Nature and Culture

The relationship between nature and culture is a major theme in the philosophical discourse on the Anthropocene. The best-known movements within Anthropocene thinking are ecomodernism and posthumanism. Both movements distance themselves from the idea that nature and culture are strictly separate domains. In the Anthropocene, this separation no longer appears tenable; nature and culture have become inextricably entangled. The world consists exclusively of hybrids, compositions of both human and nonhuman entities. Ecomodernists and posthumanists are of one mind in their criticism of the traditional nature movement, which believes that it can return to a past when nature and culture were still distinct entities and there was such a thing as “pristine” nature. I will argue that denying the possibility of any decoupling between humans and nonhumans will result in the latter being severely curtailed in their freedom to autonomously shape their own lives, and I will therefore argue for what I like to call an “ecology of disentanglement.”

The very nature of large-scale infrastructure projects—long design and construction periods, high investment, and impact on social and natural spaces—makes them prone to socioecological and technical conflicts. These conflicts materialize in stories that become keystones in the making of infrastructure. In this article, we analyze the infrastructuring power of stories by drawing on the case of the Chacao Bridge on Chiloé Island in southern Chile, a controversial infrastructure project that has been in the making over the last six decades. We argue that the “absence” of the bridge creates a space for the production of stories on the island's inherited past and imagined future that keeps recurring and growing in the form of myths. Thus, we propose the concept of “mythical infrastructuring” to capture this process. We then conclude by arguing that the Chacao Bridge project develops its infrastructuring presence over landscape and culture in contradictory ways that cannot be solved technically or symbolically.

Recent years have seen a shift in the social scientific study of introduced species. Social scientists have shown that popular interpretations vary beyond the critical, invasive frameworks and include more celebratory or welcoming responses. Yet this research has taken the form of case studies. This has limited comparative inquiry. In response, this article develops a typology of sociocultural responses to introduced species by nonspecialists. The article then discusses major forms of collective meaning-making that go into creating these different cultural types.

Waste is an increasingly significant environmental concern in Singapore in light of the shortening lifespan of the nation's Semakau Landfill, which is expected to reach full capacity by 2035. In order to provide a fresh perspective on the age-old problem of waste management and open different conversations regarding waste, we posit that the obscurement of waste promotes the production of waste in Singapore by desensitizing Singaporeans to their waste and disconnecting them from the waste problem. This article aims to uncover the factors that contribute to the obscurement of waste in Singapore and to explicate how this obscurement disconnects Singaporeans from their waste. Through qualitative interviews and field observations substantiated by secondary data, this article seeks to study how the intangible and tangible factors—educational, sociocultural, and situational—exert a collective influence on waste obscurement and hinder the adoption of waste minimization practices.

Veronica Strang, Water Beings: From Nature Worship to the Environmental Crisis. London: Reaktion Books, 2023. 280 pp.; 126 color plates; 5 halftones. US$45.00.