How Nature Speaks

Yrjo Haila and Chuck Dyke; eds.

Description

How Nature Speaks illustrates the convergence of complexity theory in the biophysical and social sciences and the implications of the science of complexity for environmental politics and practice. This collection of essays focuses on uncertainty, surprise, and positionality-situated rather than absolute knowledge-in studies of nature by people embedded within the very thing they purport to study from the outside. The contributors address the complicated relationship between scientists and nature as part of a broader reassessment of how we conceive of ourselves, knowledge, and the world that we both inhabit and shape.Exploring ways of conceiving the complexity and multiplicity of humans' many interactive relationships with the environment, the contributors provide in-depth case studies of the interweaving of culture and nature in socio-historical processes. The case studies focus on the origin of environmental movements, the politicization of environmental issues in city politics, the development of a local energy production system, and the convergence of forest management practices toward a dominant scheme. They are supported by explorations of big-picture issues: recurring themes in studies of social and environmental dynamics, the difficulties of deliberative democracy, and the potential gains for socio-ecological research offered by developmental systems theory and Pierre Bourdieu's theory of intentionality.How Nature Speaks includes a helpful primer, "On Thinking Dynamically about the Human Ecological Condition," which explains the basic principles of complexity and nonlinear thinking.Contributors. Chuck Dyke, Yrjo Haila, Ari Jokinen, Ville Lahde, Markus Laine, Iordanis Marcoulatos, John O'Neill, Susan Oyama, Taru Peltola, Lasse Peltonen, John Shotter, Peter Taylor

Sujets

• Human geography

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 17 mars 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822387718
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

How Nature Speaks

New Ecologies for the Twenty-first Century

Series Editors:

A RT U R O E S C O B A R , University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

D I A N N E R O C H E L E A U , Clark University

How Nature Speaks

E D I T E D B Y Yrjö Haila and Chuck Dyke

The Dynamics of the Human

Ecological Condition

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Durham and London

2006

∫U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S2006 D U K E

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

on acid-free paper$

Designed by C. H. Westmoreland

Typeset in Scala and Helvetica Neue

by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

appear on the last printed page of this book.

Duke University Press is grateful to the University

of Tampere Department of Regional Studies for support

of this project.

The editors’ thanks are due to Mari Pakarinen (Juvenes Print, University of Tampere) for drawing the figures for the essays ‘‘What to Say about Nature’s ‘Speech’ ’’ by Yrjö Haila and Chuck Dyke, ‘‘Fight Over the Face of Tampere: A Sneaking Transformation of a Local Political Field’’ by

Markus Laine, ‘‘Stand/ardization and Entrainment in

Forest Management’’ by Ari Jokinen, and ‘‘Calculating

the Futures: Stability and Change in a Local Energy Pro-

duction System’’ by Taru Peltola, and for the appendix.

Figure 4 in the essay ‘‘What to Say about Nature’s ‘Speech’ ’’ by Yrjö Haila and Chuck Dyke is reprinted courtesy of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publisher; it originally appeared inDynamics and Indeterminism in

Developmental and Social Processes, edited by Alan Fogel, Maria C. D. P. Lyra, and Jaan Valsiner, as Figure 8.2, page 206.

P R E FA C E

vii

Y R J Ö H A I L A A N D C H U C K D Y K E about Nature’s ‘‘Speech’’ 1

S U S A N O YA M A

C H U C K D Y K E

Introduction: What to Say

Speaking of Nature 49

Natural Speech: A Hoary Story 66

V I L L E L Ä H D E Gardens, Climate Changes, and Cultures: An Exploration into the Historical Nature of Environmental Problems 78

J O H N S H O T T E R Participative Thinking: ‘‘Seeing the Face’’ and ‘‘Hearing the Voice’’ of Nature 106

CONTENTS

I O R D A N I S M A R C O U L AT O S Rethinking Intentionality: A Bourdieuian Perspective 127 L A S S E P E LT O N E N Fluids on the Move: An Analogical Account of Environmental Mobilization 150

M A R K U S L A I N E Fight Over the Face of Tampere: A Sneaking Trans- formation of a Local Political Field 177 A R I J O K I N E N Stand/ardization and Entrainment in Forest Management 198 TA R U P E LT O L A Calculating the Futures: Stability and Change in a Local Energy Production System 218

P E T E R TAY L O R Exploring Themes about Social Agency through Interpretation of Diagrams of Nature and Society 235

J O H N O ’ N E I L L

Who Speaks for Nature?

