From ‘zombies’ to ‘coyotes’: environmentalism where we are

Abstract

Environmentalism is in trouble. Some denounce it for being ‘depressing and dowdy’; others have announced its ‘death’. Environmentalism faces three problems: the disconnection of ‘the environment’ as an intellectual concept from popular understandings, the broader development culture in which environmentalism is preached and the denial discourse it is popularly seen to spread. As a result, environmentalism is not dead but has become a ‘zombie’ category. Environmentalism can be reframed to enable more effective engagement with green practices by drawing constructive alignment between discourses of environmentalism and notions of fragmented and malleable identities. Doing so works towards a vocabulary of theory and practice that is sensitive to hybridity and contradiction, whilst retaining the utopian stimulus of conventional environmentalism. Drawing on the terminology of Haraway, ‘coyote’ environmentalism is one move towards a more productive framing of environmental practice.

Keywords:

• environmentalism
• identity
• practice
• coyote
• zombie

Notes

1. It is acknowledged that these problems may be more directly apposite to preservationist and conservationist streams of environmentalism identifiable in organisations in the developed world (see White and Wilbert 2006, p. 97).

2. That is not to say, of course, that the draw of denial is not powerful to some downsizers, or those who see the benefits of a less consumer-oriented culture (see, for example, Soper's 2007 alternative hedonists, or Anderson 2007).