Civilizing Nature
National Parks in Global Historical Perspective
Explores the concept and expansion of the National Park from a global historical perspective, studying how a Western blueprint organised social and cultural relations to Nature into a multitude of ecological as well as political systems all over the world Situates the idea of confining nature to a park between Western concepts, practices and topographies of nature preservation and their localisation and adaptation in different historical, political, social, and ecological settings around the world. Focuses on the actors, networks, mechanisms and institutions responsible for the global transfer of National Parks and critically discusses the utilisation and mobilisation of assymetrical relationships of power and knowledge in different parts of the world. Makes a benchmark contribution to the historiography of globalisation and the emergence of of both global environmental institutions and governance
306 Seiten
Kartoniert / Broschiert
Berghahn Books, 01.03.2015
Englisch
ISBN/EAN 9781782389088
Bernhard Gissibl is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Leibniz-Institute of European History in Mainz. His PhD dissertation explored the history of hunting and wildlife conservation in colonial Tanzania and is forthcoming with Berghahn under the title The Nature of German Imperialism. Conservation and the Politics of Wildlife in colonial East Africa. Sabine Höhler is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Her recent book on Spaceship Earth explores global concepts of environmental carrying capacity and life support between 1960 and 1990 (Pickering & Chatto 2015). Patrick Kupper is Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Innsbruck. He is the author of Creating Wilderness: a transnational history of the Swiss National Park (Berghahn 2014).
National parks are one of the most important and successful institutions in global environmentalism. Since their first designation in the United States in the 1860s and 1870s they have become a global phenomenon. The development of these ecological and political systems cannot be understood as a simple reaction to mounting environmental problems, nor can it be explained by the spread of environmental sensibilities. Shifting the focus from the usual emphasis on national parks in the United States, this volume adopts an historical and transnational perspective on the global geography of protected areas and its changes over time. It focuses especially on the actors, networks, mechanisms, arenas, and institutions responsible for the global spread of the national park and the associated utilization and mobilization of asymmetrical relationships of power and knowledge, contributing to scholarly discussions of globalization and the emergence of global environmental institutions and governance.