University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Trading solidarity for environmentality: subject formation and intimate government of forests in Kaolack Region, Senegal

Robinson, Ewan S.

Content Files
Robinson_Ewan.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/29655

Description

Title
Trading solidarity for environmentality: subject formation and intimate government of forests in Kaolack Region, Senegal
Author(s)
Robinson, Ewan S.
Issue Date
2012-02-06T20:09:05Z
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Chhatre, Ashwini
Department of Study
Geography
Discipline
Geography
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2012-02-06T20:09:05Z
Keyword(s)
  • community-based natural resource management
  • development projects - long-term impacts
  • decentralization
  • governmentality
  • subjectivities
  • Senegal
Abstract
Community-based natural resource management projects widely fail to meet their stated goals. But what do such interventions and policies actually achieve? How do they alter the practices and consciousness of the people whom they involve in management? Drawing on work on environmentality, this thesis examines the legacy of a community-based natural resource management project in Kaolack Region, Senegal. Prior to the project, residents of this region subtlety and collectively refused to comply with state forest regulation, relying on widespread solidarity to avoid being caught and sanctioned by the forest service. However, this situation changed in the 1990s with the arrival of a project known as PAGERNA. As residents became implicated in forest management, some began to develop environmental subjectivities: new ideas of self-interest and commitment to environmental protection. After the close of PAGERNA, these environmental subjectivities led certain residents to collaborate with local government officials and the forest service in order to enforce new restrictions on forest use. Management after the project took the form of a regime of “intimate government,” in which communities regulated themselves, working with state authorities. However, not all rural residents adopted environmentalist values. Some complied with restrictions only because their activities were closely monitored. Others, residents of the poorest villages, continued to resist regulation. However, these resistors found that in the new regime environmentality had replaced solidarity; they were sanctioned by village guards and government foresters. The case of Kaolack reveals how subject formation shapes the long-term legacy of natural resource policies and projects. It shows how management systems are constituted by multiple subjectivities and how rural residents are controlled through multiple mechanisms of rule. The thesis argues that, rather than focusing on single outcomes, we must examine heterogeneous changes in people’s practices, identities, and relationships with institutions.
Graduation Semester
2011-12
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/29655
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2011 Ewan S. Robinson

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