1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910465613103321

Autore

Rajan S. Ravi

Titolo

Modernizing nature [[electronic resource] ] : forestry and imperial eco-development 1800-1950 / / S. Ravi Rajan

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oxford, : Clarendon Press

Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 2006

ISBN

0-19-151546-9

1-280-75817-1

9786610758173

1-4294-2187-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (303 p.)

Collana

Oxford historical monographs

Disciplina

634.9/209034

Soggetti

Forest management - History - 19th century

Forest management - History - 20th century

Electronic books.

Great Britain Colonies History 19th century

Great Britain Colonies History 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [242]-265) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; List of Figures and Tables; 1. Introduction; 1.1. Science and Colonial Environmental History; 1.2. The Case of British Colonial Forestry; 1.2.1. Historical Overview; 1.2.2. Historiographical Overview; 1.3. The Framework of the Book; 1.3.1. The Outline of the Chapters; 2. A Contract with Nature; 2.1. The Climatic Benefits of Forests; 2.2. The Continental Forestry Tradition; 2.2.1. Stages in the Development of German Forestry: A Brief Overview; 2.2.2. German Forestry as an Ideology of Resource Use; 2.2.3. German Forestry and Society; 2.2.4. French Forestry

2.2.5. Modern French Forestry and People2.3. Resonant Themes; 2.3.1. Modernizing Nature; 2.3.2. Emancipatory Appropriation and Technocracy; 2.4. Conclusion; 3. The Empire of Nature; 3.1. The Campaign for Forest Conservancy in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century; 3.1.1. Forests and Climate; 3.1.2. The Ethos of Colonial Science and the Economic Argument for Conservation; 3.1.3. The



Campaign for Forest Conservancy in the Cape; 3.2. The Onset of Continental Forestry in the British Empire; 3.2.1. Indian Foresters and Forest Management; 3.2.2. Indian Forestry as an Attitude to Nature

3.2.3. Indian Forestry and Society3.2.4. Foresters and Other Colonial Officials; 3.2.5. Empire Forestry, 1850-1900: The Wider Scenario; 3.3. Conclusions; 4. The Empire Strikes Back; 4.1. Introduction; 4.2. The Contexts of the Empire Forestry Conferences; 4.2.1. Changing Attitudes to Science Policy; 4.2.2. The First World War and Forestry; 4.2.3. The Origins of the Empire Forestry Conferences; 4.2.4. Science, Colonial Development, and Conferences, 1928-1952; 4.3. Foresters and Colonial Forest Policy; 4.3.1. Forest Policy at the Empire Forestry Conferences; 4.4. Conclusion

5. The Imperial Environmentalist5.1. Paradigm Articulation; 5.1.1. The 'Classical' Problems; 5.1.2. Organization and Institution Building for Research; 5.1.3. Resonant Themes; 5.2. Agro-forestry Dilemmas; 5.2.1. Empire Foresters and the Debate on Shifting Cultivation; 5.2.2. Foresters and the Politics of Soil Erosion; 5.2.3. Wider Issues; 5.2.4. Resonant Themes; 5.3. Conclusion; 6. The Contested Legacy; 6.1. The Nature of Colonial Forestry: A Revisionist Account; 6.2. Postscript: Widening the Argument; Appendix 1: Syllabus and Coursework at Nancy

Appendix 2: Brief Profiles of Some Colonial Scientist-Conservationists in India in the Period 1800-1850Appendix 3: A List of Participants at the Empire Forestry Conferences; Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; X; Y; Z

Sommario/riassunto

Professor Rajan explores the origins, institutionalization, and politics of the sciences and systems of knowledge underlying colonial frameworks of environmental management. He disagrees with those historiographical and social scientific approaches that look upon science and scientific institutions instrumentally as 'tools of empire'. Rather, he argues that the 'colonial' sciences had cognitive, ideological, and interventionist traditions distinct from each other and from the colonial bureaucracy and that histories of science, environmental management, and indeed of the colonial state, must co