Revenant Ecologies: Defying the Violence of Extinction and Conservation

Revenant Ecologies argues that conservation efforts ignore structural violence, contributing to the destruction of unique life forms and ecosystems. It promotes (bio)plurality as a framework to transform global ecological–political relations and offers practical alternatives to address extinction through land return and challenging discourses on "human extinction."

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 392 pages
Publication date: 11 January 2024
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

As the rates of plant and animal extinctions continue to rise, concerns about the future of Earth's ecosystems are driving increasingly ambitious conservation efforts. These efforts draw on Western scientific principles to manage species and biodiversity, but in Revenant Ecologies, Audra Mitchell argues that these responses not only ignore but also exacerbate powerful forms of structural violence such as colonialism, racism, genocide, extractivism, ableism, and heteronormativity. Ultimately, these responses contribute to the destruction of unique life forms and ecosystems.

Critiquing the Western discourse of global extinction and biodiversity through the lens of diverse Indigenous philosophies and other marginalized knowledge systems, Revenant Ecologies promotes new ways of articulating the ethical enormity of global extinction. Mitchell offers an ambitious framework called (bio)plurality, which focuses on nurturing unique, irreplaceable worlds, relationships, and ecosystems. The goal is to transform global ecological-political relations, including through processes of land return and critically confronting discourses on "human extinction."

Highlighting the deep violence that underpins ideas of "extinction," "conservation," and "biodiversity," Revenant Ecologies fuses political ecology, global ethics, and violence studies to offer concrete, practical alternatives. It also foregrounds the ways that multi-life-form worlds are actively defying the forms of violence that drive extinction—and that shape global efforts to manage it.

In addition, the retail e-book files for this title are designed to be screen-reader friendly, with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.

Weight: 482g
Dimension: 216 x 140 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517906818