ecology

In this special section on affective ecologies, Julia Hobson Haggerty, Elizabeth Lynne Rink, Robert McAnally, and Elizabeth Bird study the restoration of bison/buffalo by the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes to their reservation in Montana in the United States. They argue that ecological restoration can promote and facilitate emergent and dynamic processes of reconnection at the scale of individuals, across species and within communities.

By privileging music as a focus for applied ecology, Robin Ryan aims to deepen perspectives on the musical representation of land in an age of complex environmental challenge.

Looking to the work of Samuel R. Delaney, Sarah Ensor asks what it would mean to use the practice of cruising as a model for a new ecological ethic more deeply attuned to our impersonal intimacies with the human, nonhuman, and elemental strangers that constitute both our environment and ourselves.

Susanna Lidström and Greg Garrard trace the development of “ecopoetry” from the Romantic and deep ecological traditions of the 1980s to the complex environmental concerns of the 2010s.

Deane-Drummond’s article for the Special Commentary section focuses on Pope Francis’s statements about Catholicism, the environment, and social issues. She analyses how his choice of terminology and the concepts he engages set him apart from others speaking out on climate and inequality, and recognizes his contribution to environmental humanities literature.

Northcott’s article for the Special Commentary section discusses the content of Pope Francis’s Laudato si’, highlighting the economic implications of the Pope’s statements and the theological basis for them in the Christian tradition and elsewhere.

Goodchild’s article for the Special Commentary section analyzes Pope Francis’s Laudato si, focusing particularly on the concept of connectedness and the economic changes necessary for the Pope’s statements to become reality.

Gremaud’s article analyses representations of nature as brand and resource in current Icelandic society, through an interdisciplinary approach involving cultural geography and visual methodologies.

Etienne Sabatier and Charlie Huveneers examine media portrayals of human-shark encounters between 2011 and 2013 in the state of Western Australia, arguing that negative framing by media feeds public anxiety.

Chisholm’s article explores how contemporary music cultivates ecological thinking and climate-change awareness. Her essay investigates the music of John Luther Adams and his style of composing with climatic elements and natural forces.