Journal article
The global tree: Forests and the possibility of a multispecies IR
Review of International Studies, Vol.49(Special Issue 2), pp.223-240
2023
Abstract
Forest ecosystems are crucial to survival on Earth. This article argues that trees and forests are both vital components of a healthy Earth system and productive examples for expanding International Relations’ disciplinary boundaries. The article discusses the forest in three contexts: the global, the (post)colonial, and from the tree itself. From tree planting as a practice of social and environmental justice, to postcolonial and Indigenous science and knowledge, to the mycorrhizal ‘wood wide web’, a focus on trees, forests, and biosphere opens the possibility for a multispecies IR. Through a consideration of trees and forests in law, treaty, culture, and science at the local and global level, this article adds to a growing literature in IR that strives to bring the non-human, more-than-human, or other-than-human creatively and productively into the discipline. Foregrounding the forest's materiality and trees’ symbolic power for human cultures opens important pathways to understanding how the non-human is, and should, alter and affect global politics.
Details
- Title
- The global tree: Forests and the possibility of a multispecies IR
- Authors
- Stefanie Fishel (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and Society
- Publication details
- Review of International Studies, Vol.49(Special Issue 2), pp.223-240
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- DOI
- 10.1017/S0260210522000286
- ISSN
- 1469-9044
- Organisation Unit
- School of Law and Society; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99656498102621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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