We Don't Have to Oppose Nature

After reading excerpts from three articles “Invention of the Americas” by Enrique Dusserl, “Coloniality at Large: The Western Hemisphere and the Colonial Horizon of Modernity” by Walter Mignolo, and “Europe and the People Without History” by Eric Wolf, I have come to understand several interesting perspectives on the history of colonization, the spread of ideas and the modes of production in a given society. From these newfound revelations on the nature of mankind, I have particular interest in how it relates to contemporary Landscape Architecture.

http://jerseynut.blogspot.com/2011/10/give-karl-marx-credit-for-getting-one.html

I found the Dusserl and Mignolo articles to be enlightening and well reasoned. I was particularly engaged while reading about Jefferson in the Mignolo article. Jefferson was particularly interested in isolating the United States from Europe. It seems that he was more willing to have relations with the countries in his own Hemisphere – probably because of his disdain for Europe and the unifying sentiment they shared in expelling colonial empires. In this history lesson it is obvious that the Americans were sharing ideas and possessions more than I originally understood.

I found the Wolf article particularly interesting in that he presented theories in the social structure, governance and modes of production, which is the way humans confront the world to modify it for their benefit (Wolf). Wolf stresses that civilizations’ progress is convoluted and not linear. Most U.S. history books emphasize the linear trajectory of our culture’s history advanced into the modern world through the progress of the Greeks to the Romans to the Christian Europe to the Renaissance, to the Age of Enlightenment, to political democracy and finally to the United States (Wolf).  Wolf says that human societies do not develop as one single entity. Instead they are linked to other “social fields.” In relation to Landscape Architecture, we are often taught much of our linkages to the past stem from Europe. Landscape Architecture today has many forms and in fact, it is probably safe to say, contemporary landscape architects appropriate ideas and norms from a wide variety of disciplines, cultures and historical instances.

I was particularly drawn to Wolf’s discussion on capitalism through Karl Marx and his study of modes of production. According to Wolf, modes of production are ways in which humans confront their world to modify it for their benefit. Landscape architects are directly involved in modifying the world we live in. Although we do not live in a truly capitalistic society, it is generally seen as such. Traditional values of capitalism would pay no attention to conservation and or place price on resources. The thought is that technological advances and/or new demands will create a new market once a resource is depleted. Landscape architects can be at the forefront of conservation and creating healthy environments by pricing environmental benefits. For instance reducing heat island effects and the heating load on buildings through green roofs, shade, etc. directly and quantitatively reduces the costs of energy bills. The resulting paradigm is a shift in social consciousness and has an effect on how humans modify nature. Wolf borrows the axiom from Marx that humans are a part of nature. Therefore when transforming nature they are opposing the whole that encompasses them. I say landscape architects can prove transforming nature in the spaces we inhabit does not have to be in opposition, but rather in concert.

The readings evoked feelings of scale. Landscapes can be seen as grand arenas in which people fight wars, travel, use as buffers to borders or as small as a little park in NY that is home to your favorite hotdog stand.