The working landscape: Work, place, and the foundations of a green, democratic politics

Both environmentalists and their opponents regard humanity's relationship with the natural world in such a way as to perceive a fundamental conflict between ecological responsibility and political democracy. This conflict is largely illusory, yet its perception fosters partisanship and divisiveness on ecological issues. This dissertation analyzes this flawed perception and offers an alternative approach to environmental problems and politics. The author begins with an illustrative case study in American environmental politics, the debate and impasse over logging in the Pacific Northwest. The author then focuses on how Americans view two basic interactions with the natural world: the physical transformation and use of our environment through the activity of material work, and the conceptual and physical organization of our surroundings into a coherent map through the activity of place. Drawing upon texts in political and social theory, environmental thought and history, political economy, and geography, the author argues that Americans hold a mistaken view of material work and place, a view that fuels perceptions of conflict between ecological and democratic values. The author then offers his own conceptualization of material work and place. These activities, he argues, are coherent, complex social practices that secure important societal values, among them ecological responsibility and a commitment to democratic politics. A full consideration of material work and place as practices shows ecological and democratic values to be in key ways both compatible and interdependent. Such an exploration of material work and place can therefore help to resolve the current impasse in environmental politics and suggest a set of political values and policies that would establish a more sustainable and morally considerate relationship with the natural world and at the same time enhance grassroots democracy. This political and policy framework, which is already implicit in contemporary movements like environmental justice and grassroots ecosystem management, the author calls the working landscape .