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

Baldwin, A.

doi:10.1177/1206331203253189

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

Baldwin, A.

Authors

Professor Andrew Baldwin w.a.baldwin@durham.ac.uk
Professor

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.