War Against Ourselves

Jacklyn Cock

Description

For many people 'nature' means wilderness and wild animals. It is experienced indirectly through magazines and television programmes or through visiting the highly managed environments of national parks. Nature, however, is not external, separate from the world of people – we live in nature and interact with it daily.
In this book, Jacklyn Cock describes how these intricate and complex interconnections, seen and unseen, are often ignored. Each of the ten chapters examines an aspect of our relationship with nature: ignoring, understanding, enjoying, imitating, privatising, polluting, abusing, protecting as well as organising for nature. The concluding chapter deals with the growing inequality between the North and the South.
The War Against Ourselves compels us to re-examine our relationship with nature, to change our practices and dissolve present binary divisions such as people vs. animals, economic growth vs. environmental protection, 'nature' vs. 'culture'. It demonstrates the need for an inclusive politics which brings together peace, social and environmental justice activists who believe that another world is both possible and necessary.
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Introduction
Chapter 1: Ignoring nature
Chapter 2: Understanding Nature
Chapter 3: Enjoying Nature
Chapter 4: Imitating Nature
Chapter 5: Privatising Nature
Chapter 6: Polluting Nature
Chapter 7: Abusing Nature
Chapter 8: Protecting Nature
Chapter 9: Organising Nature
Chapter 10: Rethinking Nature
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Sociology
• General officer
• Environment
• General

Informations

• Publié par: WITS University Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776143733
• Langue: English

