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Feral ecologies: the making of postcolonial nature in London

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Barua, Maan 

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pThrough an ethnography of parakeets and other denizens in London, this article expounds the concept of the feral and foregrounds its purchase for an anthropological inquiry into urban life. Ecological, cultural, and political connotations of ferality impinge upon evaluations of what counts and is allowed to flourish as metropolitan nature. Ferality is constructed through nativist and racial taxonomies which promote a biopolitics of eradicating parakeets. At the same time, parakeets trigger new ‘recombinant' ecological associations when they enter into relations with other avian life. They also foster affective alignments with people that create possibilities for a more just politics of dwelling. The feral recasts London's metropolitan nature as postcolonial and opens up novel ways of doing urban anthropology.</jats:p>

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Keywords

Original Article, Original Articles

Journal Title

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1359-0987
1467-9655

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley