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Space, Place and Time: The Local Construction of an Environmental Rationality

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Political Ecology

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Abstract

Environmental degradation and ecological decay have become the most eloquent expressions of dominated and over-exploited Nature. Space and place are being resignified as cornerstones of a decentralized and democratic reconstruction of Nature. They emerge as geo-referential categories for embedding strategies of appropriation of Nature in ecological processes; they embody Nature in local identities, giving cultural meaning to sustainable development. Space and place are being signified by time as an existential condition to root ecological potentials in cultural imaginaries and social practices. Environmental rationality deconstructs economic rationality by localizing globalization and grounding production in ecological complementarities, cultural temporalities, and ethnic identities as a sustainable approach to the social appropriation of Nature.

This chapter is based on an unpublished paper written by invitation of Arturo Escobar, presented at the Conference Neo-Liberalism in the Space, Place and Nation: Reconstructing Americas, Universidad de Amherst, 20–21 November, 1998. A Spanish version was published in Leff, E. (2000), Espacio, Lugar y Tiempo: la reapropiación social de la naturaleza y la construcción local de la racionalidad ambiental, in Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, No. 1, Editora UFPR, Curitiba, Brazil, pp. 57–69.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See note 8, Chap. 1.

  2. 2.

    I have defined environmental complexity as an emergent ontological order, arising from the intervention of techno-economic rationality in the ontology of life (Leff 2000a, 2001).

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  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

    Enrique Leff

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Leff, E. (2021). Space, Place and Time: The Local Construction of an Environmental Rationality. In: Political Ecology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63325-7_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63325-7_3

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