ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution of the notion of wilderness through a variety of currents of thought from the humanities, politics, environmental history, philosophy, and social and cultural theory. It examines three of these coalitions and their critiques: the anti-environmental movement, deep ecology, and critical race/'Third World' criticism. In order to understand the anti-environmental movement one must first understand conservationism, upon whose principles many of the wilderness protection policies around the world were built. The Wise Use movement lobbies for the dismantling of wilderness legislation and much environmental protection under the guise of free access to public land and justice for rural populations. One of the earliest and most vocal 'Third World' critics of the wilderness idea was Indian historian Ramachandra Guha, who in 1989 published a scathing sociological critique of deep ecology. The way forward is for a 'reconstruction' of the idea of wilderness based on more-than-human principles and concepts.
