Understanding the Rights of Nature

1. Why did you choose this topic?

It is fascinating and potentially very important. I admire the courage of practitioners and activists that go against the grain, and wanted to engage with their work.

2. What new perspectives does your book offer?

I have always thought it necessary to interact with ideas critically. For me, it is the only way of staying true to their radical potential, by allowing them to continuously change. My book engages in that way, discussing the rights of nature while suspending belief (or disbelief) in their potential. I think this allows for continued reflection.

3. What makes your topic relevant for current research debates?

The rights of nature are becoming quite popular, both in academic debates and in practice. This is great, as it shakes people out of ›common sense‹. My book tries to offer ways of safeguarding against the creation of orthodoxy in rights of nature themselves. For example, I question at length the positive relationship between rights and emancipatory politics, because it has become a hegemonic assumption in scholarship and practice.

4. Choose one person you would like to discuss your book with!

Elizabeth Macpherson.

5. Your book summary in one sentence:

This book presents the rights of nature as struggles for political representation that may or may not achieve environmental results, redistribute power more equitably, or break free from inherited paradigms.