The Conservation Ideological State Apparatus

• Published in: Conservation and society Vol. 16; no. 2; pp. 181 - 192
• Main Author: Margulies, Jared D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bangalore WOLTERS KLUWER INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED 01-04-2018; Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Subjects: Biodiversity conservation; Capitalism; Conflicts; Conservation movement; Conservation practices; Ecological monitoring; Ecology; Environmental conservation; Environmental management; Environmental protection; Forest conservation; Hegemony; human-wildlife conflict; Ideology; Local communities; Louis Althusser; Methods; Natural resources; Natural resources conservation; Political activism; Political ecology; Politics; Protected areas; Reproduction; South India; Special Section: Green Wars; Tactics; Theory; Violence; Wildlife; Wildlife conservation; India; Louis Althusser; political ecology; human-wildlife conflict; wildlife conservation; South India; hegemony
• ISSN: 0972-4923; 0975-3133
• DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_16_154

This article considers Louis Althusser’s theory of the ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) for advancing political ecology scholarship on the functioning of the state in violent environments. I reflect on a series of events in which a state forest department in South India attempted to recast violent conflicts between themselves and local communities over access to natural resources and a protected area as a debate over human-wildlife conflicts. Through the example of conservation as ideology in Wayanad, Kerala, I show how the ISAs articulate the functioning of ideology within the state apparatuses in order for us to understand the larger mechanics of the state apparatus and the reproduction of the relations of production necessary for the reproduction of capitalism. Revisiting the ISAs as a theoretical framework for studies in political ecology and conservation is timely given the resurgence of militarised conservation tactics, the emancipatory aims of Althusser’s theory, and political ecology’s turn towards praxis.