Ecological identities are fluid flows that only sometimes cohere into named things

Evidence

An ecological understanding allows us to identify “things”—rain, cloud, river—at the same time that it reminds us that these identities are fluid. Even mountains erode, and the ground below us moves in giant plates. It reminds us that—while it’s useful to have a word for that thing called a cloud—when we really get down to it, all we can really point to is a series of flows and relationships that sometimes intersect and hold together long enough to be a “cloud.” — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 509

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the anti-essentialist ecological view of identity as flows and relationships rather than fixed things.