense of how
natureculture may offer new ways to enchant and new forms of politics that do not lose
sight of the anti-foundational and anti-essentialist arguments of earlier work.

Required reading:
Bennett, J. (2004). The Force of Things: Steps toward an Ecology of Matter. Political
Theory, 32(3), 347-372.
Hinchliffe, S. (2007). Geographies of nature: societies, environments, ecologies. London: Sage.
Chapters 4 and 5 (pp47-75).
Lee, N., & Brown, S. (1994). Otherness and the Actor Network: The Undiscovered
Continent. American Behavioral Scientist, 37(6), 772-790.

Further reading:
Braun, B. (2009). Nature. In N. Castree, D. Demeritt, D. Liverman & B. Rhoads (Eds.), A
Companion to Environmental Geography (pp. 19-36). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. [more up-to-
date but less accessible review]
Candea, M. (2010). "I fell in love with Carlos the meerkat": Engagement and detachment in
human-animal relations. American Ethnologist, 37(2), 241-258.
Fuentes, A. (2010). Naturalcultural encounters in Bali: Monkeys, Temples, Tourists, and
Ethnoprimatology. Cultural Anthropology, 25(4), 600-624.
Ginn, F. (2012). Sticky lives: slugs, attachment and detachment in the garden. Transactions
of the Institute of British Geographers.
Haraway, D. J. (2008). When species meet . Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
See also the review symposium of her book in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
28(1), 32-55.
Hinchliffe, S. (2008). Reconstituting nature conservation: Towards a careful political
ecology. Geoforum, 39(1), 88-97.
Hinchliffe, S., Kearnes, M. B., Degen, M., & Whatmore, S. (2005). Urban wild things: a
cosmopolitical experiment. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 23, 643-658.
Jones, O., & Cloke, P. (2008). Non-human agencies: trees, relationality, time and place. In C.
K. a. L. Malafouris (Ed.), Material Agency: towards a non-anthropocentric approach (pp. 76-96).
Guilford: Springer.
Lorimer, J. (2010). Elephants as companion species: the lively biogeographies of Asian
elephant conservation in Sri Lanka. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35,
491-506.
Lorimer, J. (2012). Multinatural geographies for the Anthropocene. Progress in Human
Geography, 36(5), 593-612.
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Lulka, D. (2009). The residual humanism of hybridity: retaining a sense of the earth.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 34, 378-393.
Panelli, R. (2010). More-than-human social geographies: posthuman and other possibilities.
Progress in Human Geography, 34(1), 79-87.
Raffles, H. (2011). Insectopedia. New York: Pantheon.
On re-enchantment:
*Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: a political ecology of things. Durham: Duke University
Press. See also Ginn, F. (2012). Light or dark political ecologies? BioSocieties, 7(4), 473-477.
Bennet, J. (2001). The enchantment of modern life: attachments, crossings and ethics. Princeton &
Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Abrams, D. (2011). Becoming animal: an earthly cosmology. London: Vintage.
Recent a series of popular British nature writers have attempted, not altogether successfully, to think
wild without wilderness. Some of the best are:
Deakin, R. (2007). Wildwood: a journey through trees. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Farley, P., & Symmons-Roberts, M. (2011). Edgelands: journeys into England's true wilderness.
London: Jonathan Cape.
Jamie, K. (2005). Sightlines. London: Sort of books.
MacFarlane, R. (2007). The wild places. London: Granta.



Session 4 Invasion: mobile species and new natures

This session will highlight how encounters between humans and nature in the colonial era
continue to have important resonance today, taking New Zealand as a case study. Attention
will be paid to species movements along both human-assisted and non-human vectors. The
lecture will suggest that, given historic and contemporary non-human species mobility,
there is no absolute baseline of nature and no possibility of return, and so we are committed
to a future of gardening nature.

