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Paper short abstract:

The concept of invasive alien species is a keyword in environmental work. This paper uses the Garden Lupin as an example, showing how management practices are culturally charged, and working as a nexus for a variety of contesting knowledges concerning invasiveness, landscapes and heritage.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last decades, the concept of invasive alien species has become a loaded keyword in environmental work. How to manage new and threatening plants or animals propels regulations and actions worldwide. Although framed as driven by ecological considerations, such management is fundamentally culturally charged—up for debate are notions of human responsibility, nature as heritage, and understandings of nativeness and belonging.

This paper uses the Garden Lupin, in a Swedish setting, as example, showing how management practices are contextual, alterable and part of meaning-making processes. The Garden Lupine was introduced as a garden plant in the 19th century. Early on, the lupine began to appear wild. From the 1960s onwards, it has been found in larger wild habitats, often along motorways or railways in the greater part of Sweden. It is understood as both alien and invasive, and as a traditional flower. In several way, it has become a signifier of today used in multiple settings. Also, the possibility to eradicate the species is debated.

The management of eradicating garden lupines works as a nexus for a variety of knowledges concerning invasiveness, landscapes and heritage. The paper will focus on questions like, what are recognized as legitimate knowledge and practice in invasive alien species management, and how this is acted out. This will offer an insight into contesting knowledges revealing ideas about the relationship between the past, present and future in environmental work.