1 Introduction: Beyond Modern Environmentalism
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Patrick Bresnihan
Abstract
In this chapter, we expand and unpack some of the major arguments in the book. We revisit the history and formation of modern environmentalism, exploring some of its key assumptions. We emphasise three important blindspots that have been configured by this specific history – (anti)colonial geography, struggles over land and livelihoods, and lived ecologies – proposing these as productive entry points for a counter-history of modern environmentalism. Finally, we use the title of the book to clarify what this project will, and will not, set out to do, as well as situating our own research and commitments as authors. The chapter also includes two boxes on denaturalising environmentalism and provincialising environmentalism.
Abstract
In this chapter, we expand and unpack some of the major arguments in the book. We revisit the history and formation of modern environmentalism, exploring some of its key assumptions. We emphasise three important blindspots that have been configured by this specific history – (anti)colonial geography, struggles over land and livelihoods, and lived ecologies – proposing these as productive entry points for a counter-history of modern environmentalism. Finally, we use the title of the book to clarify what this project will, and will not, set out to do, as well as situating our own research and commitments as authors. The chapter also includes two boxes on denaturalising environmentalism and provincialising environmentalism.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of Figures and Boxes vi
- About the Authors viii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction: Beyond Modern Environmentalism 1
- Suburb, Field, Laboratory: Recomposing Geographies of Early Environmentalism 25
- First Interlude: Green and White Dreams 44
- Revolt Against One-Worldism: Radical Claims on Land and Work Post-1968 54
- Second Interlude: Planetary Icons 75
- The Right to Subsist: Transnational Commons Against the Enclosure of Environments and Environmentalism 81
- Third Interlude: Witnessing in the Global Resonance Machine 102
- Earth Politics: Disagreement and Emergent Indigeneity in the So-Called Anthropocene 105
- Fourth Interlude: Making Things Resonate 124
- Conclusion: Resonance Beyond Environmentalism 128
- Coda: Afterlives 141
- Notes 145
- References 157
- Index 176
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of Figures and Boxes vi
- About the Authors viii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction: Beyond Modern Environmentalism 1
- Suburb, Field, Laboratory: Recomposing Geographies of Early Environmentalism 25
- First Interlude: Green and White Dreams 44
- Revolt Against One-Worldism: Radical Claims on Land and Work Post-1968 54
- Second Interlude: Planetary Icons 75
- The Right to Subsist: Transnational Commons Against the Enclosure of Environments and Environmentalism 81
- Third Interlude: Witnessing in the Global Resonance Machine 102
- Earth Politics: Disagreement and Emergent Indigeneity in the So-Called Anthropocene 105
- Fourth Interlude: Making Things Resonate 124
- Conclusion: Resonance Beyond Environmentalism 128
- Coda: Afterlives 141
- Notes 145
- References 157
- Index 176