Required reading:
Davis, M. A., M. K. Chew, et al. (2011). "Don't judge species on their origins." Nature
474(7350): 153-154.
Marris, E. (2011). Rambunctious garden: Saving nature in a post-wild world. New York:
Bloomsbury. Chapters 6 and 7, pp97-122.

Further reading:
*O'Brien, W. (2006). Exotic invasions, nativism, and ecological restoration: on the
persistence of a contentious debate. Ethics, Place and Environment, 9(1), 63-77.
Barker, K. (2008). Flexible boundaries in biosecurity: accommodating gorse in Aotearoa
New Zealand. Environment and Planning A, 40(7), 1598-1614.
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Barker, K. (2010). Biosecure citizenship: politicising symbiotic associations and the
construction of biological threat. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35(3),
350-363.
Bingham, N., Enticott, G., & Hinchliffe, S. (2008). Biosecurity: spaces, practices, and
boundaries. Environment and Planning A, 40(7), 1528-1533.
*Clark, N. (2002). The demon-seed: bioinvasion as the unsettling of environmental
cosmopolitanism. Theory, Culture & Society, 19(1-2), 101-125.
Crosby, A. (1986). Ecological imperialism: the biological expansion of Europe 900-1900.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [C1&2 on Learn]
Ginn, F. (2008). Extension, subversion, containment: eco-nationalism and (post)colonial
nature in Aotearoa New Zealand. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 33(3),
335-353.
Helmreich, S. (2005). How scientists think; about 'natives', for example: a problem of
taxonomy among biologists of alien species in Hawaii. Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, 11, 107-128.
Low, T. (2003). The new nature: winners and losers in wild Australia. Victoria: Penguin Books.
Pawson, E., & Brooking, T. (Eds.). (2002). Environmental histories of New Zealand. Auckland:
Oxford University Press.
Schiebinger, L., & Swan, C. (Eds.). (2005). Colonial botany : science, commerce, and politics in the
early modern world / edited by Londa Schiebinger and Claudia Swan. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.
Useful science and policy literature:
Anderson, A. (2009). "The rat and the octopus: initial human colnization and the prehistoric
introduction of domestic animals to remote Oceania." Biological Invasions 11: 1503-1519.
[see also other articles in this special issue]
IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialists Group (2002). Turning the Tide: The Eradication of
Invasive Species, edited by C.R. Veitch and M.N. Clout, pp 4-11. Gland, Switzerland.
Available at: http://www.issg.org/pdf/publications/turning_the_tide.pdf
Sutton, I, J.P. Parkes, and A.R.E. Sinclair. Reassembling Island Ecosystems: The Case of
Lord Howe Island. Animal Conservation 10, (2007): 22-29.
C.R. Veitch and M.N. Clout 2001, Human dimensions in the management of invasive species
in New Zealand, pp63-74, in IUCN The Great Reshuffling, available at
http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/2001-002.pdf [and other articles therein]
Krajick, Kevin. Winning the War against Island Invaders. Science 310, (2005): 1410-13.

Additional material:
Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (2000). Documentary that examines the Australian import
of a predator to control a local pest and the unintended consequences.






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Session 5 Aotearoa: Indigenous natures

This session considers the historical relations between Western and indigenous conceptions
of nature. Then, drawing on work in anthropology, conservation and geography we
examine some contemporary debates surrounding Indigenous concepts of the environment
and their relation to Western conservation.

Required reading:
Ingold, T. (2000). Ancestry, generation, substance, memory, land, in Ingold, T. The
perception of the environment: essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. London & York, Routledge,
pp 132-1512.
Johnson, J. T. and B. Murton (2007). "Re/placing native science: Indigenous voices in
contemporary constructions of nature." Geographical Research 45(2): 121-129.

Further reading:
*Braun, B. (1997). Buried epistemologies: the politics of nature in (post)colonial British
Columbia. Annals of the Associated American Geographers 87(1): 3-31.
Coombes, B. (2007). "Postcolonial conservation and kiekie harvests at Morere New Zealand:
abstracting Indigenous knowledge from Indigenous polities." Geographical Research 45(2):
186-193.
Coombes, B., Johnson, J. T., & Howitt, R. (2012). Indigenous geographies I: Mere resource
conflicts? The complexities in Indigenous land and environmental claims. Progress in Human
Geography, 36(6), 810-821.
Ginn, F. (2009). Colonial transformations: nature, progress and science in the Christchurch
Botanic Gardens. New Zealand Geographer, 65, 35-47.
Grove, R. (1995). Green imperialism: colonial expansion, tropical island Edens and the origins of
environmentalism, 1600-1800. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Guha, R. (1989) Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A
Third World Critique, Environmental Ethics 11:1.
Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill.
London & York, Routledge.
Jentoft, S., H. Minde, et al., Eds. (2003). Indigenous People: resource management and global
rights. Netherlands, Eburon Delft.
Raffles, H. (2002). In Amazonia: a natural history. Princeton and Oxford, Princeton
University Press.
*Roberts, M., W. Norman, et al. (1995). "Kaitiaitanga: Mori perspectives on conservation."
Pacific Conservation Biology 2(1): 7-20.
Roberts, M. (2004). "Whakapapa as a Mori mental construct: some implications for the
debate over genetic modification of organisms." The Contemporary Pacific 16(1): 1-28.
Rose, D. B. (1999). Indigenous ecologies and an ethics of connection. in Global ethics and
environment. N. Low. London, Routledge: 175-187.
Turnbull, D. (2000). Masons, tricksters, cartographers: comparative studies in the sociology of
scientific and indigenous knowledge. Singapore, Harwood Academic.
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Session 6 Theory: Capitalism and neo-liberal natures

In this session we turn from examining how nature and culture are relationally entangled to
understanding how these relations are patterned and ordered. We examine ideas of eco-
Marxism, which has tried to explain the various ways capitalism produces nature. This has
led to a large body of work on neo-liberal nature, an idea we will interrogate in subsequent
lectures.

Required reading:
Benton T (1989) Marxism and natural limits. New Left Review 178:5181
Smith, N. (2007). Nature as accumulation strategy. Socialist Register, 43.

Further reading:
Bakker, K. (2010). The limits of 'neoliberal natures': Debating green neoliberalism. Progress
in Human Geography, 34(6), 715-735. [this is a reply to Castrees papers, below]
*Castree, N. (2008). Neoliberalising nature: processes, effects, and evaluations. Environment
and Planning A, 40(1), 153-173. [this article contains reference to a great many empirical
examples you are advised to follow these if you are interested in pursuing this topic
further]
*Castree, N. (2008). Neoliberalising nature: the logics of deregulation and reregulation.
Environment and Planning A, 40(1), 131-152.
Castree, N. (2009). Researching neoliberal environmental governance: a reply to Karen
Bakker. Environment and Planning A, 41(8), 1788-1794.
Foster, J. B. (2009). The Ecological Revolution: Making Peace with the Planet. New York:
Monthly Review Press.
Harvey, D. (1996). Justice, nature and the geography of difference. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Heynen N, McCarthy J, Prudham S and Robbins P (eds) (2007) Neoliberal Environments:
False Promises and Unnatural Consequences. London: Routledge
Prudham, W. S. (2005). Knock on wood: nature as commodity in Douglas-fir country New York:
Routledge.
Smith, N. (1984). Uneven development: nature, capital and the production of space. Oxford:
Blackwell.
On links between ANT and eco-Marxism:
Castree, N. (2002). False antitheses? Marxism, nature and actor-networks. Antipode, 34(1),
111-146.
Grove, K. (2009). Rethinking the nature of urban environmental politics: Security,
subjectivity, and the non-human. Geoforum, 40(2), 207-216.
Kirsch, S., & Mitchell, D. (2004). The nature of things: dead labor, nonhuman actors, and
the persistence of Marxism. Antipode, 36(4), 687-705.




