Environmental History: A Manual of Instructions. Marco Armiero Marie Curie Fellow ICTA

Transcription

1 Environmental History: A Manual of Instructions Marco Armiero Marie Curie Fellow ICTA marco.armiero@tin.it it

2 Of flowers and pandas?

3 Frame 1. Definitions 2. Roots 3. Methodologies and approaches 4. Using EH

4 Definitions What is EH? J. M. Powel: : Question. Why is environmental history like Belgium? Answer. Because it was entirely the product of a resident collective imagination Carolyn Merchant: EH comprises a set of approaches to doing history which brings nature into the story Donald Worster: Environmental history is the interaction between human cultures and the environment in the past Ted Steinberg: Environmental history centers on the examination of various relationships how natural forces shape history, how humankind affects nature, and how those ecological changes then turn around to influence human life once again in a reciprocating pattern

5 Definitions Richard White: Marriages and Rivers You can past together the stories of salmons and fishers, farmers and atomic plants, but you will not get the environmental history of that river. It is as writing the story of a marriage just sticking together the biography of the wife and that of the husband. What environmental historians are looking for is the history of the relation itself

6 Definitions Where is Nature? Eucalyptus plantation Sri Lanka Tuscany Hills, Siena Colorado River

7 Definitions Out of Woods

8 Roots Roots, that is, the last of the militants

9 Roots Alfred Crosby, Columbian Exchange L.White, Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, Science 1967 John Opie Americans and the 1972 Environment: Yale: Donald Worster s in eh 1970 R. Nash Wilderness and the American Mind 1967 Effects in the historical field

10 Roots Intellectual roots Naturalistic writings (Arcadic sciences) Western History FJ F.J. Turner 1893 P. Webb 1931 Henry David Thoreau ( ) John Muir ( ) Aldo Leopold ( ) J. Malin 1947 New Western History 1980s R. White D. Wortser P. Limerick

11 Roots Frontier Wilderness

12 Roots EH in Europe The Annales School Economic Hist. Critique to the histoire événementielle Agricultural Hist. Indstrialization & Technology Urban The rising of new historical actors Methodological inclination to interdisciplinary approach = = Focus on the notion of Resources No dichotomy nature/artifact The issue of temporal scale Meager attention to no What s new? market values and subjects

13 Methodology Where is Social History? Possible points of contacts: New actors New sources Political engagement But Indifference [vs. the positive outputs of the conflicts with Economic History/mainstream economics]

14 Methodology Lost in Translation? Holism and ecological reductionism EH has been devoted d to find a common vocabulary to communicate with the natural sciences Meager relationships with other historical subfields, with STS studies, or with other social scientists

15 Methodology Three examples

16 Using Looking at the past, seeking the future 1) It can provide a fuller understanding of the rise of conservation and environmentalism around the world 2) It can help to collocate scientific and technological solutions into the social frame 3) environmental history is needed because it can contribute to selfawareness in ecology and other environmental sciences `4) it can give us a deeper knowledge of our economic culture and institutions and of their consequences for the earth 5) Knowing the place where we live

17 Using Never pay much attention to established dogma in the academic world. This is a lesson I learned long ago in graduate school and have been trying to remember ever since. Think for yourself. Pay attention to the world beyond the university. Ask what is going wrong in that world and needs fixing i rather than what is fashionable in the academy. Often they are not the same (Donald Worster)