Nature matters: diffracting a keystone concept of environmental education research – just for kicks

Abstract

As a keystone species the concept ‘nature’ plays a vital role in shaping our world. In this article, we think with the material turn about the concept nature due to its significant performativity in its role within environmental education and research. How nature is conceived is played out on a massive scale as matter itself is morphed through conceptual processes. Therefore, we focus on the matter(ing) of conceptual abstraction, the physical effects – and affects – of thinking a thing into existence. We initiate a pluralistic thought experiment that purposefully diffracts nature into eight performances, to see what it does. The concept nature performs ecologically and enacts trophic cascades. This exploration highlights feats of racism, classism, androcentrism, colonialism, homogenization, and mass extinction. What we are proposing is an environmental literacy that attends to what a concept is capable of, what a concept can do, and perhaps even what a concept can prevent, post-nature.

Keywords:

• Environmental education research
• nature
• new materialisms
• diffraction
• post-nature

Acknowledgments

We’d like to thank the reviewers for their time and careful readings of the article and Nigel Dykes for his advice on ecological processes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The use of the term ‘mattering’ is twofold; firstly to denote importance and secondly to highlight the physical and ecological performance of the concept nature.

2 ‘Trophic’ usually refers to the nutritive relations between organisms – in other words, the matter that is passed between things.

3 We do not explain the material turn as that is already attempted in the editorial of this special issue. However, it is worth noting that by thinking with the material turn we are embracing some of its key themes, such as a move away from dominant enlightenment epistemologies and anthropocentrism and a move towards distributed conceptions of agency and a focus on materiality.

4 Inherently ‘of’ the world, always processual and inseparable.

5 Imagined to be detached, separate from and independent of other ‘things’.

6 We imagine many of the readers of this article will have seen the film Star Wars (Lucas, 1977) at some point in their life. It begins in the middle, with episode IV. The Greeks did this and called it in media res. The purpose of this is to distort the linearity of the storyline, to fit more closely to the non-linear nature of temporality. It encourages the observer/reader to think beyond the now normalized representational trends that exist within academe. It also reminds the reader that this is just another story (in the Brechtian tradition) and most certainly not ‘the truth’. This emphasis on storied matter sits well with both new materialisms and material ecocriticisms.

7 Quote taken from the opening credits of Star Wars, used here to highlight the romanticized and transcendent appropriation of nature.

8 The English hymn Jerusalem was composed by Hubert Parry in 1916 but was originally written by William Blake as a poetic preface to Milton: A Poem in Two Books, where Blake imagined Jesus Christ walking upon England’s ‘green and pleasant land’.

9 Sous rature (under erasure) is a (Heideggarian/Derridean) ploy to problematize a concept whilst keeping it in play.

10 High nutrient content and species proliferation which can eventually lead to a reduced oxygen supply and species depletion if one species dominates or the rate of decay increases.

11 Low nutrient content.

12 As opposed to anthropomorphizing or Disneyfying the environment which simply reinforces the Romanticized perception of nature.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jamie Mcphie

Jamie Mcphie is lecturer of Cultural Landscapes and Aesthetics in the Outdoors on the University of Cumbria's (UK) Outdoor Studies programmes. His research interests lie in environmental humanities, therapeutic landscapes, psychogeography and philosophies of immanence. He has published in Rhizomes, Environmental Education Research, Journal of Environmental Education, and Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning.

David A. G. Clarke

David A.G. Clarke is an outdoor educator and environmental theorist currently teaching at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UK). He is completing a PhD at the Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, where he also contributes to teaching on the MSc programmes. He has published in Environmental Education Research, Journal of Environmental Education, and Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning.