Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Political Natures

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Environment and Society

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Political Science ((BRIEFSPOLITICAL))

  • 1540 Accesses

Abstract

Nature has always been present in political thought, underpinning the debate about how society should be morally and economically organized. In that regard, there has always existed, albeit implicitly, a politics of nature—the ‘natural’ being invoked to legitimicize certain beliefs or regimes, the distribution of natural resources constituting a key part of any socioeconomic order. Since the rise of environmentalism, though, nature as a political object and even as a political subject has gained new prominence. Those two main topics has been enriched: whereas the moralization of nature now involves recognizing its intrinsic value or some form of subjectivity, the resource theme has expanded and is now encompassed in the wider notion of sustainability. This chapter deals with the corresponding political natures, focusing on how the Anthropocene and its related hybrid conception of nature affects them. Firstly, the macropolitics of nature in the Anthropocene are discussed. Is the socionatural experiment going to be stopped or radicalized? This alternative points to an antagonism between postgrowth and socionatural engineering, including the geoengineering of the climate. Secondly, attention turns to the micropolitics of nature, namely, to the political consequences of blurring the lines between the social, and the natural. Nature is decomposed into ‘natures’ and that includes technonatures and biotechnologies. This question is pursued further introducing the notions of habitation and habitability. Finally, the relationship between democracy and the Anthropocene is confronted -by asking whether a democratic Anthropocene is viable and how.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agamben, G. (2004). The open: Man and animal. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arias-Maldonado, M. (2012). Real Green. Sustainability after the End of Nature. London: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arias-Maldonado, M. (2013). Rethinking sustainability in the anthropocene. Environmental Politics, 22(3), 428–446.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arias-Maldonado, M. (2014). Rethinking the human-animal divide in the anthropocene. In M. Wissenburg & D. Schlosberg (Eds.), Political animals and animal politics (pp. 17–29). Houndmills: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, J. (2012). The politics of actually existing unsustainability. John Barry: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, J. (2006). Vibrant matter. A political ecology of things. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, P. W. (2008). Ranking geo-engineering schemes. Nature Geosciences, 1, 722–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castreet, N. (1995). The nature of produced nature: Materiality and knowledge construction in marxism. Antipode, 271, 12–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cave, S. (2014). Masters of the Earth. Financial Times, 13/14 Dec.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, N. (2014). Geo-politics and the disaster of the anthropocene. The Sociological Review, 62(S1), 19–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crutzen, P. J. (2006). Albedo enhancement by stratospheric sulphur injections: A contribution to resolve a policy dilemma? Climatic Change, 77(3–4), 211–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dalby, S. (2013). Biopolitics and climate security in the anthropocene. Geoforum, 49, 184–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, J. (2008). The animal that therefore i am. New York: Fordham University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. (2006). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or survive. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobson, A. (1998). Justice and the environment: Conceptions of environmental sustainability and theories of distributive justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Driessens, C. (2014). Animal deliberation. In M. Wissenburg & D. Schlosberg (Eds.), Political animals and animal politics (pp. 90–104). Houndmills: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, P. N. (2010). A vast machine: Computers models, climate data, and the politics of global warming. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enstad, N. (1998). Fashioning political identities. American Quarterly, 50, 745–782.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzsimmons, M. (1989). The matter of nature. Antipode, 21(2), 106–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1970). The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences. London and New York: Tavistock.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fournier, V. (2013). Postnatural history. An archaeology of the future. Paris: Les Editions Be-Poles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gardiner, S. (2006). A perfect moral storm: Climate change, intergenerational ethics and the problem of moral corruption. Environmental Values, 15, 397–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. (1997). Mice into wormholes: A comment on the nature of no nature. In G. L. Downey & J. Dumit (Eds.), Cyborgs and citadels: Anthropological interventions in emerging sciences and technologies (pp. 209–243). Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243–1248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinberg, R. (2011). The end of growth: Adapting to our new economic reality. Forest View: Clairview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinchliffe, S. (2007). Geographies of nature: Societies, environments, ecologies. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinchliffe, S., Kearnes, M. B., Degen, M., & Whatmore, S. (2005). Urban wild things: A cosmopolitical experiment. Environment and Planning, 23, 643–658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobbes, T. (1968). Leviathan. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, K. (2007). Political animals? On animals as subjects in an enlarged political geography. Political Geography, 26, 250–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hulme, M. (2009). Why we disagree about climate change: Understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hulme, M. (2010). Problems with making and governing global kinds of knowledge. Global Environmental Change, 20, 558–564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humphreys, D. (2011). Smoke and mirrors: Some reflections on the science and politics of geoengineering. The Journal of Environment Development, 20(2), 99–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, T. (2009). Prosperity without growth: Economics for a finite planet. London: Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karlsson, R. (2013). Ambivalence, irony, and democracy in the anthropocene. Futures, 46, 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keith, D. W. (2000). Geoengineering the climate: History and prospect. Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, 25, 245–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kull, A. (2002). Speaking cyborg: Technoculture and technonature. Zygon, 37(2), 279–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, E. (1990). New reflections on the revolution of our time. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lantrip, D. B. (1997). Defining habitable: A performance-based approach. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 24(5), 647–668.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2004). Politics of nature: How to bring the sciences into democracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavin, C. (2013). Eating anxiety: The perils of food politics. Minneapolis: University of Minesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leopold, A. (1987). A sand county almanac: And sketches here and there. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liao, S. M., Sandberg, A., & Roache, R. (2012). Human engineering and climate change. Ethics, Policy, and the Environment, 15(2), 206–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Litfin, K. (1997). The gendered eye in the sky: A feminist perspective on earth observation satellites. Frontiers, 26–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Locke, J. (1982). Second treatise of government. Illinois: Harlan Davidson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lövbrand, E., et al. (2014). Taking the human (sciences) seriously: Realizing the critical potential of the anthropocene. Paper presented at the ECPR General Conference. Glasgow 6 Sept 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malthus, T. (1980). An essay on the principle of population. London: Ward.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meadows, D., & Meadows, D. (1972). The limits to growth: A report for the club of Rome’s project on the predicament of mankind. New York: Universe Books.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Murtaza, N. (2011). Pursuing self-interest or self-actualization? From capitalism to a steady-state, wisdom economy. Ecological Economics, 70, 577–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, L., & Dale, A. (2013). Celebrating the mundane: Nature and the built environment. Environmental Values, 22, 401–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche, F. (1988). Zur Genealogie der Moral. Stuttgart: Reclam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2000). Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Oelschlager, M. (1991). The idea of wilderness: From prehistory to the age of ecology. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Passmore, J. (1974). Man’s responsibility for nature: Ecological problems and western traditions. New York: Scribner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Princen, T. (2005). The logic of sufficiency. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Princen, T. (2010). Treading softly: Paths to ecological order. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radkau, J. (2011). Die Ära der Ökologie: Eine Weltgeschichte. Munich: C. H. Beck.

