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Bioregionalism, Cultural Identity and Environmental Ethics

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Bioregionalism, Cultural Identity and Environmental Ethics A LOCAL APPROACH TO HOLISTIC ENVIRONMENTALISM: BIOREGIONALISM, CULTURAL IDENTITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Dominique Alejandra Waissbluth Kingma ORCID 0000-0002-7786-3504 Master of Arts (Advanced Seminar and Shorter Thesis) School of History and Philosophical Studies University of Melbourne Australia February 2017 2 Abstract In this work, I elaborate a local approach to holistic environmentalism. This view proposes a holistic understanding of environmental ethical problems that result from the interaction between communities and their surroundings. In particular, as I propose to present it, local holistic environmentalism seeks to account for the ethical dimension of such interaction. Throughout my argument, after offering brief introductory remarks in Chapter 1, I clarify in Chapter 2 what I understand by cultural identity and the environmental problems it involves. In Chapter 3, I examine bioregionalism as a kind of ecophilosophy. I put forward criticisms of this view in order to advance, in Chapter 4, a moderate version of bioregionalism. In Chapter 5, I firstly outline the standard notion of holistic environmentalism and explain how it can help to understand the relationship between communities and their environments. Secondly, I look into Kolers’ views on territorial attachment in ethnogeography, highlighting the importance of a close relationship with the environment. This illustrates the step towards the issue of how communities value the environment in which they dwell. Overall, I conclude that the local reading of holistic environmentalism offers an alternative approach to environmental issues by considering human communities as members and not dominators of the environment. 3 Declaration This is to certify that: i. This thesis comprises only my original work towards the Master of Arts (Advanced Seminar & Shorter Thesis), except where indicated in the preface; ii. Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; iii. The thesis is fewer than 22,000 words, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. 4 Dedicatory This thesis would have not seen the light were it not for my fellow philosopher and husband, Cristian Soto-Herrera. I am in great debt to him for all the times he has listened to my arguments and the many times he read drafts of this thesis. I also thank him for his ability to see through the mess of my mind and direct me to the right path. I also want to dedicate this work to my grandmother Adriana Hayne Etcheverry. Anywhere I go, your memory has held me strong. Thanks for living in my smile. 5 Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, professor Andrew Alexandra, for all the support and guidance he provided me throughout my entire research. Thanks to him I have completed this work successfully. I also want to thank my fellow postgraduate philosophers Cristian, Chloe, Kai, Rebecca, Sean, Alex, Salman, Ari, Madhi, Tristram and Shannon. Not only did they help me with their insights and comments, but also helped me navigate in every sense the University of Melbourne. I am grateful as well to Dominic Lenzi and Marilyn Stendera, fellow postgraduate philosophers at the University of Melbourne as well, for all the conversations, remarks and clarifications on my work in our private conversations, and for the small things that they did in order to help me through these years. The University of Melbourne granted me the Melbourne International Research Scholarship and the Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarship, allowing me to pursue my studies over the period of 2014 – 2016. Last but not least, I want to thank the Hawthorn-Melbourne English Language Centre, from the University of Melbourne, whose English academic program enabled me to achieve the necessary academic English skills I required for carrying out my research. 6 Table of Contents 1. Introductory Remarks 8 1.1. On the Prospects of Local Holistic Environmentalism: Communities and 8 their Environment 10 1.2. Structure of This Thesis 2. Philosophical Issues Regarding the Relationship between Cultural Identity at a 12 Community Level and the Environment 3. An Outline of Bioregionalism 20 3.1. Reading Bioregionalism from the Perspective of Environmental Ethics 20 3.2. People and Locality: A First Reference to the Yaganes Community 26 3.3. How to Plan a Bioregion 28 4. On the Critical Reception of Bioregionalism: a Sketch of a Moderate Version 33 4.1. Concerns Regarding Bioregionalism 33 4.2 A Sketch of Moderate Bioregionalism 39 5. A Local Reading of Holistic Environmentalism 42 5.1. What Is Holistic Environmentalism? 