Ecocritique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy, and Culture

by Timothy W. Luke

Ecocriticism, whether coming from “back to nature” conservatives, Nature Conservancy liberals, or Earth First! radicals, is familiar enough. But when we listen do we really hear what these groups are saying? In a book that examines the terms of ecocriticism, Timothy W. Luke exposes how ecological critics, organizations, and movements manipulate our conception of the environment. Turning the tables on the ecocritics, Luke demonstrates how ecocriticism can move beyond its familiar confines to engage larger cultural, economic, and political questions. Ecocritique rereads ecocriticism to reveal how power and economy, society and culture, community and technology compete over what are now widely regarded as the embattled ecosystems of nature. Luke considers in particular how the meanings and values attached to the environment by various groups—from the Worldwatch Institute, the Nature Conservancy, and Earth First! to proponents of green consumerism, social ecology, and sustainable development—articulate new visions of power and subjectivity for a post-Cold War era. This accessibly written work opens with deep ecology and concludes with social ecology, along the way reconsidering thinkers with green philosophical leanings, including Herbert Marcuse, Paolo Soleri, and Murray Bookchin. In systematic critiques reexamining the cultural practices and ethical values of contemporary environmentalism, Luke highlights the political dilemmas of biocentrism and anthropocentrism in modern ecological thinking. With its critical analysis of many contemporary environmental discourses and organizations,  Ecocritique  makes a major contribution to ongoing debates about the political relationships among nature, culture, and economics in the current global system.

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Kai · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm writing an article on this so only the briefest of comments here. Luke is perceptive in seeing how different discourses about nature come with different understandings of political institutions, well beyond the sort of ecocentric-versus-anthropocentric ideas that were so popular in the 1990s. it has also come to pass that the calculation of nature makes it both governable and marketable. but i have to say that i have extreme skepticism towards the Telos / "new class" critique, which oddly sees a non-existing ecological populism as the new actor of history. the language of "transnational capital and elite bureaucracies" versus embattled "communities" and regional governance *seems* innocuous enough, until you realize that both the source material and effects of this discourse have been explicitly xenophobic (especially in the French context). Trying to fit Bookchin into that tradition simply doesn't work. also there's a gaping hole where there should be some analysis of environmental justice movements, who were seen to be the "actually existing" populisms. we'll see what Luke has to say about my reading in a couple of weeks at WPSA...i don't want to be a jerk but this just doesn't work for me.