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

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.

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