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Feral ecologies: the making of postcolonial nature in London

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Abstract

Through a series of encounters with parakeets and other denizens in London, this paper expounds the concept of the feral and explores its purchase for an anthropological inquiry into urban life. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, I specify ecological, cultural and political connotations of ferality. I show how ferality impinges upon evaluations of what counts and is allowed to flourish as metropolitan nature. Whilst constructed through nativist and racial taxonomies, ferality simultaneously refashions the city into a postcolonial formation, sparking both xenophobic and hospitable responses in urban dwellers. The paper draws attention to new ecological associations that parakeets trigger as they enter into relations with other avians. It argues that feral ecologies signal possibilities for a more just politics of postcolonial nature and prise open novel ways of doing urban anthropology.

Description

Keywords

4301 Archaeology, 4401 Anthropology, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, 44 Human Society

Journal Title

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1359-0987

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
European Research Council (759239)
the European Research Council Horizon 2020 Starting Grant Urban Ecologies: governing nonhuman life in global cities (Grant No. 759239)