Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global

by Ursula K. Heise

Sense of Place and Sense of Planet analyzes the relationship between the imagination of the global and the ethical commitment to the local in environmentalist thought and writing from the 1960s to the present. Part One critically examines the emphasis on local identities and communities in North American environmentalism by establishing conceptual connections between environmentalism and ecocriticism, on one hand, and theories of globalization, transnationalism and cosmopolitanism, on the other. It proposes the concept of "eco-cosmopolitanism" as a shorthand for envisioning these connections and the cultural and aesthetic forms into which they translate. Part Two focuses on conceptualizations of environmental danger and connects environmentalist and ecocritical thought with the interdisciplinary field of risk theory in the social sciences, arguing that environmental justice theory and ecocriticism stand to benefit from closer consideration of the theories of cosmopolitanism that
have arisen in this field from the analysis of transnational communities at risk. Both parts of the book combine in-depth theoretical discussion with detailed analyses of novels, poems, films, computer software and installation artworks from the US and abroad that translate new connections between global, national and local forms of awareness into innovative aesthetic forms combining allegory, epic, and views of the planet as a whole with modernist and postmodernist strategies of fragmentation, montage, collage, and zooming.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Ecology, Criticism, Academic, Natural History, Literary Criticism

264 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2008

Reviews

[Samaa Ahmed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Examples of sci-fi:

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962)

“Chemical pollution is a centra issue for American environmentalism, at the same time it functions as a crucial tripe to explore the porous boundaries between body and environment.” (p 60)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

“This sudden confrontation with a spatial, political, and economic context of previously unsuspected vastness also provides an apt metaphor for a cultural moment in which an entire planet becomes graspable as ones own local backyard.” (p 3)

[Danica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough argument for a broader view of issues of place in eco-critical thought - calling for more nuanced understandings of deterritorialized cosmopolitanism and risk perception theories. Written in 2008 so already a little dated re: technology, and all examples are film and literature, so transposition to visual arts is left to the reader (if they happen to be studying art history, for example.)

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Javier Ponce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great first chapter. Then it gets a little lost on ecocriticism and risk and the title of the book ends up feeling a little misleading.

[sdw · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is often said that the modern environmental movement was shaped in part by the image taken of earth from space in 1968. Yet today the way we imagine the earth is influenced by google earth

Heise takes issue with the environmental movement's fetishization of the local - the sense that environmental change arises from an engagement with local places. Instead she suggests that we cultivate a sense of the global - the connections between places.

She engages in the global discourse around the amazon giving a convincing reading of Yamashita's Arc of the Rainforest. She incorporates risk theory to talk about global warming but also toxic narratives giving a reading of White Noise and Gain . There are a number of strong close readings in this book coupled with some very interesting theoretical issues raised.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the environmental imagination.

[Ke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because it criticizes unexpected cultural products and literary works, all through the filter of environment.

[Mills College Library]

333.72097 H4731 2008

[Steen Ledet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A necessary and insightful book that reads ecocriticism against theories of globalization and risk.