Antonsich_native and alien_repository.pdf (279.62 kB)
Download fileNatives and aliens: who and what belongs in nature and in the nation?
The distinction between native and alien species is a main tenet of various natural
sciences, invasion biology in particular. However, it is also a contested one, as it does not reflect the
biological features of a species, but only its place of origin and migration history. The present article
offers a brief genealogy of the native/alien divide and argues that central to this binary is a national
thinking which divides the world into distinct (national) units, enclosed by (natural) borders, with a
unique (native) population attached to these spatial units. The article illustrates this argument by
looking at two interrelated processes: the nationalisation of nature, by which the national thinking
intervenes as an organising principle in determining ecological inclusion/exclusion, and the
naturalisation of the nation, through which the nation is given an ontological status. Taken together
these two processes confirm the continuing salience of the nation as a b-ordering principle actively
constituting both the social and natural world, also in times of anthropogenic changes and increasing
people’s mobility.
History
School
- Social Sciences and Humanities
Department
- Geography and Environment