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Accepted Paper:
A Volumetric Political Ecology of Atmospheres
Ariadne Collins
(University of St. Andrews)
Applying the volumetric lens to the subfield of political ecology, this paper develops an interdisciplinary ecology of atmospheres. It uses the Guiana Shield as a spatial point of reference for examining the ever-evolving interplay of atmospheric spaces in-between that blanket and shape all things.
Paper long abstract:
Emerging scholarship in the social sciences has begun to explore the potential of thinking volumetrically in relation to territory. In so doing, it has convincingly challenged traditional, taken-for-granted surficial modes of analysis, by integrating greater consideration of the subterranean and above ground. Applying this volumetric lens to the subfield of political ecology, this paper develops an interdisciplinary ecology of atmospheres. It uses the Guiana Shield, a highly forested geological formation in the north of South America, as a spatial point of reference for examining the ever-evolving interplay of atmospheric spaces in-between that blanket and shape all things. Building on a social scientific, multi-sited ethnography of avoided deforestation initiatives taking place in the Guiana Shield combined with a humanities-driven awareness of the multiple meanings of the English word ‘weather’ in both its noun and verb forms, this paper analyzes the geological, biological, and socio-political processes through which atmospheres, including climate changed ones, emerge, and go on to encompass their reference points. The conception of atmospheres I develop further integrates an awareness of ecological processes into political ecology, a tradition accused of often assuming the centrality of the ‘political’ in investigating ecological change.