Feral ecologies: the making of postcolonial nature in London

Autor: Barua, Maan
Přispěvatelé: Barua, Maan [0000-0002-6539-8131], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 28:896-919
ISSN: 1467-9655
1359-0987
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.13653
Popis: Through a series of encounters with parakeets and other denizens in London, this paper expounds the concept of the feral and explores its purchase for an anthropological inquiry into urban life. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, I specify ecological, cultural and political connotations of ferality. I show how ferality impinges upon evaluations of what counts and is allowed to flourish as metropolitan nature. Whilst constructed through nativist and racial taxonomies, ferality simultaneously refashions the city into a postcolonial formation, sparking both xenophobic and hospitable responses in urban dwellers. The paper draws attention to new ecological associations that parakeets trigger as they enter into relations with other avians. It argues that feral ecologies signal possibilities for a more just politics of postcolonial nature and prise open novel ways of doing urban anthropology.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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