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Paper short abstract:

The plantation is a logic, form and structure through which inequalities are realised. We examine how the plantation subsumes social and ecological relations into capitalist regimes, explore resistance to plantations and consider possibilities for reparative and convivial futures.

Paper long abstract:

Plantations have shaped, and continue to shape, ecologies and societies. From the erasure of Indigenous ecologies to the exploitation of enslaved and bonded labour, the plantation is a human-nature entanglement that may be considered a logic, form and structure through which inequalities are realised. The continued development of plantations also drives the loss of biodiversity and results in greenhouse gas emissions. Attention is needed to better understand the plantation and imagine possibilities for sustainability and justice. With colleagues from multiple disciplines, we examine historical and contemporary perspectives on the ‘plantation’ and its processes of subsuming social and ecological relations into capitalist regimes through the appropriation of cheap natures, and the differentiated effects of these processes. We examine how plantation logics (of erasure, replacement, simplification, extraction, and exploitation) shape and reshape social and ecological relations beyond the boundaries of plantations through global markets and technologies, and resistance to these logics. We seek to explore processes of resistance to plantations and consider possibilities for convivial and reparative futures.