Extending community to nature under-theorizes the recognition required

Evidence

The problem is not with the idea of extending the community of justice to nature; this is a valuable conception, and one used by many environmental discourses and movement groups. Yet, as illustrated by Baxter, many in this field understate both the importance and meaning of recognition in this proposal. Respect for other community members, and the larger natural community as well, is central to Leopold’s view. Likewise, and referring to Leopold, de-Shalit (1997: 84) argues that environmental theory simply asks for an extension of the essential respect at the heart of liberalism. But theorists of recognition have noted that liberal justice theory simply does not explore the underlying obstacles to, and demands for, such respect. Baxter follows this trend; while he sees the extension of the community of justice in simple enough terms, he does not examine the underlying social, cultural, and political issues around this level of recognition of nature—something absolutely necessary in order to transform such a theory into social practice. The point here is that while various distributional approaches to expanding the community of justice—even the most thorough—ultimately rely on human recognition of nature as a support system, none thoroughly examine the process of, or obstacles to, the recognition necessary for a pragmatic implementation of the theory. In other words, their understanding of the recognition of nature is thoroughly under theorized. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 432

Categorization

• XREF: Picks up ch.20’s claim that recognition cannot be distributed like goods and adds that even community extensionists skip the social-obstacle analysis recognition demands. — connects to: Deep ecology’s core notion of identification is apolitical and individualist. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 91; Ecological restoration requires first knowing the organisms by name as individuals. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 298; Low and Gleeson’s own distributive principles secretly rest on recognition of nature — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 409 (+1 more)