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Organizing Nature
Turning Canada's Ecosystems Into Resources
Alice Cohen (Author), Andrew Biro (Author)
9781487594848
Paperback / softback, published 7 June 2023
282 pages, 12 b&w illustrations, 13 b&w maps, 2 b&w figures, 2 b&w tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.4 kg
Organizing Nature explores how the environment is organized in Canada’s resource-dependent economy. The book examines how particular ecosystem components come to be understood as natural resources and how these resources in turn are used to organize life in Canada. In tracing transitions from "ecosystem component" to "resource," this book weaves together the roles that commodification, Indigenous dispossession, and especially a false nature-society binary play in facilitating the conceptual and material construction of resources. Alice Cohen and Andrew Biro present an alternative to this false nature-society binary: one that sees Canadians and their environments in a constant process of making and remaking each other. Through a series of case studies focused on specific resources – fish, forests, carbon, water, land, and life – the book explores six channels through which this remaking occurs: governments, communities, built environments, culture and ideas, economies, and bodies and identities. Ultimately, Organizing Nature encourages readers to think critically about what is at stake when Canadians (re)produce myths about the false separation between Canadian peoples and their environments.
List of Illustrations and Tables 1. Introduction 2. Channels: From Ecosystem Components to Resources 3. From Fish to Fisheries 4. From Forests to Timber 5. From Carbon to Energy 6. From H2O to Water 7. From Land to Property 8. From Bodies to Life 9. Resources: Organized and Organizers Glossary
List of Maps
List of Boxes
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1.1 From How to Why
1.2 From Ecosystem Components to Resources
1.3 Politics beyond Policy
1.4 Resourcification through Six Channels
1.5 Book Outline and Common Themes
Discussion Questions
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Governments
2.3 Communities
2.4 Built Environments
2.5 Culture and Ideas
2.6 Economies
2.7 Bodies and Identities
2.8 Summary and Conclusions
Discussion Questions
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Salmon in British Columbia
3.3 Cod in Newfoundland and Labrador
3.4 Channels in Action: Organizing Fisheries
3.5 Summary and Conclusions
Discussion Questions
Pedagogical Resources
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Growth of Timber: Saint John, New Brunswick
4.3 Trees, Not Timber: Port Renfrew, British Columbia, and Darkwoods
4.4 Channels in Action: Organizing Forests
4.5 Summary and Conclusions
Discussion Questions
Pedagogical Resources
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Coal in Nova Scotia
5.3 Oil and Bitumen in Alberta
5.4 Natural Gas and Fracking
5.5 Channels in Action: Organizing Carbon
5.6 Summary and Conclusions
Discussion Questions
Pedagogical Resources
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Diversions and Damming
6.2.1 Diversion
6.2.2 Damming
6.3 Drinking Water
6.3.1 Vancouver, 2006
6.3.2 Walkerton, Ontario, 2000
6.3.3 Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek–Grassy Narrows, Ontario, 1962–?
6.3.4 Drinking Water: Summary
6.4 Channels in Action: Organizing Water
6.5 Summary and Conclusions
Discussion Questions
Pedagogical Resources
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Soil
7.3 Symbol
7.4 Space
7.5 Channels in Action: Organizing Land
7.6 Summary and Conclusions
Discussion Questions
Pedagogical Resources
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Wild(?)life: Non-Human Animals
8.2.1 Pets and Other Companion Species
8.2.2 Fish and Game: Wildness as Economic Resource
8.2.3 Parks as Spaces for Wildlife
8.3 Human Resources
8.3.1 Blood and Plasma
8.3.2 Surrogacy
8.4 The Channels in Action: Organizing Life
8.5 Summary and Conclusions
Discussion Questions
Pedagogical Resources
9.1 Channels in Action
9.2 Common Themes
9.2.1 Commodification
9.2.2 Indigenous Dispossession
9.2.3 Artificial Nature–Society Binary
9.3 Why Does ‘Resource Thinking’ Matter?
9.3.1 Winning and Losing
9.3.2 Why Is It Important to Think beyond Policy?
References
Index