15

Session 7: Ecosystem: Neoliberal environmental governance [Brett Matulis]

Nature has long been valued for the resources it supplies. The raw materials of nature can
be extracted, manipulated, and produced into all manner of goods. Increasingly, however,
nature is being valued for the things that it does, such as provide clean water and air or
absorb excess carbon. In other words, nature is being valued for the services it provides.
This re-framing of ecosystem value has not only shifted management priorities, it has also
opened new opportunities for the promotion of neoliberal forms of governance (such as the
marketization of conservation activities, the privatization of resources, and the restructuring
of regulatory frameworks to be less active in direct management and more supportive of
private enterprise). These rapid changes, of course, have many important social and
ecological implications. Thus, the transition to an ecosystem services based approach to
conservation has been highly political.

Required reading:
Bscher, B. 2012. Payments for Ecosystem Services as Neoliberal Conservation:
(Reinterpreting) Evidence from the Maloti-Drakensberg, South Africa, Conservation and
Society 10(1): 29-41.
Redford, K and Adams, W. 2009. Payment for Ecosystem Services and the Challenge of
Saving Nature, Conservation Biology 23(4): 785-787.

Further reading:
ARSEL, M. & BSCHER, B. 2012. Nature Inc.: Changes and Continuities in Neoliberal
Conservation and Market-based Environmental Policy. Development and Change, 43, 53-78.
BAKKER, K. 2009. Neoliberal nature, ecological fixes, and the pitfalls of comparative
research. Environment and Planning A, 1781-1787.
BENJAMINSEN, T. A. & BRYCESON, I. 2012. Conservation, green/blue grabbing and
accumulation by dispossession in Tanzania. Journal of Peasant Studies, 39, 335-355.
*BROCKINGTON, D. & DUFFY, R. 2010. Capitalism and Conservation: The Production
and Reproduction of Biodiversity Conservation. Antipode, 469-484.
BSCHER, B., SULLIVAN, S., NEVES, K., IGOE, J. & BROCKINGTON, D. 2012.
Towards a Synthesized Critique of Neoliberal Biodiversity Conservation. Capitalism Nature
Socialism, 23, 4-31.
FLETCHER, R. 2010. Neoliberal environmentality: Towards a poststructuralist political
ecology of the conservation debate. Conservation and Society, 8, 171-181.
FLETCHER, R. & BREITLING, J. 2012. Market mechanism or subsidy in disguise?
Governing payment for environmental services in Costa Rica. Geoforum, 43, 402-411.
HEYNEN, N. & ROBBINS, P. 2005. The neoliberalization of nature: Governance,
privatization, enclosure and valuation. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 16, 5-8.
IGOE, J. & BROCKINGTON, D. 2007. Neoliberal Conservation: A Brief Introduction.
Conservation and Society, 5, 432-449.
MCAFEE, K. 1999. Selling nature to save it? Biodiversity and green developmentalism.
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 17, 133-154.
MCCARTHY, J. & PRUDHAM, S. 2004. Neoliberal nature and the nature of neoliberalism.
Geoforum, 35, 275-283.
16

*Robertson, M. 2012. Measurement and Alienation: Making a World of Ecosystem
Services, Transactions 37: 386-401.
ROTH, R. J. & DRESSLER, W. 2012. Market-oriented conservation governance: The
particularities of place. Geoforum, 43, 363-366.
SMITH, N. 2007. Nature as Accumulation Strategy. Socialist Register, 43, 16-36.
*Spash, C. (2008). How much is that ecosystem in the window? The one with the bio-
diverse tail. Environmental Values, 259-284.
SULLIVAN, S. 2012. Banking Nature? The Spectacular Financialisation of Environmental
Conservation. Antipode, 45.1: 198-217.

