Invasive life, communities of practice, and communities of fate

Abstract

The article starts from the premise that invasive life has the capacity to produce human communities. Invasive life is conceptualized as a way in which humans categorize proliferating organisms as ‘non‐native’ to a particular territory. The article focuses on the kind of relationship of human beings to invasive life that invokes a sense of ‘being under attack’ on the human side. It is argued that the threat of invasive life produces ‘communities of fate’, which are theorized for the sake of this article in close relation to the concept of ‘communities of practice’. The social dynamics set in motion by such community formation are further analysed in relation to two different case studies: (1) the emergence of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in Mexico, and (2) the invasive plants eradication campaign of a group of activists in Germany. The article concludes by discussing the merits of analysing social dynamics and community formation in relation to challenges posed by invasive life.

Key words:

• community
• invasive alien species
• social dynamics
• social practices