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People and Plants

People and Plants Plants have all too often been relegated to the margins—their diversity and vitality obscuredwithin generic terms such as “habitat,” “landscape,” or “agriculture.” A green “background tohuman activity” (Rival 2016: 147; Sheridan, this volume), plants, the foundation of life on thisplanet, have frequently failed to compete with the charismatic fauna, let alone the anthropocentrismthat dominates the Western cultural imagination. Th is marginalization has not onlybeen due to an oversight by the social sciences but also, just as readily it seems, neglect by thenatural sciences. Since Aristotle set in motion the perception of plants as passive and insensitivethey have largely been overlooked and it was not until the late eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies that western scientists began to comprehend the active relationship that plants havewith the world (Gagliano 2013). Recent research on plants, however, is now expanding ourappreciation both of the fundamental role plants have in the function and health of the livingworld (CBD 2010; Smith et al. 2011), and of their own intimate interactions within it (Chamovitz2012; Marder 2013; Myers 2014)—sparking what some have optimistically anticipated as a“plant-turn.” http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Environment and Society Berghahn Books

People and Plants

Lewis-Jones, Kay E.
Environment and Society , Volume 7 (1): 7 – Sep 1, 2016
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Publisher
Berghahn Books
Copyright
© Berghahn Books
ISSN
2150-6779
eISSN
2150-6787
DOI
10.3167/ares.2016.070101
Publisher site
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Abstract

Plants have all too often been relegated to the margins—their diversity and vitality obscuredwithin generic terms such as “habitat,” “landscape,” or “agriculture.” A green “background tohuman activity” (Rival 2016: 147; Sheridan, this volume), plants, the foundation of life on thisplanet, have frequently failed to compete with the charismatic fauna, let alone the anthropocentrismthat dominates the Western cultural imagination. Th is marginalization has not onlybeen due to an oversight by the social sciences but also, just as readily it seems, neglect by thenatural sciences. Since Aristotle set in motion the perception of plants as passive and insensitivethey have largely been overlooked and it was not until the late eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies that western scientists began to comprehend the active relationship that plants havewith the world (Gagliano 2013). Recent research on plants, however, is now expanding ourappreciation both of the fundamental role plants have in the function and health of the livingworld (CBD 2010; Smith et al. 2011), and of their own intimate interactions within it (Chamovitz2012; Marder 2013; Myers 2014)—sparking what some have optimistically anticipated as a“plant-turn.”

Journal

Environment and Society – Berghahn Books

Published: Sep 1, 2016

References

  • Is There a Role for Ontologies in Understanding Plant Knowledge Systems?
    Ellen