Additional material:
Short video introducing REDD, an international financing mechanism for national PES
schemes: http://youtu.be/D0WeGw3h2yU
http://livinggreenmag.com/2013/01/03/video/what-is-nature-worth/



Session 8 - Chicken: Biosecurity and producing life

At any one time there are over 22 billion chickens alive on earth. These birds are
increasingly bred, born and killed in a globalised intensive farming industry. This session
looks at how the poultry industry is producing new forms of chicken life as well as new
habitats for viruses and microbes, and thus in turn making new geographies of nature.

Required reading:
Boyd, W., & Watts, M. (1997). Agro-industrial just in time: The chicken industry and
postwar American capitalism. In D. Goodman & M. J. Watts (Eds.), Globalising Food:
Agrarian Questions and Global Restructuring (pp. 139165). London: Routledge.
Wallace, R. G. (2009). Breeding Influenza: The Political Virology of Offshore Farming.
Antipode, 41, 916-951.

Further reading:
Bingham, N., Enticott, G., & Hinchliffe, S. (2008). Biosecurity: spaces, practices, and
boundaries. Environment and Planning A, 40(7), 1528-1533.
Emel, J., & Neo, H. (2011). Killing for profit: global livestock industries and their socio-
ecological implications. In R. Peet, P. Robbins & M. Watts (Eds.), Global political ecology (pp.
67-83). London & New York: Routledge.
*Haraway, D. (2008) Chicken, in Haraway, D. (2008). When species meet. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, pp. 265-274 [on Learn]
*Hinchliffe, S., Allen, J., Lavau, S., Bingham, N., & Carter, S. (2012). Biosecurity and the
topologies of infected life: from borderlines to borderlands. Transactions of the Institute of
British Geographers, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00538.x online early.
17

Hovorka, A. (2008). Transspecies urban theory: chickens in an African city. Cultural
Geographies, 15(1), 95-117.
Leach, M., Scoones, I., & Stirling, A. (2010). Governing epidemics in an age of complexity:
Narratives, politics and pathways to sustainability. Global Environmental Change, 20(3), 369-
377.
Lowe, C. (2010). Viral Clouds: Becoming H5N1 in Indonesia. Cultural Anthropology, 25(4),
625-649.
Miele, M. (2011). The taste of happiness: free-range chicken. Environment and Planning A,
43(9), 2076-2090.
Shukin, N. (2009) Animal capital: rendering life in biopolitical times. University of Minnesota
Press, Minneapolis MN.
*Wilbert, C. (2006). Profit, plague and poultry: the intra-active worlds of highly pathogenic
avian flu. Radical Philosophy, 139, 2-8.
On bio-politics [these are quite challenging readings]:
Braun, B. (2007). Biopolitics and the molecularization of life. Cultural Geographies, 14(1), 6-
28.
Braun, B. (2008). Environmental issues: inventive life. Progress in Human Geography, 32(5),
667-679.
Esposito, R. (2008). Bos: Biopolitics and Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
Holloway, L., Morris, C., Gilna, B., & Gibbs, D. (2009). Biopower, genetics and livestock
breeding: (re)constituting animal populations and heterogeneous biosocial collectivities.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 34(3), 394-407.
Kosek, J. (2010). Ecologies of Empire: On the New Uses of the Honeybee. Cultural
Anthropology, 25(4), 650-678.
Rajan, K. S. (2006). Biocapital: The Constitution of Post-genomic Life. Durham & London: Duke
University Press.
Rutherford, S. (2007). Green governmentality: insights and opportunities in the study of
nature's rule. Progress in Human Geography, 31(3), 291-307.
Thacker, E. (2009). The Shadows of Atheology: Epidemics, Power and Life after Foucault.
Theory, Culture & Society, 26(6), 134-152.

Additional material:
Forks Over Knives (2011). Film on the environmental and health externalities of the Western
diet.
Food, Inc. (2008) Documentary about the state of industrialised food supply.
Lawrence, F. (2004). Not on the Label: What Really Goes Into the Food on Your Plate by
London: Penguin.



