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13 - National Parks and (Neo)Colonialisms

from Part III - Culture and Environmental Sociology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Maano Ramutsindela
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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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.

Keywords

Environmental ColonialismNational ParksHuman ExceptionalismPeace ParksProperty
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 206 - 222
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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