The Nature of the Boreal Forest: Governmentality and Forest-nature

Baldwin, A.

Abstract

This article addresses the ontological status of nature in environmental politics by taking up the question of sustainable forest management in the Canadian boreal. In particular, it draws from Michel Foucault's notion of governmentality to argue that the historicity of "forest-nature" is indispensable for understanding the politics of sustainable forest management. In the end, it is argued that recent efforts to politicize the boreal should be regarded as an exercise of knowledge/power that rerepresents the boreal as a space of community and land stewardship, climate regulation, and biological diversity promotion, as opposed to simply a passive space of resource extraction. The article concludes by addressing some of the political implications of forest-nature for the practice of everyday life.

Citation

Baldwin, A. (2003). The Nature of the Boreal Forest: Governmentality and Forest-nature. Space and Culture, 6(4), 415-428. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331203253189

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2003
• Deposit Date: Feb 10, 2010
• Journal: Space and Culture
• Print ISSN: 1206-3312
• Electronic ISSN: 1552-8308
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 415-428
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331203253189
• Keywords: Boreal forest, Governmentality, Cultural geography, Sustainable forest, Management, Hybrid nature.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1546079