Extrait

Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is part of nature and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.
Rachel Carson , CBS broadcast, 3 April 1963
The future of the environment, and the destructive impact of unregulated market-led growth on it, has become the defining socio-political issue of the twenty-first century. This book, by taking a holistic approach to the subject, will attract readers who are interested in the section on the origin, growth and social composition of bird-watching through to those who see capitalism on a suicidal course in its drive to exploit nature for profit.
Eddie Webster , Director of the Sociology of Work Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
This is a refreshing, important and timely work: refreshing because of the personal perspective of the author; important because it goes beyond the personal to make a significant statement about current states of affairs in South Africa; timely because its message goes beyond (South) Africa – it is an urgent plea for universal environmental sanity.
Kai Horsthemke , Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
OTHER BOOKS BY JACKLYN COCK
Colonels and Cadres: War and Gender in South Africa . Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1991; London: Open Letters, 1992; Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1993.
From Defence to Development: Redirecting Military Resources in South Africa . Cape Town: David Philip, 1998; Ottawa: IDRC, 1998. Co-edited with Penny McKenzie.
Going Green: People, Politics and the Environment in South Africa . Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1991. Co-edited with Eddie Koch.
Maids and Madams: A Study in the Politics of Exploitation . Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1980; London: The Women’s Press, 1989.
Rainbow Nations and Melting Pots: Conversations about Difference and Disadvantage in the United States and South Africa . Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Co-authored with Alison Bernstein.
Translated as I Colori della Differenza: Intrecci di culture e nazioni tra Stati Uniti e Sudafrica . Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2006. Co-authored with Alison Bernstein.
War and Society: The Militarisation of South Africa. Cape Town: David Philip, 1989; New York: St Martin’s Press, 1989. Co-edited with Laurie Nathan.
T HE W AR A GAINST O URSELVES
NATURE, POWER AND JUSTICE
J ACKLYN C OCK
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg
South Africa
http://www.witspress.co.za
© Text, Jacklyn Cock 2007
© Cover artwork, ‘Besondere plante vir elke seisoen’, Safari , 2003, Lien Botha
First published 2007.
ISBN 978-1-86814-457-0 (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-77614-372-6 (Web PDF) ISBN 978-1-77614-373-3 (EPUB) ISBN 978-1-77614-374-0 (Mobi)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express permission, in writing, of both the copyright holder and the publishers.
Cover, layout and design by Hybridesign
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Introduction
Chapter 1: Ignoring Nature
Chapter 2: Understanding Nature
Chapter 3: Enjoying Nature
Chapter 4: Imitating Nature
Chapter 5: Privatising Nature
Chapter 6: Polluting Nature
Chapter 7: Abusing Nature
Chapter 8: Protecting Nature
Chapter 9: Organising for Nature
Chapter 10: Rethinking Nature
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to all the people who shared their ideas and experiences with me while I was researching this book. It would not have been completed without the support of numerous friends, but I would especially like to acknowledge Judith and Trish (with whom I’ve shared much including many happy times in ‘wild nature’); Kathy (who loves the Kowie River as much as I do) and Leslie; Alison (for showing me so much of the world and especially Rachel Carson’s home in Maine); David (a wonderful travel and teaching partner); Victor (tireless environmental activist) and Eddie (my model of a public sociologist and committed teacher).
My thanks also go to Estelle Jobson and Veronica Klipp at Wits University Press. In preparing this book for publication, I was fortunate to have the services of Alex Potter as editor, Fiona Lawson as proofreader, Margie Ramsay as indexer, and Karen Lilje of Hybridesign as cover and book designer. Lien Botha has kindly allowed us to use her artwork, ‘Besondere plante vir elke seisoen’ on the cover.
The publishers and I wish to thank all those institutions whose publications and archives have been cited and those individuals who have been interviewed. Acknowledgement has been cited accordingly at each instance.
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ANC African National Congress APF Anti-Privatisation Forum BLSA Birdlife South Africa CEO chief executive officer CHASA Confederation of Hunters of South Africa CLAW Community Led Animal Welfare Cosatu Congress of South African Trade Unions EJNF Environmental Justice Networking Forum EWT Endangered Wildlife Trust GBP British pound GEAR growth, employment and redistribution GM genetically modified/genetic modification GNP gross national product NGO non-governmental organisation NPAT National Peace Accord Trust NUMSA National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa POWA People Opposing Women Abuse OFWCC Orange Farm Water Crisis Committee SANP South African National Parks SPCA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals SDCEA South Durban Community Environmental Alliance SVCC Steel Valley Crisis Committee USD American dollar VEJA Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance WESSA Wildlife and Environment Society of Southern Africa WSF World Social Forum ZAR South African rand
INTRODUCTION
The central argument of this book is that nature is a site of struggle, a struggle largely shaped by relations of power and different conceptions of justice. The argument is built through an analysis of different ways of relating to nature.
The starting point is that nature is a social construct in the sense that different people understand ‘the natural world’ in very different ways. For many people ‘nature’ means wilderness and wild animals, and it is experienced very indirectly through magazines and television programmes or through visiting the highly managed environments of national parks. Nature is understood as a place apart, a place to visit, to escape to wearing sunblock, mosquito repellant and protective clothing. But nature is not external, separate from the world of people. We live in nature and interact with it every day in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.
These interactions are described in ten chapters that emphasise how our current ways of relating to nature are not grounded in a recognition of the intricate and complex ways in which all living things are interconnected. Many of these interconnections are — like the stars at noon — largely unseen, hidden from our direct experience. Similarly, many threats to nature are invisible, and are threats to the survival of all forms of life, including our own species. Because these threats are largely due to human actions, there is the potential to change.
Realising this potential involves dissolving the present divisions between people or animals, economic growth or environmental protection, and ‘nature’ or ‘culture’. This implies overcoming the fragmentary nature of our politics and confronting questions of power and justice. In this sense, the book demonstrates the need for an inclusive politics that brings together peace, social and environmental justice activists who believe that another world is both possible and necessary.
This is a work of scholarship, but is aimed at general readers to stimulate them to ask some new questions about their encounters with nature in their daily lives. The scholarship draws on a number of sources, including informal conversations and more formal in-depth interviews with key informants, a survey of different understandings of ‘nature’ among a sample of young South Africans and a literature review of primary and secondary sources.
All the chapters draw on my personal experience describing some of the environmental activists I have been privileged to know, some of the struggles I have been part of and some of the wild places and creatures I have encountered. My experiences as an honorary nature conservation officer in the Eastern Cape in the 1970s gave me insights into the ‘victim blaming’ conservation discourse of the time, and my friends in the Group for Environmental Monitoring, Earthlife, the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance and the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF) helped me to understand the linkages between environmental and social justice.
I write as a sociologist, not a natural scientist. This may seem presumptuous, but I will argue in the concluding chapter that Environmental Sociology has a special capacity to address the current crisis of nature, by exposing its social causes and consequences.
Chapter 1 : Ignoring Nature shows how our daily interactions with nature are hidden and easy to ignore. People are increasingly remote and disconnected from nature. Most of us do not know where our water comes from, or where our household rubbish goes, or whether the stars were out last night, or when the next full moon is, or where our food comes from, or what source of energy provides the electricity in our homes. We think of electricity as a switch in the wall, ignoring the coal-burning power stations that generate the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to the devastating process of global warming. This is one manifestation of nature in crisis, a crisis largely due to human agency, but often unseen and unrecognised.
Chapter 2 : Understanding Nature shows how our relations