Juanita Sundberg

Decolonizing posthumanist geographies

This paper engages my struggles to craft geo-graphs or earth writings that also further broaden political goals of decolonizing the discipline of geography. To this end, I address a body of literature roughly termed ‘posthumanism’ because it offers powerful tools to identify and critique dualist constructions of nature and culture that work to uphold Eurocentric knowledge and the colonial present. However, I am discomforted by the ways in which geographical engagements with posthumanism tend to reproduce colonial ways of knowing and being by enacting universalizing claims and, consequently, further subordinating other ontologies. Building from this discomfort, I elaborate a critique of geographical-posthumanist engagements. Taking direction from Indigenous and decolonial theorizing, the paper identifies two Eurocentric performances common in posthumanist geographies and analyzes their implications. I then conclude with some thoughts about steps to decolonize geo-graphs. To this end, I take up learnings offered by the Zapatistas. My goal is to foster geographical engagements open to conversing with and walking alongside other epistemic worlds.

Masculinist Epistemologies and the Politics of Fieldwork in Latin Americanist Geography

Abstract Given the importance of fieldwork in Latin Americanist geography, it is intriguing to note the absence of a dialogue about the politics of fieldwork within the subdiscipline. Drawing from feminist theories about the production of knowledge, this article suggests that the silence about fieldwork is rooted in masculinist epistemologies that predominate in Latin Americanist geography. After analyzing the epistemological and pedagogical implications of masculinism, I argue for increased attention to the nexus of power and knowledge and in particular, to how the researchers geographic location, social status, race, and gender fundamentally shape the questions asked, the data collected, and the interpretation of the data. Dialogue about these issues in our teaching and writing not only will better prepare students for fieldwork, but also has the potential to foster research that subverts rather than reproduces power inequalities. *The thirty-seven individuals who responded to my survey, sent out in January 2001, made this article possible; my warmest appreciation goes out to each person who took the time to ponder and respond to my questions. An earlier version of this article was presented at the AAG Annual Meetings in New York in February 2001; as I had taken ill, I wish to thank Scott Prudham for delivering the paper on my behalf (a performance that is now legendary). I also thank Ines Mijares, Alison Mountz, Geraldine Pratt, Minelle Mahtani, and Scott Prudham for comments and encouragement. The five reviewers for this article provided additional insights that strengthened the article. However, I am responsible for the arguments presented here, as well as any and all errors.

Diabolic Caminos in the Desert and Cat Fights on the Río: A Posthumanist Political Ecology of Boundary Enforcement in the United States–Mexico Borderlands

This article makes the case for addressing nonhumans as actors in geopolitical processes such as boundary making and enforcement. The challenge of this line of argumentation is to account for nonhumans as actors without enacting dualistic ontologies that locate the natural and social in separate realms. To address this methodological challenge, I present a posthumanist political ecology. I elaborate my argument and methodological approach in relation to my research on the environmental dimensions of U.S. border security. Specifically, I examine how deserts, rivers, Tamaulipan Thornscrub, and cats inflect, disrupt, and obstruct the daily practices of boundary enforcement, leading state actors to call for more funding, infrastructure, boots on the ground, and surveillance technology. As my research illustrates, taking nonhumans seriously as actors alters explanations for the escalation of U.S. enforcement strategies.

A Manifesto for Abundant Futures

The concept of the Anthropocene is creating new openings around the question of how humans ought to intervene in the environment. In this article, we address one arena in which the Anthropocene is prompting a sea change: conservation. The path emerging in mainstream conservation is, we argue, neoliberal and postnatural. We propose an alternative path for multispecies abundance. By abundance we mean more diverse and autonomous forms of life and ways of living together. In considering how to enact multispecies worlds, we take inspiration from Indigenous and peasant movements across the globe as well as decolonial and postcolonial scholars. With decolonization as our principal political sensibility, we offer a manifesto for abundance and outline political strategies to reckon with colonial-capitalist ruins, enact pluriversality rather than universality, and recognize animal autonomy. We advance these strategies to support abundant socioecological futures.

Cactus Carvings and Desert Defecations: Embodying Representations of Border Crossings in Protected Areas on the Mexico—US Border

Recent strategies to enforce the United States boundary with Mexico have shifted undocumented immigrants into remote lands federally designated as protected areas (as in national park or national wildlife refuge). Government and media institutions represent such entries as a threat to nature. In this paper we argue that representations and interpretations of threats to nature in border-protected areas are laden with identity attachments. In repeatedly defining that which is threatened as ‘American’, such discourses work to draw boundaries around the nation, thereby narrating inclusion and exclusion.

Conservation and democratization: constituting citizenship in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala

Abstract How does environmental protection intersect with processes of democratization in Latin America? This paper examines this question with a case study in Guatemala centered on the Maya Biosphere Reserve. In particular, I explore how individuals and collectives—who are differently situated socially, politically, and geographically—conceptualize and negotiate the linkages between conservation and democratization in Guatemala. Drawing upon interviews with key players as well as my ethnographic research on the daily practices of conservation in the reserve, I suggest that democratization and environmental protection in Guatemala intersect in uneasy and paradoxical ways. At the heart of these contradictions lay historical patterns of exclusion that restrict who counts as a political actor, (environmental) decision-maker, and therefore citizen. The recent emergence of environmental movements and new conservation policies in Latin American countries is frequently tied to the restoration of democratic regimes in the 1980s. As Stephen Mumme and Edward Korzetz (1997: 46) contend, “liberalization and democratization create a host of new opportunities for environmental mobilization and policy development in the region”. Latin American leaders support the presumed congruence between environmental protection and democracies, as outlined in Our Own Agenda, the Latin American response to the Brundtland Report ( UNDP, 1990 ; Gabaldon, 1992 ). ‘Green’ activists working in North American or European contexts also promote the notion that environmentalism is essentially a democratic ideology ( Eckersley, 1992 ; see also Payne, 1995 ). Such claims are hotly contested at theoretical or philosophical levels ( Dobson, 1996 , Goodin, 1992 , Saward, 1993 ), while empirical researchers find little evidence of natural congruence ( Carruthers, 2001 , Lafferty and Meadowcroft, 1996 , Midlarsky, 1998 , Walker, 1999 ). Instead, ample data demonstrate that conservationist objectives can be and are met without consideration for democratic procedures ( Campbell, 2000 , Neumann, 1998 , Peluso, 1992 ). In short, although we may wish that environmental protection be accomplished through democratic means, there are no essential linkages between these two social imperatives. Consequently, understanding if and how environmental protection projects support or foster democracy requires geographically situated empirical analysis that is attentive to social relations and every day practices. This paper contributes to the on-going debate about the linkages between environmental protection and democracy with a case study in Guatemala centered on the Maya Biosphere Reserve, created in 1990 to protect 1.6 million hectares of tropical lowland flora and fauna. Specifically, I explore how individuals and collectives—who are differently situated socially, politically, and geographically—conceptualize and negotiate the linkages between conservation and democratization in Guatemala. My interviews with key players as well as my ethnographic research on the daily practices of conservation in the reserve lead me to suggest that democratization and environmental protection in Guatemala intersect in uneasy and paradoxical ways. At the heart of these contradictions lay historical patterns of exclusion that restrict who counts as a political actor, (environmental) decision-maker, and therefore citizen. Citizenship, then, is central to my analysis and I begin this paper outlining how and why this concept is particularly relevant in the Latin American context. I then turn to a more fine-grained analysis of citizenship formation in Guatemala, with a focus on the transition to democracy and emerging environmental movements. Drawing upon interviews with key players in the environmental movement, I consider how the social and political exclusions organizing Guatemalan society shaped the implementation of protected area legislation and the Maya Biosphere Reserve in particular. I next examine how the reserve’s inhabitants experienced the imposition of new environmental governance strategies. In two ethnographic vignettes, I analyze how two social groups, whose class position, gender, and race have historically limited their access to citizenship, negotiated the daily practices of conservation projects. In each case, the outcomes are at once uneven, contradictory, and promising. My analysis draws upon qualitative research between 1996 and 1997 on the politics of conservation in Guatemala and the Maya Biosphere Reserve. I conducted additional fieldwork in August 2000, focusing specifically on the relationship between environmental protection and processes of democratization. 1 Unless otherwise noted, all quotations are taken from my taped interviews and field-notes, which I have translated from Spanish. With the exception of some public officials, all names have been omitted/changed to protect the identity of the men and women working both to protect Guatemala’s bio-physical landscapes and to create a more just society. I also wish to note that the analysis presented here is necessarily selective and partial (after Haraway, 1991 ). I did not speak to everyone, nor am I speaking for anyone. Rather, I have constructed this narrative to make a particular argument about conservation, democratization, and social inequality in the hopes that future generations will consider the broader political implications of environmental protection in specific geographical contexts.

Conservation encounters: transculturation in the ‘contact zones’ of empire

In the last 20 years, Latin American countries have experienced a boom in conservation territories. At the same time, neoliberal restructuring of Latin American economies has devolved funding and management responsibilities to international NGOs. In this context, conservation projects have become important zones of encounter and contact, wherein those inhabiting protected areas are necessarily subject to and subjected by the discourses and practices of conservation institutions. How do local actors engage with these processes? This paper examines the cultural politics of conservation encounters in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a protected area in Guatemalas northern department of Petén. Drawing upon the concept of transculturation and anti–essentialist framings of subject formation as performative, I outline how differently situated social groups in the reserve negotiate, contest and enact the daily discourses and practices of conservation as articulated by powerful US based international organizations.

Placing Race in Environmental Justice Research in Latin America

This article argues that human-environment relations are important, yet neglected sites in which racial hierarchies are constituted in Latin America. Unmapping how race articulates with environmental formations to constitute subjects, determine their social and geographical place, and organize space will enable better understandings of how environmental injustices in Latin America are organized, justified, but also reconfigured.

Conservation as a Site for Democratization in Latin America: Exploring the Contradictions in Guatemala

Abstract In Latin America, environmental protection is key to sustainable development, and yet, the single-minded pursuit of environmental objectives has the potential to conflict with inclusive decision-making processes. This paper examines the contradictory relations between environmentalism and democracy as they are played out in conservation projects through a case-study analysis of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. Drawing from my ethnographic research on the daily practices of conservation, I argue that the states authoritarian approach to implementing the reserve did little to foster democratic social relations and institutions, and in fact relied upon violent and exclusionary measures. At the same time, however, NGOs have strengthened local institutions by providing access to new networks that offer not only financial but also political support.

The state of exception and the imperial way of life in the United States—Mexico borderlands

This paper situates recent events in the US–Mexico borderlands in relation to modalities of power used in the expansion of US imperial hegemony. Specifically, I link acts of legal suspension to expedite construction of border barriers on the US southern border with genealogies of imperial dispossession and racial violence to build an argument about imperialism as a way of life in the US. In so doing, my goal is to support ongoing efforts to forge coalitions better able to contest legal suspension as a predominant technique of government.