Natural Exceptions to Green Sovereignty? American Environmentalism and the ‘‘Immigration Problem’’

Date

2012

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Sage

Abstract

Rather than making any general claims supporting or opposing the ‘‘greening’’ of sovereignty, this article examines the variable discourses through which the ethos of ecosovereignty is reconfigured. The questions that drive this inquiry are (1) through what discursive pathways do conceptions of nature, political community, and governance intersect to constitute exclusionary ethoses of ecosovereignty? and (2) how might alternative articulations challenge such exclusions? These questions are pursued by examining the contemporary American ‘‘environmental restrictionist’’ (immigration reduction environmentalist) movement, and critical responses to the movement. It traces how nature, political community, and governance are conceptualized and related to one another in efforts to bolster alternative configurations of ecosovereignty. By gaining insight into the various discourses through which iterations of ecosovereignty emerge, scholars and practitioners might better respond to the multiplicity of ways that nature becomes enmeshed in exclusionary social forms.

Description

Keywords

sovereignty, nature, nationalism, environmentalism, immigration

Citation

Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 37(4) 300-316, 2012 DOI: 10.1177/0304375412464136

DOI