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Social Construction of Nature: Key Concepts and Frameworks

Social Construction of Nature

  • Core idea: Both the natural world and our knowledge about it are produced through social processes, histories, and power relations.
  • Nature vs. knowledge: The material environment exists, but what we call “nature” and how we understand it are socially constructed.
  • Constructivist lens: Scrutinizes unspoken assumptions behind ideas of authenticity, wilderness, and protection; asks how social context shapes environmental understandings.
  • Co-production: Humans and non-humans continually produce and transform one another; distinctions between social and natural are entangled, not separate.

Key Concepts (essential terms)

  • Constructivist: Emphasizes the role of concepts, ideologies, and social practices in shaping how we understand and make the world.
  • Social Construction: A category, condition, or thing is understood to have certain characteristics because people socially agree that it does.
  • Nature: The natural world, but its boundaries and meanings are debated and culturally embedded.
  • Discourse: Frameworks that combine narratives, concepts, ideologies, and signifying practices to produce coherent, persuasive views of nature.
  • Narrative: A storyline (e.g., the tragedy of the commons) that helps us understand and construct the world.
  • Concept: A single idea or label (e.g., carrying capacity, market, risk) used to organize thought.
  • Ideologies: Normative worldviews about how the world is and ought to be.
  • Signifying practices: Modes of representation (GIS, media, textbooks, advertisements) that tell stories and fix meanings.
  • Social Context: The ensemble of social relations, beliefs, economic structures, and governance that shape knowledge.
  • Race: A social construction with real historical power effects; biological differences do not justify racial hierarchies, but racial categories have real social consequences.
  • Wilderness: A culturally specific, often Western construct of “untouched” nature; its meanings have shifted over time and can obscure human entanglements with landscapes.

Discourse and Environmental Knowledge

  • Discourse = a set of narratives, concepts, ideologies, and signifying practices that frame how we talk about nature.
  • Environmental discourse analysis: A method to foreground social context in the production and maintenance of nature-related knowledge.
  • Institutional power: Discourses are backed by governments, schools, laboratories, and media; they shape what is treated as true or normal.

Case Illustrations (illustrative, concise)

  • The Borneo ecotourism scenario:
    • A socially constructed forest experience: signs, trails, and guides select what is seen as important.
    • Ecotourism creates economic value for locals while constraining indigenous uses of land.
    • The forest is both natural and social; management choices shape the experience and its interpretation.
  • The North African desertification discourse:
    • A long-standing colonial discourse portrayed North Africa as degraded/desertified to justify land management and control.
    • Pollen data later challenge the desertification story, showing more complex vegetation history; the discourse served political and imperial aims.
  • Wilderness critique (Cronon):
    • Wilderness is a cultural construction, not a timeless natural state.
    • The idea of wilderness can mask human influence and justify removal of Indigenous peoples from landscapes.
  • Ozark wild horses (Box 8.1):
    • The same animal is labeled as “wild” or “feral” depending on social constructions, affecting management and protection.
    • Local cultural links and political power shape which designation prevails.
  • Thinking through the politics of nature:
    • Discourses can obscure power relations and justify unequal outcomes; recognizing construction prompts more honest environmental politics.

The Limits of Constructivism: Science, Relativism, and the Material World

  • Science as discourse: Constructivists argue scientific knowledge is produced in historically situated practices and relies on social concepts.
  • Relativism concern: Critics worry that if all knowledge is socially constructed, objective science becomes suspect.
  • Moderation view: Most constructivists accept that social context influences science, but do not deny the existence of material reality or robust scientific findings.
  • Co-production as bridge: Material realities (climate, ecosystems) and social constructions influence one another; the boundary between the two is permeable.
  • Example: Hurricane Katrina shows how social inequality and discursive representations interacted with physical disaster in ways that shaped outcomes.

Co-production: Humans and Non-Humans Interacting

  • Definition: The ongoing process whereby humans and non-humans produce and change one another through interaction.
  • Implication: This approach accounts for both the material stick-and-stone world and the social meanings that shape how we respond to it.
  • Haraway quote context: beings do not pre-exist their relationships; identities are formed in entanglements.

Thinking with Construction: Takeaways

  • Many things considered natural are social inventions (e.g., race).
  • Social constructions are taken-for-granted concepts guiding thought and action.
  • Concepts like wilderness and desertification are shaped by power, history, and institutions.
  • Environmental narratives carry political and social implications; they can direct policy and research in ways that may be inappropriate or unsustainable.
  • Analyzing discourses reveals their origins and the interests they serve; this can enable resistance or reform.
  • Reconciling social construction with material reality is a central challenge; co-production offers a productive way forward.

Questions for Review (condensed)

  • Is a national park more or less natural than a region of farms from a constructivist view? (Think beyond simple yes/no.)
  • How do history and science reveal race as a social construct?
  • How did Europeans’ perceptions of New World nature help legitimize land seizure?
  • How is desertification in North Africa best understood: as an objective phenomenon or as a discourse? (Bonus: apply the same to wilderness.)
  • Does thinking with social constructionism render science illegitimate? Why or why not?

Exercises (conceptual prompts)

  • Exercise 8.1: Energy discourse analysis – compare ads from energy companies vs. environmental groups; identify discourses, narratives, and ideologies.
  • Exercise 8.2: What is obesity? Compare five sources; assess definitions, credibility, and social assumptions; is obesity a social construction?
  • Exercise 8.3: What is organic about organic food? Analyze USDA organic definitions as discourse; identify narratives, concepts, and signifying practices; what work does it do?

Suggested Readings (short list)

  • Castree, N., and B. Braun (1998). Remaking Reality: Nature at the Millennium.
  • Cronon, W. (1995). The Trouble with Wilderness.
  • Haraway, D. (1989, 2003). Primate Visions; Companion Species Manifesto.
  • Demeritt, D. (2001). Being Constructive about Nature.
  • Robbins, P., et al. (2014). Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction.