Natures out of place? I

NATURES OUT OF PLACE? I

Ecologies and materialities of ‘the weird’

Session organizers: Dr Amber Huff, The Institute of Development Studies UK, and Dr Adrian Nel, University of Kwazulu-Natal

Session abstract:

Bringing political ecology’s long-standing concerns with the politics of human-nature relations into dialogue with insights from cultural and critical geography, cultural anthropology, the environmental humanities, geocriticism and genre fiction, this session responds to calls for a departure from primarily reactive analysis and critique, to develop new, experimental, proactive, playful and speculative approaches and analyses in political ecology (Harris, 2021; Braun, 2015). We ask: what is the potential of ‘the Weird’ and adjacent notions like the eerie, the uncanny, and the haunted (VanderMeer and VanderMeer, 2011; Fisher, 2016; Fisher, 2012) for developing grounded and radically ‘alternative epistemic entryways’ that can help us assess, historicize, recast and subvert dominant, flattening framings and ‘anthropocene’ politics of ecology, crisis, control and enclosure (Hosbey and Roane, 2021), whilst at the same time working for more convivial relations and abundant futures (Büscher and Fletcher, 2019; DeVore et al., 2019; Collard et al., 2015)? Contributions to this session explore and develop these themes as they intersect with ecologies of place and with long-standing and emerging concerns in political and other ecologies that are sensitive to history, relationality and power.

Presentations

KEEPING THE SPECTRE OF WASTE ALIVE

Lisa Doeland, Radboud University Nijmegen and University of Amsterdam

While we dream of a zero-waste circular economy, we find that these things we (call) waste escape our techno-managerial grasp. Instead of coming full circle, waste returns in uncanny loops, such as plastic, which is taking possession of the oceans, of fish and, in microscopic form, of us. Waste haunts, and it reminds us of the spectrality of being. As such, our remainders are a reminder of our being ecological (Morton 2017).

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MOSQUITO TIME: HUMAN-INSECT POROSITY WITHIN ENGLISH URBAN WETLANDS

Mary Geary, University of Brighton

What does it mean to think, to act, like a mosquito? Immersion into insect cognition will become critical in support of climate futures as we enact the ecological restoration of degraded wetlands. These blue-green ‘quaking zones’ are insect abundant and mitigate carbon emissions whilst supporting human wellbeing practices within nature. Our warming planet has engendered multi-species diaspora/diapause, and this is true for mosquitoes as tropical species extend northwards.

England has always housed mosquitoes; but now these emigrees are potential vectors for diseases such as Dengue Fever, West Nile Fever and Zika virus, amongst others. Cryptozoological spectres haunt human-mosquito entanglements. Mosquitoes utilise human blood protein; humans undergo cellular change in response. Entomological penetration raises the potentiality of consequential uncanny chimera. Yet mosquitoes are essential actants in complex food webs, as pollinators of plants and food sources for fish, bats and birds; their eradication is not an optionality. Instead, accommodation with mosquitoes must be attained; an ecological entente which enables multiple species, including humans, to dwell within these wierding waterscapes. Drawing on the work of John Buchanan, China Mieville and Daisy Jones, this paper explores how humans must learn to inhabit the life world of wetland kin, to respect their claims over these diverse ecosystems. Building upon empirical research on English wetlands, the researcher’s own onsite, mobile interviews with humans who have learned to think and act like a mosquito are explored. Discussants include wetland rangers, naturalists, artists, spiritual practitioners and walkers, amongst others. All share their perspectives on human-mosquito porosity in respect to regenerative wetland futures.

Dr Mary Geary is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Brighton. She works with diverse communities of stakeholders, including farmers, naturalists, artists, planners, walkers, local residents, environmental activists and ecologists, to gain a better understanding of contemporary human-nature relationships, particularly with regards to emergent forms of water governance. Her research explores processes of global water utility privatisation and financialization, political austerity policies, rapid urbanisation and climate change activism to understand evolving ‘hydro-social’ relationships between humans and their access to, and use of, planetary water. Her recent publications include English wetlands: spaces of nature, culture, imagination (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), co-authored with Andrew Church and Neil Ravenscroft.

