Immer Ärger mit der Natur

"Ökologie als neues Opium für's Volk"

Abstract

In The notion of "nature" constitutes an empty signifier, which is colonized and filled with meaning by scientists, experts and policy-makers, and through a variety of techno-administrative procedures. This is a gesture par excellence of de-politicization, of placing "nature" outside the field of public dispute, contestation, and disagreement. In order to find a democratic and socially inclusive response to the current "environmental crisis", we need to abandon the concept of "nature". Instead, we need to re-conceputalize "nature" as a socio-environmental process, and reclaim democratic public spaces, which allow us to discuss the conditions for more egalitarian socio-ecological arrangements.