Nature - autonomous learning

12 strange naturesBut things don’t end there.Academic disciplines are only one of severaldomains where knowledges of nature are produced. If you think againabout the seven vignettes with which I began this chapter it’s not hardto list the variety of institutions, organisations and professions that havesomething to say about nature. As I noted in the Preface, these includenewspapers, movies, television programmes, popular books, businesses,governments, courts, charities, and independent think tanks. Aside fromacademics, there are pundits, broadcasters, freelance writers, environmentalactivists and lawyers (among others) who routinely consider nature in theirdiscourses.Together they produce a constant stream of information not onlyabout what nature is but about ‘appropriate’ ways to use it, control it or alterit. On any given day of the week a veritable mountain of knowledge aboutnature is circulated, communicated and disseminated within and betweensocieties worldwide.As individuals we are all exposed to particular mixturesof nature-knowledge over our lifetimes. Our understanding of nature is,obviously, heavily influenced by the ‘truths’ and ‘norms’ about natureimparted to us through the variety of knowledge-producers mentionedabove (Box 1.2).Box 1.2 KNOWLEDGES OF NATUREAt one level we are all producers and consumers of knowledges ofnature. But what is ‘knowledge’? Knowledge is sometimes definedas distinct from ‘opinion’, but in this book I take a broader view.Knowledge is any form of understanding that can be articulatedverbally, textually or pictorially. In other words, knowledge is howwe represent the world in which we live to both ourselves and toothers. Knowledge is acquired through observation, interactionwith other people and engagement with the material world. It iscapable of being modified over time and space, either slowly ormore quickly depending on the circumstances. Typically, knowledgeexists as more or less established bodies of knowledge that distinctgroups of people share in common. Equipped with this broaddefinition, we can make some useful distinctions that help us geta better handle on the character of knowledge. To begin with, all