Nature - autonomous learning

172 de-naturalisationBox 3.6 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF NATURE:THREE SHIBBOLETHSLeft-wing human and environmental geographers arguably adhereto some shibboleths about that which we call ‘nature’. Shibbolethsare beliefs that like-minded people take for granted as true, corrector otherwise accurate: they are shared assumptions that characterisethe views of a given group. Among social-constructionist geographersthree shibboleths about nature loom large. The firsttwo relate to the way nature is depicted within socially dominantrepresentations of the non-human world and the human mind orbody. The first shibboleth is that these representations are typicallyabout the fixity and permanence of nature. We’ve seen this severaltimes in this chapter. Geographers from Harvey to Braun criticisereferences to the moral or practical ‘lessons’ that nature supposedlyteaches us by virtue of its ‘essential character’. Such criticisms arevalid as far as they go. There is no doubt that many nefarious beliefsand practices have been justified by self-serving references to ‘naturalimperatives’. For instance, in both the past and present, racism andsexism have gained legitimacy by instilling the belief that there are‘natural differences’ between people that are unalterable. However,as Wade (2002) points out, references to the ‘nature’ of the nonhumanworld or human psychology and physiology need notnecessarily imply permanence and fixity. For instance, in the presentperiod there is veritable obsession within sections of Western societywith the conscious altering of the human body. Such practices asdieting, body-building and plastic surgery all rest on the idea that aperson’s physiology is changeable and not simply an unavoidablefact of bodily nature. Fitness clubs, health-food firms and biomedicalcompanies all have a vested interest in promoting these practicesrather than in emphasising the givenness of the body. The secondsocial-constructionist shibboleth we can question is that mostreferences to the fixity of nature serve the moral and practicalinterests of the powerful. Though this shibboleth has much validity,it ignores the fact that many individuals and groups who suffer