    Google Scholar 

  • Röckstrom, J., et al. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461, 472–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau, J. J. (2009). Discourse on the origin of inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schellnhuber, H. J. (1999). Earth system analysis and the second Copernican revolution. Nature, 402, 19–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlosberg, D. (2013a). For the animals that didn’t have a dad to put them in the boat: Environmental management in the anthropocene. Paper presented at the ECPR General Sessions Bourdeaux. 4–7 Sept.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlosberg, D. (2013b). Theorising environmental justice: The expanding sphere of a discourse. Environmental Politics, 22(1), 37–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlosberg, D. (2014). Ecological justice for the anthropocene. In M. Wissenburg & D. Schlosberg (Eds.), Political animals and animal politics (pp. 75–89). Houndmills: Palgrave.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. (1999). Commodities and capabilities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sloterdijk, P. (2010). Scheintod im Denken: Von Philosophie und Wissenchaft als Übung. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (1982). The wealth of nations: Books I–III. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. (2011). Against Ecological Sovereignity: Ethics, biopolitics, and saving the natural world. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steffen, W. Crutzen, P., & McNeill, J.R. (2007). The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?, Ambio, 36 (8), 614–621.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steffen, W., et al. (2011). The anthropocene: From global change to planetary stewardship. Ambio, 40(7), 739–761.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swyngedouw, E. (2011) Depoliticized Environments: The End of Nature, Climate Change and the Post-Political Condition. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 69, 253–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Royal Society (2009). Geoengineering the climate: Science, governance, and uncertainty. RS Policy Document 10/09.

    Google Scholar 

  • Victor, D., Morgan, M., Apt, J., Steinbrunner, J., & Ricke, K. (2008). The geoengineering option. Foreign Affairs, 88(2), 64–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel, S. (2006). The silence of nature. Environmental Values, 15, 145–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward, H. (2008). Liberal democracy and sustainability. Environmental Politics, 17(3), 386–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whatmore, S. (2002). Hybrid geographies: Natures, cultures, spaces. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, R. (2004). From wilderness to hybrid landscapes: The cultural turn in environmental history. Historian, 66(3), 557–564.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, D., & Wilbert, C. (2009). Inhabiting technonatural time/spaces. In D. White & C. Wilbert (Eds.), Technonatures: Environments, technologies, spaces, and places in the twenty-first century (pp. 1–30). Waterloo: Wilfried Laurie University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiertz, T. (2014). Geoengineering und die Vermessung globaler Risiken im Klimamodell. Geographische Rundschau, 66(9), 46–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wissenburg, M. (1998). Green liberalism: The free and the green society. London: UCL Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wissenburg, M. (2011). The lion and the lamb: Ecological implications of Martha Nussbaum’s animal ethics. Environmental Politics, 20(3), 391–409.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain

    Manuel Arias-Maldonado

Authors
  1. Manuel Arias-Maldonado
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manuel Arias-Maldonado .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Arias-Maldonado, M. (2015). Political Natures. In: Environment and Society. SpringerBriefs in Political Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15952-2_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation