Rethinking Wilderness and the Wild: Conflict, Conservation and
Co-existence examines the complexities surrounding the concept of
wilderness.
Contemporary wilderness scholarship has tended to fall into two
categories: the so-called 'fortress conservation' and 'co-existence'
schools of thought. This book, contending that this polarisation has led
to a silencing and concealment of alternative perspectives and lines of
enquiry, extends beyond these confines and in particular steers away
from the dilemmas of paradise or paradox in order to advance an
intellectual and policy agenda of plurality and diversity rather than of
prescription and definition. Drawing on case studies from Australia,
Aoteoroa/New Zealand, the United States and Iceland, and explorations of
embodied experience, creative practice, philosophy, and First Nations
land management approaches, the assembled chapters examine wilderness
ideals, conflicts and human-nature dualities afresh, and examine
co-existence and conservation in the Anthropocene in diverse ontological
and multidisciplinary ways. By demonstrating a strong commitment to
respecting the knowledge and perspectives of Indigenous peoples, this
work delivers a more nuanced, ethical and decolonising approach to
issues arising from relationships with wilderness. Such a collection is
immediately appropriate given the political challenges and social
complexities of our time, and the mounting threats to life across the
globe. The abiding and uniting logic of the book is to offer a unique
and innovative contribution to engender transformations of wilderness
scholarship, activism and conservation policy. This text refutes the
inherent privileging and exclusionary tactics of dominant modes of
enquiry that too often serve to silence non-human and contrary
positions. It reveals a multi-faceted and contingent wilderness alive
with agency, diversity and possibility.
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of
conservation, environmental and natural resource management, Indigenous
studies and environmental policy and planning. It will also be of
interest to practitioners, policymakers and NGOs involved in
conservation, protected environments and environmental governance.
