Translating Environments
Translation and indeterminacy in the making of natural resources
In collaboration with Dr Piergiorgio di Giminiani (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile), this special issue of Ethnos examines processes of translation in the making and unmaking of ‘natural resources’.
Drawing on the analytical possibilities of anthropology and STS concepts of translation, we propose a twofold definition of environments as both translating subjects and objects of translation. We argue that paying attention to the (in)determinacies and (in)commensurabilities that accompany the work of translation in human-environment relationships helps understand reconfigurations of materials, relations and values.
The special issue features articles by: Knut Nustad; David Kneas; Julie Brugger, Mitchel McClaran & Jim Sprinkle; Ben Campbell & Colin Cahill; and an afterword by Paige West (full ToC and links below)
Haines, S & Di Giminiani, P (eds) 2020. Translating Environments: Translation and Indeterminacy in the making of natural resources. Ethnos 85:1
Contents:
Introduction - Translating environments: translation and indeterminacy in the making of natural resources
Piergiorgio Di Giminiani & Sophie Haines
From wildlife to natural resources, and back again? Translating environments in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Knut G Nustad
'Storytelling’ Natural Resource Conflict on U.S. Public Lands
Julie Brugger, Mitchel P. McClaran and Jim Sprinkle
Communicative Orders in Collision and Collusion with Natural Resource Management Regimes in Nepal
Ben Campbell
[Un]becoming a Resource: Determining the Nature of Civets in Indonesia
Colin Cahill
Afterword - Translations, palimpsests, and politics: Environmental anthropology now
Paige West