ABSTRACT
In this chapter I explore Anna Tsing’s (2005) ideas about universals and collaborations. I compare this to Annelise Riles’ (1998) analysis of the patterned process of creating a UN agreement. Both universals and global agreements are essentially assemblages. Both have the power to summon the global. But, as we will see, both are also vacuous, meaningless. And the collaborations they inspire are characterized by misunderstandings rather than the consensus we expect. This chapter is highly relevant to conservation discourses, collaborations, and global agreements. The main universal Tsing explores is capital “N” Nature, and her examples are thus all environmental. Riles’ UN agreement involves gender, but international environmental agreements are negotiated in very much the same way. It is our universal that has power and is vacuous. It is this powerful, empty universal around which our collaborations gel. It is our international agreements that bridge differences with empty language.
