Description
Book SynopsisNature in Modernity: Servant, Citizen, Queen or Comrade explores the origins and implications of the mastery of nature agenda within Western culture and argues that there is a long-standing parallel shadow tradition grounded instead in mutuality, respect and reciprocity. This is explored in a series of chapters that focus on our hunter-gatherer heritage, the shift to a more sedentary and agricultural life and the subsequent emergence of mastery of self and nature as the dominant cultural objective. The impact of this mastery agenda on the natural environment is explored and a case made that our current ecological crisis has its origins in this tradition of mastery. A counter tradition is examined, identifying a range of cultural tools grounded in alternative traditions, tools that can be used to create a culture of care, mutuality and reciprocity in which it will be logical to welcome nature in all its complexity as a fellow citizen.
Trade Review«Professor Stephen Duguid, a distinguished humanist, has poured a lifetime of teaching, research, reflection, and anger, into this sweeping and important book. He uses a wide range of disciplines to explain what needs to change in government, economics, philosophy and religion if humans are to become members and not destructive masters of the ecological community. For a readable, one-book overview of the history and possibilities of human-nature relationships, this is my top recommendation.» (Roderick Nash, Professor Emeritus of History and Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara; author of ‘Wilderness and the American Mind’ and ‘The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics’)