42 5.2. Drawing Considerations from Ethnogeography 47 5.2.1. Attachment 47 5.2.2. What ethnogeography teaches us 50 5.3. Local Holistic Environmentalism 53 6. Concluding Remarks 62 Bibliographic References 66 7 1. Introductory Remarks 1.1. On the prospects of Local Holistic Environmentalism: Communities and their Environment The question I address goes as follows: Can a local reading of holistic1 environmentalism help us understand ethical concerns that arise from the relationship between communities and their environment? In order to clarify why and how this research falls into the category of environmental ethics, I will keep in mind a standard definition of the discipline, which states that environmental ethics is “the discipline that studies the moral relationship of human beings to, and also the value and moral status of, the environment and its nonhuman contents” (See Brennan and Lo 2011, Abstract). Of course, there is more depth to what can be understood as environmental ethics. Yet, for the sake of this thesis length, I will only superficially show in which main areas of the different schools of thought my local reading of holistic environmentalism is circumscribed: In relationship with the discussion between anthropocentrism and ecocentrism2, local holistic environmentalism fits in the ecocentrism spectrum and this is mainly because of its holistic aspect. However, it also shows some features of anthropocentrism in the sense that, the view is focused on how human dwelling could be more environmentally friendly. Additionally, since locality is a very important part of this thesis, contextualism is one subdivision of environmental ethics that encompasses a local holistic environmentalism. As a first step, holistic environmentalism is to be understood as a view that offers an inclusive approach to environmental ethics. This approach should be distinguished from the position from the Croatian Journal The Holistic Approach to Environment that suggests interpreting holistic environmentalism as just encouraging an “amicable co- existence of all beings on Earth”.3 By contrast, I advocate that the relationship between 1 With the concept holism I will primarily understand the interconnectedness of all entities. Afterwards in Ch.5 when talking about the interests of entities I will consider the notion as leading up to the claim that the moral status of different entities works holistically. Finally, in section 5.3 the idea of holism will encompass interconnectedness and the necessity of working in an interdisciplinary manner. 2 I am using the term ecocentrism instead of biocentrism to include in the concept not only the fauna, flora, humans and non-human animals, but also things like the landscape and watersheds. 3 See http://www.cpo.hr/naslovna.html. Although I agree with the general intention of this journal, especially regarding the emphasis on interdisciplinary sources, I do not use its notion of friendly 8 communities and their environment is deeper than the sole “amicable co-existence”, particularly since – for reasons I discuss below – the interaction under consideration has to take place in a fluent and meaningful manner. To this end, with holism I want to emphasise the idea that humans are part and parcel of the environment. In this regard, I undertake in Chapter 5 the elaboration and defence of a local approximation to holistic environmentalism rather than considering it in a more global fashion. Along the way of my argument, it will come to be clear that local holistic environmentalism concentrates on local nature-related constraints in order to raise awareness about ethical concerns, although it should not be understood as suggesting the claim that global environmental constraints are not relevant or that they need to be dismissed. The scope of the various arguments throughout the following chapters related to the local reading of holistic environmentalism can be assessed from different perspectives. The perspectives I want to highlight is the following: local holistic environmentalism encourages us to situate human communities in a sought-after balanced relationship with their surrounding nature emphasising the role of their communities’ attachments to the place in which they dwell. In this respect, I will examine the notion of cultural identity in order to understand in a deeper manner the relationship between communities and their environment. In particular, I aim to show that the examination of the notion of cultural identity is of philosophical relevance so long as it sheds light on central issues in the current debate on environmental ethics. Different communities can develop in various manners, allowing the possibility of building specific cultural identities in relation to various factors. Given that local holistic environmentalism takes into consideration the geographical and climatic conditions, the idea of such conditions having an influence on shaping the cultural identity of communities emerges as a substantial component of the present research. To be sure, this does not imply that geographical location and climatic factors are the only aspects deciding the process of shaping a community’s cultural identity. What is claimed is that they are the aspects that are usually overlooked in ethical analyses, regardless of their importance for the way in which communities conceive of themselves. Accordingly, granted that we are part of the environment, a moral concern emerges as to why we should try to interact with it in a manner that is not only beneficial to humans but to the environment as well.
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