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The Trouble with Savanna and Other Environmental Categories, Especially in Africa

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The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography

Abstract

Environmental categories are simplifications of reality meant to enable generalization, which is necessary to produce predictive physical geographic knowledge. We argue here that these categories are social constructions related to ideas shared broadly in society, including environmental deterministic explanations of human difference. The biophysical, philosophical, and sociocultural problems associated with environmental categories are exemplified by ‘savanna’ in Africa. Examining environmental categorization is an important point of engagement in critical physical geography because it is a social process, explicitly centered on simplification and generalization, and significant broadly across scientific practice and society.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Chris S. Duvall

  2. School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Bilal Butt

  3. Department of Geography, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

    Abigail Neely

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  1. Chris S. Duvall
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  2. Bilal Butt
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  3. Abigail Neely
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Rebecca Lave

  2. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Christine Biermann

  3. Université de Lausanne, Gryon, Switzerland

    Stuart N. Lane

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Duvall, C.S., Butt, B., Neely, A. (2018). The Trouble with Savanna and Other Environmental Categories, Especially in Africa. In: Lave, R., Biermann, C., Lane, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71461-5_6

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