Abstract Type: Presentation as part of an organized session
Abstract TitleCoral and crown-of-thorns starfish: Negotiating desired life in the Great Barrier Reef
Presented in session:
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Abstract
The Great Barrier Reef is a complex and dynamic socio-ecological assemblage, co-fabricated in the connections between myriad lives, objects, forces, rhythms and practices. Although this has been playing out over millennia, in recent decades concern has intensified around the Reef’s future under climate change. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted under the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, this paper explores how the considerable investments being made to help secure this future can be understood as a series of more-than-human experiments concerned with cultivating the adaptive capacity of the Reef and its ‘lively capital’ (Haraway 2008). New instrumental relations between humans and coral lie at the heart of these experiments and they are also contingent on the moderation of counter-productive lifeforms such as the crown-of-thorns starfish. Using empirical examples, we reflect on some of the implications of this ‘calculated management of life’ (Foucault 1978, p.140) and the difficult questions it prompts as we collectively work to create equitable environmental futures.
Related Conference Topic Area
human dimensions of wildlife
Manager Session?
Presenter Information
First Name Gillian |
Last Name Paxton |
Affiliation James Cook University |
Author(s) Information
Author | First Name | Last Name | Affiliation |
1 | Gillian | Paxton | James Cook University |
2 | Stewart | Lockie | James Cook University |
3 | Henry | Bartelet | James Cook University |