Call for Submissions: special issue of “fiar”: Negotiating Nature in the Americas: Imaginaries and Interventions between preservation and exploitation; deadline: July 1, 2015

The invention of the Americas in the wake of the European conquests was largely based upon imaginaries of nature. The idealization of the potential of soil and subsoil, the idea of frontier and physical proximity with the “wild”, the perception of great distances and vast geographic spaces constituted social imaginaries of nature in the colonial situation. The “Colombian exchange” also brought large-scale environmental transformations, making the interaction between humans and nature a central issue in the formation of modern American societies.

Since colonial times, this interaction has generated social controversies which still underpin major political discussions: should Nature be destroyed or preserved; tamed or maintained “wild”; intensively exploited or sustainably managed? Discursive strands that sometimes date back to the so-called “discoveries” of the Americas should be discussed in connection with more recent nature related concepts such as conservation, neo-extractivism, biodiversity or sustainable development.

This thematic issue of fiar seeks to discuss the meaning of Nature to American societies as well as concrete environmental change from an interdisciplinary perspective which brings humanities, social sciences and natural sciences into a dialogue. How is Nature politically negotiated and socially produced? Who are the actors within this negotiation? What strategies do they use? To answer these questions, we will pay close attention to processes of transnational exchange and circulation of ideas and experiences within the American continent(s). We expect to contribute to a body of evidence including possible commonalities, identify local exceptions and understand the ruptures and continuities in the society nature relations over time. In this perspective, we are calling for papers which:

• reflect upon “nature” as imagined – constructed / material – concrete / or both
• analyze the role of nature in the building of collective identities (including nation-building)
• contribute to an environmental history of the Americas (or specific locations in the Americas)
• study concrete attempts at including nature in a project of society (eco-tourism, national parks, environmental legislation, green economy, etc.)

E-mail: fiar@interamerica.de
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