Mainstreaming Morality

Abstract

In this article, we ask how considerations about moral (and immoral) ecologies have motivated and shaped ecological resistance movements. The concept of 'moral ecologies' involves expectations of reciprocal, just, and sustainable relations between society and environment, which we consider a central concern of environmental movements. We analyze the cultural, material, and political importance of moral ecologies as a form of resistance by examining social movements in Alaska and Turkey, as well as ideas about sumak kawsay ('good living') in Ecuador and historical precursors in the form of the 'righteous ruler' in early medieval Ireland. Our analysis demonstrates that a focus on moral ecologies has often resonated widely, facilitated new and cross-cutting coalitions, and in some cases garnered elite support and signi cantly in uenced national politics and landscapes.

The Delta is Dead: Moral Ecologies of Infrastructure in Turkey

“…In recent anthropological scholarship, moral ecology has denoted practices protecting collective resources and sustainable and reciprocal relations between environments and societies, resisting against capitalist and corporate expropriation (e.g., Martínez‐Reyes ; Baker et al ). This use, however, tends to reproduce a dialectic of ecological morality defined as resistance to the immorality of markets, states, or corporations.…”

“…Building on recent work highlighting the interconnections of ecology and infrastructure (Carse ; Anand, Gupta, and Appel ; Stoetzer ), and on notions of moral economy (Scott ; Muehlebach ; see also Thompson ), I call for a more expansive anthropological interrogation of moral ecology. I propose to take moral ecology well beyond its current use in the context of peasant, indigenous, and activist resistance (Dove and Kammen ; Martínez‐Reyes ; Baker et al ), or deployed interchangeably with the concept of moral economy (Rizvi ; Campbell ). This intervention also invites anthropologists of science, environment, and infrastructure to take a more central role in long‐standing debates over moral and ethical world‐making (Mattingly and Throop ), as well as in inquiries into environmental ethics (Hoefle ; Saxena et al )…”