261

C H U C K D Y K E Appendix: Primer: On Thinking Dynamically about the Human Ecological Condition 279

R E F E R E N C E S 303 N O T E S O N T H E C O N T R I B U T O R S I N D E X 325

323

PREFACE

Does it make sense to think that nature ‘‘speaks’’ to us humans? Meta- phors—and nature’s speech certainly is one—are not literally true or false; rather, they are either fruitful and productive or misleading and counterproductive. The essays included in this collection address and assess various aspects of ‘‘nature’s speech.’’ Allocating textual capacities to nature goes back to ancient times, usually with specific ideas about who among humans are able to under- stand and interpret nature’s texts. In our era, the metaphor of nature’s speech is located in a new framework, defined by ecological problems. Ecological problems in their contemporary guise surfaced into public consciousness quite abruptly in the 1960s. The problems are often understood against an assumed contradiction between human culture and the rest of nature. ‘‘Nature,’’ posed as a polar opposite to ‘‘culture,’’ is assumed to speak to those among the humans who get sensitized to the contradiction. This, however, is deeply problematic, as has often been noticed. Humans are products of nature and live in, by, and through nature, being dependent on natural materials and processes. So, how could an essentialist contradiction arise between humans and the rest of nature? Where could the border zone of such a contradiction be located? This will not do; more serious work is needed for under- standing the human ecological condition. On the other hand, a mere list of specific problems, however com- prehensive, cannot do the job. ‘‘Environmental science’’ cannot o√er a definitive answer either. Environmental science deals with the specifici- ties of particular environmental problems. Understood literally, en- vironmental science is an oxymoron: the environment includes every- thing, but science about everything is impossible. There is no end to ways in which this everything can be made the object of some science or other. We have to step back from the specificities of environmental prob- lems but avoid falling into the abyss of the humanity-nature dualism. For this purpose, metaphoric work is needed. This book is about search- ing for fruitful metaphors that shed light on the human ecological condition. Good metaphors invite people to fly with them.

v i i iPREFACE However, metaphors are not mere patterns of thought; they are pri- marily grounded in human practices, as firmly as ‘‘grasping’’ is grounded in taking hold of something with one’s hands. In other words, metaphors are also practical tools to be used in grasping di≈cult issues such as the human ecological condition. Tools never come out of thin air. This is equally true of conceptual tools as of practical tools. The essays in this collection make ample use of the conceptual tools of nonlinear dynamics and complexity as well as a whole range of more specific scientific disci- plines. If we want to be serious about the human ecological condition, we have to become fluent in the vocabularies of those scientific traditions that address critical aspects of that condition. Perhaps, with time, the metaphor of ‘‘nature’s speech’’ obtains strength and momentum. This collection originated from a research project entitled ‘‘How Does Nature Speak?,’’ organized at the Department of Regional Studies and Environmental Policy, University of Tampere, Finland, and funded by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation; in addition, members of the research group got support from several research projects funded by the Acad- emy of Finland (‘‘Environmental Politics on the Local Level,’’ 1996– 2002; ‘‘Socio-Economic Conditions of the Sustainable Use of Wood Fuel,’’ 2001–2004; ‘‘Nature, Ideas of Nature, Politicization of Nature, and Environmental Politics,’’ 2001–2004). Hence the considerable proportion of Finns, working in Tampere, among the writers. The proj- ect has organized a series of workshops over the years. Most of the overseas contributors participated in one or several of them: Chuck Dyke in 1995, 1998, and 2000; Peter Taylor in 1996, 1998, and 2000; John O’Neill in 1995 and 2001; Susan Oyama in 2000; and John Shot- ter in 2000.

What to Say about Nature’s ‘‘Speech’’

INTRODUCTION

Yrjö Haila and Chuck Dyke

A NEWBORN BABY CANNOT SPEAK. Yet the communication between baby and mother, conspicuously between human babies and mothers, is extensive and remarkably precise. If a worried young mother listens to her body’s own response to the baby’s sounds, smells, and touches, she is almost sure to do things right. Here it would be fairly clear what we meant if we said that nature speaks in the relationship between mother and child. For example, we could also say that nature speaks to the mother in the baby’s cry, and to the baby through its mother’s breast. It takes a whole lot to desensitize a mother to the truth of her relationship to her baby. Human communicative interactions with nature more broadly con- sidered are also nurturing and, as we will come to see ever more clearly, mutually nurturing. But in the multiplicity ofthiscommunication, the warm, soft univocity of the breast is bedeviled by daunting complexity. In general, the mutual sensitivities are imperfect, ambivalent, and often dangerous. In fact, a look at human history shows us how easy it is to become desensitized to the communicative interactions between our- selves and the world around us—to the plight of endangered species, for example. Ironically, desensitization can occur in the very attempt to understand nature better. It looks as if certain sorts of cognitive access to nature alienate us from nature in other ways, with no guarantee whatsoever that we have achieved the most important access. Perhaps humans are often listening to the wrong things—especially from the point of view of mutual nurturing. We have taken nature’s speech as a guiding metaphor for the inves- tigations collected in this volume. Nature’s speech is an ancient poetic metaphor, but, as a tradition directly relevant to the human environ- mental predicament, goes back to Romanticism. That tradition viewed