18

Session 9 Atmosphere: Geo-engineering the climate

In recent years geo-engineering, the deliberate manipulation of earth systems, has emerged
as an alternative or compliment to climate mitigation policies. This lecture reviews
arguments for and against geo-engineering, and suggests that the dominant framing of geo-
engineering de-politicises environmental politics. It also considers whether geo-engineering
represents an epochal shift in planet-scale thinking.


Required reading:
NB these readings are intended to introduce you to the ideas of geo-engineering you need to read
them critically and bear in mind their intended purpose and audience.
Keith, D. (2000) Geoengineering the climate: history and prospect Annual Review of Energy
and the Environment 25: 245284 [commentary by a vocal geo-engineering proponent]
ETC Group. (2010). Geopiracy: The Case Against Geoengineering. (available online at
www.etcgroup.org) [useful primer on radical critiques of geo-engineering]

Further reading:
Critical readings
Anderson, B. (2010). Preemption, precaution, preparedness: Anticipatory action and future
geographies. Progress in Human Geography, 34(6), 777-798.
de Goede, M., & Randalls, S. (2009). Precaution, preemption: arts and technologies of the
actionable future. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 27(5), 859-878.
Fleming, J. (2010) Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control
(Columbia UP).
*Galarraga, M., & Szerszynski, B. (2012). Making Climates: Solar Radiation Management
and the Ethics of Fabrication. In C. Preston (Ed.): Lexington.
Gardner, S. M. (2011). Some Early Ethics of Geoengineering the Climate: A Commentary
on the Values of the Royal Society Report. Environmental Values, 20, 163188.
Hale, B. (2012). The World That Would Have Been: Moral Hazard Arguments Against
Geoengineering. In C. Preston (Ed.), Engineering the Climate The Ethics of Solar Radiation
Management: Lexington.
Hamilton, C. (2011). Ethical Anxieties About Geoengineering: Moral hazard, slippery slope
and playing God. Paper presented to a conference of the Australian Academy of Science Canberra,
27 September 2011,
http://www.clivehamilton.net.au/cms/media/ethical_anxieties_about_geoengineering.pdf.
Hamilton, C. (2012). The Philosophy of Geoengineering. Available online at
http://www.clivehamilton.net.au/cms/media/documents/articles/the_philosophy_of_geoengineerin
g.pdf.
Liverman, D. M. (2009). Conventions of climate change: constructions of danger and the
dispossession of the atmosphere. Journal of Historical Geography, 35(2), 279-296.
Nerlich, B., & Jaspal, R. (2012). Metaphors We Die By? Geoengineering, Metaphors, and
the Argument From Catastrophe. Metaphor and Symbol, 27(2), 131-147.
19

*Preston, C. J. (2012). Beyond the End of Nature: SRM and Two Tales of Artificity for the
Anthropocene. Ethics, Policy & Environment, 15(2), 188-201.
Szerszynski, B. (2010). Reading and Writing the Weather. Theory, Culture & Society, 27(2-3),
9-30.
*Swyngedouw, E. (2011). Depoliticized Environments: The End of Nature, Climate Change
and the Post-Political Condition. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 69, 253-274.
Useful science and policy literature
Bellamy, R., Chilvers, J., Vaughan, N. E., & Lenton, T. M. (2012). Appraising
Geoengineering. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Working Paper 153.
*Corner, A., Pidgeon, N., & Parkhill, K. (2012). Perceptions of geoengineering: public
attitudes, stakeholder perspectives, and the challenge of upstream engagement. Wiley
Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 3(5), 451466.
*Royal Society. (2009). Geoengineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty. London:
The Royal Society.
Vaughan, N., & Lenton, T. (2009). A review of climate geoengineering proposals. Climatic
Change, 109(3), 745-790. doi: 10.1007/s10584-011-0027-7
Victor, D., Morgan, G., Apt, J., Steinbruner, J., & Ricke, K. (2009). The Geoengineering
Option: A Last Resort Against Global Warming? Foreign Affairs, 88(2), 64-76.



