What is nature and how has it been defined historically? How do we address the issues of environmental justice, when the environment, and that which is worth protecting, means different things to different people? In this paper I argue that nature is constructed by different aspects of being and interacting with one’s environment. Nature has historically been defined as natural, or what humans have not affected. It is also the raw materials that humans can use and manipulate and transform into something of value. It is separate from humans and society. I argue that one’s relationship with nature is as constructed and influenced by culture as it is natural. In present day society, it is impossible to find a facet of nature that humans have not altered or impacted in some way. Just as humans change nature, nature changes us. By looking at literature that has informed the environmental movement in the U.S. I will further this analysis by employing feminist methodology to highlight alternative conceptions of nature that have often been ignored and viewed as not legitimate knowledge such as those of feminist and indigenous scholars.
Conceptions of Nature in the Anthropocene: How Capitalism Shapes Our Relationship with Nature