Ecological Representations

Abstract

People act in ways that sometimes, perhaps most of the time, have direct or indirect consequences for their natural environments. They may do this out of habit or as a result of careful deliberation. But they also write or talk about their actions and their environments, describe or experience them in novels, films and music, and feel optimism, serenity or dread when contemplating nature and its resources. In doing so, they may use ‘environmental’ language and styles to describe what they are doing and the consequences of their actions. Or, without resorting to such devices, they may nonetheless act in ways that someone else, looking in from the outside, thinks has ecological significance. There is a wide spectrum of theoretical responses to the question of whether, and how, all this matters. I first look at these in the context of understandings of discourses generally, and then focus on the multiple settings and themes of environmentalism and global enquiry.