ABSTRACT
Much environmental, ecological and nature writing focuses on ‘place’ and ‘dwelling’ – a sense of rootedness in local community and environment. There are many reasons for this – the wellbeing gained from time spent in local nature as an alternative to the empty promises of consumerism; the building of local communities which can fulfil their needs in ecologically beneficial ways such as sharing; the direct understanding of natural systems that can be gained through close observation and attention to the living world around us; the kindling of care for other species and the environment. And yet, ecological philosopher Val Plumwood points out that discourses of place often erase something of great importance – what she calls the ‘shadow lands’. In her own words:
ideals of dwelling [encourage] us to direct our honouring of place towards an ‘official’ singular idealised place consciously identified with self, while disregarding the many unrecognised, shadow places that provide our material and ecological support… An ecological re-conception of dwelling has to include a justice perspective and be able to recognise the shadow places, not just the ones we love, admire or find nice to look at. So ecological thought… must… reflect on how nice (north) places and shadow (south) places are related, especially where north places are nice precisely because south places are not so nice.
