Biocentrism in the City? Re-centering knowledge when nature comes first

This talk examines what biocentrism means to users of an urban park in Santiago, Chile, to advance theorizing on biocentrism – a philosophy or worldview in which nature comes first, alongside humans. An urban park in the so-called Global South is a strange place in which to encounter biocentrism. Stranger still are the knowledge practices park goers mobilized, contested, invoked and imagined in their journey towards biocentrism. This double strangeness helps to illuminate some of the tensions and stakes in biocentrism and the centrality of knowing to this shift – so central that, arguably, this is primarily an epistemic shift rather than a legal, political or even cultural one. Centering knowledge practices in turn raises questions about the role of scientists, teachers, and guides in the making of “biocentric citizens,” and the complex (and perhaps changing) relationship between knowledge and environmental action in an age of climate instability and post-truth politics.

Dr. Javiera Barandiarán is an Associate Professor in Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her work explores the intersection of science, environment, and development in Latin America. She has published three books on environmental politics in Chile, exploring the market for science and Rights of Nature there, as well as numerous articles on lithium, fossil fuel decommissioning, energy, astronomy, and environmental conflict. Her next book, Living Minerals: Nature, Trade and Power in the Race for Lithium, is forthcoming with MIT Press. She also directs the Center for Restorative Environmental Work (CREW).

This event will only be held in-person.