Volume 53, Issue 2 p. 303-310
REGULAR PAPER

Natives and aliens: Who and what belongs in nature and in the nation?

Marco Antonsich

Corresponding Author

Marco Antonsich

Geography and Environment, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

Correspondence

Marco Antonsich

Email: [email protected]

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First published: 17 October 2020
Citations: 9

Abstract

The distinction between native and alien species is a main tenet of various natural sciences, invasion biology in particular. However, it is also a contested one, as it does not reflect the biological features of a species, but only its place of origin and migration history. The present paper offers a brief genealogy of the native/alien divide and argues that central to this binary is a national thinking that divides the world into distinct (national) units, enclosed by (natural) borders, with a unique (native) population attached to these spatial units. The paper illustrates this argument by looking at two interrelated processes: the nationalisation of nature, by which the national thinking intervenes as an organising principle in determining ecological inclusion/exclusion, and the naturalisation of the nation, through which the nation is given an ontological status. Taken together these two processes confirm the continuing salience of the nation as a b-ordering principle actively constituting both the social and natural world, also in times of anthropogenic changes and increasing people’s mobility.

Abstract

The paper offers a brief genealogy of the native/alien divide, both in the natural and social realm, and argues that central to this binary is a national thinking that divides the world into distinct (national) units, enclosed by (natural) borders, with a unique (native) population. It looks at two interrelated processes: the nationalisation of nature, by which the national thinking intervenes as an organising principle in determining ecological inclusion/exclusion, and the naturalisation of the nation, through which the nation is given an ontological status. Taken together, these two processes confirm the continuing salience of the nation as a b-ordering principle actively constituting both the social and natural world, also in times of anthropogenic changes and increasing people’s mobility.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data sharing is not applicable to this paper as no new data were created or analysed in this study.