León Araya, Andrés. Review of The Nature of Spectacle: On Images, Money, and Conservation Capitalism, by Jim Igoe, Conservation & Society 16, no. 3 (2018): 385-86. doi:10.4103/cs.cs_18_55.
The Nature of Spectacle is a fascinating book that explores the relationship between conservation, images and money in today’s neoliberal era. Mainly informed by Guy Debord’s concept of the spectacle, Anna Tsing’s notion of spectacular accumulation and Karl Marx’s ideas on money and commodity fetishism, Igoe introduces us into the world of global conservation as it takes shape in Tanzania’s northern safari circuit. According to Igoe, “This book, as the title suggests, is about nature spectacle, which refers most basically to a kind of nature that is heavily mediated by mass-produced and –disseminated images” (p. x). Central to the book is the argument that within the conservation world, certain types of images of nature are created to produce and represent certain realities that are disconnected from the contexts, people and the social relations that produced them. (Excerpt from author’s book review)
© Andrés León Araya 2018. Conservation & Society is available online only and is published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 2.5).