What is Nature Culture, Politics and the Non-Human [Paperback]

'This is an excellent book. It addresses what, in both conceptual and political terms, is arguably the most important source of tension and confusion in current arguments about the environment, namely the concept of nature; and it does so in a way that is both sensitive to, and critical of, the two antithetical ways of understanding this that dominate existing discussions.' Russell Keat, University of Edinburgh

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction 1

1 The Discourses of Nature 15

2 Nature, Human, and Inhuman 37

3 Nature, Friend and Foe 71

4 Nature and Sexual Politics 119

5 Nature and ‘Nature’ 149

6 The Space and Time of Nature 180

7 Loving Nature 213

8 Ecology, Nature and Responsibility 249

Index 283

This is an excellent book. It addresses what, in both conceptual and political terms, is arguably the most important source of tension and confusion in current arguments about the environment, namely the concept of nature; and it does so in a way that is both sensitive to, and critical of, the two antithetical ways of understanding this that dominate existing discussions. Russell Keat, University of Edinburgh

Pondering the related issues of environmental crisis and sustainability, readers will benefit greatly from close study of Kate Soper's extended essay on the discourse of nature and 'nature'. W. Lukin, University of London

Kate Soper is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of North London. She has worked as a journalist and translator, and has written extensively on politics, philosophy and feminist issues. During the eighties, she was a prominent activist in the END movement. She is a longstanding member of the Radical Philoló&