Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology Volume 1
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I Theory in Environmental Sociology
- Part II The Economy and Environmental Sociology
- Part III Culture and Environmental Sociology
- 12 Media and the Environmental Movement in a Digital Age
- 13 National Parks and (Neo)Colonialisms
- 14 Post Carbon Transition Futuring: For a Reconstructive Turn in the Environmental Social Sciences?
- 15 Outer Space and New Frontiers to Environmental Imaginations
- 16 New Territory for Environmental Sociology: Environmental Philosophy and Nature-Based Tourism
- Part IV Politics, Power, State
- Part V Social Justice
- Index
- References
13 - National Parks and (Neo)Colonialisms
from Part III - Culture and Environmental Sociology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2020
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology Volume 1
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I Theory in Environmental Sociology
- Part II The Economy and Environmental Sociology
- Part III Culture and Environmental Sociology
- 12 Media and the Environmental Movement in a Digital Age
- 13 National Parks and (Neo)Colonialisms
- 14 Post Carbon Transition Futuring: For a Reconstructive Turn in the Environmental Social Sciences?
- 15 Outer Space and New Frontiers to Environmental Imaginations
- 16 New Territory for Environmental Sociology: Environmental Philosophy and Nature-Based Tourism
- Part IV Politics, Power, State
- Part V Social Justice
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter deploys the concept of national parks in the analysis of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Its point of departure is that the relationship between national parks and colonialism can be fully grasped by paying attention to national parks as a product of the colonial enterprise and the ways in which these protected areas also institutionalised colonialism. It draws attention to the idea of national parks and how it impacted on nature and on the relationships between people and their biophysical environment, especially in the former colonies. Two processes resulting from this idea are the colonization of nature – meaning human domination over nature and the consequent exploitative practices – and the colonization of indigenous and local people through genocide, land alienation, and the imposition of cultural values. In settler societies, the creation of national parks reinforced the division between subjects and citizens. The chapter concludes that the colonization of nature and people has been sustained up to the twenty-first century mainly because the new concepts (such as peace parks and biospheres) used in nature conservation are trapped in the colonial idea of a national park. Conservation practices and management styles reproduce colonial-era social relations.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 206 - 222Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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