Nature - autonomous learning

after nature 227If we employ the distinction (made in Chapter 3) between representationaland material constructionism we can propose the following interpretationof the story from a ‘typical’ critical human geographers’ perspective. First,we might suggest that the idea of ‘biodiversity’ is a value-laden constructionbeing used by Buglife and English Nature.This idea, as explained inBox 1.8, purports to merely describe species diversity whereas in reality itarguably puts a positive ‘spin’ on such diversity as ‘inherently good’. Asanalysts of representation we would thus wish to examine the values andinterests of Buglife and English Nature – why, we might ask, do they depictspecies diversity in the ways they do? Second, a less discursive analysis mightargue that the brownfield site is a physical construction – albeit anunintended one.A ‘weak’ constructionist argument might suggest that thenature found at the disused Occidental facility is not natural because it isthe result of human interference.Yet, unlike hybrid crops and GM foods(say), it is not exactly ‘produced’ because it was not designed consciouslyby social actors and organisations.How would a physical geographer (in this case a biogeographer)approach the nature found on Canvey Island? Arguably, they would acknowledgethe anthropogenic influence, but they would also insist that skylarks,shrill carder bees, badgers and the like have their own characteristics andmodes of behaviour that mark them off from any particular humanrepresentations and practices.They would likely focus on the interrelationsamong species, and bracket off consideration of how the site has been usedby children since its abandonment in the early 1970s. Finally, they wouldhave faith in the possibility of producing accurate, value-free knowledge ofthe site’s biodiversity – knowledge that could subsequently be used toinform decisions about whether or not to develop it for industry.So far so good. But we can propose another way of looking at the CanveyIsland site that does not resort to the ontological dualism between socialrepresentations and practices on the one side and an ultimately non-socialworld on the other.What if we see the site as a network rather than a placewhere two ‘spheres’ come together? A network metaphor gets us lookingat the indissoluble links between multiple different phenomena.The actionsand effects of one phenomenon are part of others in the network. Nothingexists in isolation which is why it is mistaken to separate out different classesof phenomena, like ‘social’ and ‘natural’ ones.All there are intimately related‘actants’ whose existence and effects depend upon those of all other livingand inanimate things in the network, past and present. Unlike ‘actors’