Session 10 Apocalypse! Living in the End Times

The environmental movement has a long association with imagined geographies of
apocalypse. In the last session we briefly looked at the role of threat in generating
legitimacy for certain actions. In this session we consider in more depth the recent history
of apocalyptic visions, and the role they now play in shaping our imaginations of nature,
culture and the future.

Required reading:
Swyngedouw, E. (2010). Apocalypse Forever?: Post-political populism and the spectre of
climate change. Theory, Culture & Society, 27(2-3), 213-232.
In addition, you should watch the 11
th
Hour documentary AND one of the following recent
films and come prepared to discuss your reaction and analysis.
Everyone watches:
The 11th Hour (2008). A mishmash of talking heads scientists, environmentalists,
politicians, famous actors discuss the imminent ecological crisis.
Then choose one of the following:
The Turin Horse (2011). Unremittingly bleak, challenging cinema from the Hungarian
director, Bela Tarr.
The Road (2010). Screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthys novel about a father and son
surviving in post-apocalyptic America.
20

Melancholia (2011). Lars von Trier evokes the end-of-the-world ennui of the rich and
privileged (and in which the planet may be a metaphor).

Further reading:
Anderson, B. (2009). Affective atmospheres. Emotion, Space and Society, 2(2), 77-81.
Anderson, B. (2012). Affect and biopower: towards a politics of life. Transactions of the
Institute of British Geographers, 37(1), 28-43.
Buell, L. (2003). From apocalypse to way of life. London: Routledge. [chapter 8 on Learn]
Buell, F. (2010). A short history of environmental apocalypse. In S. Skrimshire (Ed.), Future
ethics: Climate change and apocalyptic imagination (pp. 13-36). London: Continuum.
Braun, B. (2007). Biopolitics and the molecularization of life. Cultural Geographies, 14(1), 6-
28.
Clark, N. (2010). Volatile Worlds, Vulnerable Bodies. Theory, Culture & Society, 27(2-3), 31-
53.
Hulme, M. (2008). The conquering of climate: discourses of fear and their dissolution. The
Geographical Journal, 174(1), 5-16.
Jay, M. (1994) The Apocalyptic Imagination and the Inability to Mourn, pp. 3047 in G.
Robinson and J. Rundell (eds) Rethinking Imagination Culture and Creativity. New York:
Routledge.
Katz, C. (1995) Under the Falling Sky: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and the Production
of Nature, pp. 27682 in A. Callari, S. Cullenberg and C. Biewener (eds) Marxism in the
Postmodern Age. New York: The Guilford Press
Kovel, J. (2007). The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? 2nd ed.
London and New York: Zed Books.
Methmann, C., & Rothe, D. (2012). Politics for the day after tomorrow: The logic of
apocalypse in global climate politics. Security Dialogue, 43(4), 323-344.
Skrimshire, S. (Ed.). (2010). Future ethics: Climate change and apocalyptic imagination. London:
Continuum. [chapters 6 and 11 on Learn]
Zizek, S. (2010). Living in the end times. London & New York: Verso. [esp Interlude 4]

Additional material:
Wiesman, A. (2008). The world without us. London: Verso.
There is no shortage of literature, films or computer games that use apocalyptic thinking.
The following is a starting point only: 2013, The Day After Tomorrow, Mad Max, The
Book of Eli, Waterworld, The Day of the Triffids, The Stand (Stephen King), Metro 2033
(best-selling Russian novel about the last survivors of humanity and a journey with pigs,
mushrooms and bullets set in the Moscow underground), Fallout (acclaimed computer game
series set in post-apocalyptic desert), Everybodys gone to the Rapture (critically acclaimed
indi games studio the Chinese room (www.thechineseroom.co.uk), due out in 2013).