TAMING AND LIVING OF 'WEIRD ECOLOGIES’: NOTES FRM THE FLOODPLAINS OF ASSAM, INDIA

SAMPURNA DAS, THE UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

Floodplains are seen as weird ecologies. In the 19^th century when British colonial forces annexed the Indian state of Assam, they were disoriented seeing the floodplains. These looked like a complex mix of land and water/river, which was beyond the colonial knowledge of governance and property systems. Eventually, policies were devised to commercialize the floodplains. In the process, the floodplains came to be seen through a land-centric lens on par with other inland terrains.

Towards weird geographies and ecologies: Vandermeer, Miéville, and Chernobyl

Jonathon Turnbull, University of Cambridge; Ben Platt, University of Cambridge; Adam Searle, Université de Liège

Scholars in geography and cognate disciplines often – and understandably – approach the overlapping ecological crises of the Anthropocene through empirical and theoretical attention to loss, absence, and spectrality (Searle, 2020). Much of this work, inspired by Jacque Derrida’s hauntological approach, focuses on extinction and biodiversity decline (Searle, 2021).

The closely allied concepts of the weird and the eerie are useful for making sense of such situations, yet eerie absences have received far more attention than weird presences (Fisher, 2016). In this paper, we draw from the speculative fiction of prominent ‘New Weird’ authors China Miéville and Jeff VanderMeer to elaborate the intellectual potential of ‘weirding’ geographical scholarship. Conceptually and empirically drawing from speculative fiction, we use ‘the weird’ to make sense of ecological intrusions, perturbations, and the presence of ‘that which does not belong’ (Fisher, 2016). Unlike early iterations of the weird (e.g. H.P. Lovecraft), which expressed xenophobic horror towards these intrusions, the New Weird contains a useful ambivalence, one we find appropriate for dealing with Anthropocene ecologies (Turnbull, 2020). Empirically, we turn to the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone – the site of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe which nature has reportedly ‘taken back’ – to detail how the presence and absence of ecological relations and functions unsettles the notion of ‘pristine wilderness’. By troubling notions of what purportedly does or does not belong in a landscape – and addressing the ontological foundations of these assumptions – the New Weird offers an approach to ecological ethics which accepts the non-sovereignty of zones, communities, and bodies.

Jonathon Turnbull is a cultural and environmental geographer interested in more-than-human and animal(s’) geographies, new and historical materialisms, post-humanism(s), digital ecologies, and the ‘weird’. His research focuses on the human-animal relations, particularly those of canids, emerging in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Ben Platt is a cultural and historical geographer with an interest in landscapes and power, conducting research that straddles multiple disciplines including architecture, design, film studies, art history and cultural theory and seeks to place creative forms of expression into conversation with academic output. Adam Searle is a cultural and environmental geographer based at the Université de Liège in Belgium, engaged in research that broadly examines the politics and relationships between humans, other animals, and technologies.

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Adrian Nel

1 year ago

This was a very interesting set of sessions. I found a good starting point was Jonothan, Ben and Adam’s “Towards weird geogpraphies and ecologies’, which set out the ‘new weird’ and its application to contemporary change and transformation. As opposed to the older, cosmic horror tropes within the weird, they suggest new formulations still seek to engage with ‘monsters’, but not necessarily where they are seen as solely monstrous; but demonading of acceptance, and even embrace. They demonstrate the import of this in a era of ‘global weirding’ in the capitaloscene, which climate change, amongst other things, forces radical changes and irruptions, foging a new normal. Their example of the broken geogprahy of Chernobyl is a compelling illustration. We also see this approach reflected in Mary and Lisa’s work, where we are challenged to embrance mosquitos in more than human urban wetlands, or the spectures of our waste which haunts us, in ways that demand attention beyond narrow framings of the circular economy. Another trope in the weird reflects how authority attempts to undertsand and control that which exceeds its beurocratic and ontological/epistemological reach, and Sampurna’s presentaion reflects on colonail and post colonial engagements with the Assam floodplains evidences this well.

University of Kwazulu Natal.

Sampurna Das

Reply to Adrian Nel

Indeed! The presentations tie up really well in doing political ecology of “weird environment”. Grateful to be part of the conversation