MF CASR Lunch with Maren Seehawer

Sustainability vs. Democracy of Species: How Much Can We Take vs. What Can We Give?

In the talk, I share insights from two interconnected projects in progress that explore and contrast understandings to “sustainability”. The first is a Bacchi (2009)-inspired "What's the Problem Represented to Be?" analysis of the 1987 Brundtland Report Our Common Future. The report famously defined sustainable development as meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This definition has shaped sustainability policy for four decades, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

The second project explores Robin Wall Kimmerer's (2013) concept of Democracy of Species, an understanding of “sustainability” that emphasizes reciprocal human-nonhuman relationships and a holistic understanding of “nature”. I illustrate this concept through examples from Sápmi and Southern Africa, with particular attention to verb-based languages. Contrasting the Brundtland commission's anthropocentric definition of “sustainability” with Democracy of Species, I extend Bacchi's approach beyond policy documents to ask: What is the problem represented to be in Democracy of Species?