Overview

How Japanese coastal residents and transnational conservationists collaborated to foster relationships between humans and sea life Drawing the Sea Near opens a new window to our understanding of transnational conservation by investigating projects in Okinawa shaped by a ""conservation-near"" approach-which draws on the senses, the body, and memory to collapse the distance between people and their surroundings and to foster collaboration and equity between coastal residents and transnational conservation organizations. This approach contrasts with the traditional Western ""conservation-far"" model premised on the separation of humans from the environment. Based on twenty months of participant observation and interviews, this richly detailed, engagingly written ethnography focuses on Okinawa's coral reefs to explore an unusually inclusive, experiential, and socially just approach to conservation. In doing so, C. Anne Claus challenges orthodox assumptions about nature, wilderness, and the future of environmentalism within transnational organizations. She provides a compelling look at how transnational conservation organizations-in this case a field office of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Okinawa-negotiate institutional expectations for conservation with localized approaches to caring for ocean life. In pursuing how particular projects off the coast of Japan unfolded, Drawing the Sea Near illuminates the real challenges and possibilities of work within the multifaceted transnational structures of global conservation organizations. Uniquely, it focuses on the conservationists themselves: why and how has their approach to project work changed, and how have they themselves been transformed in the process?

Full Product Details

Author:   C. Anne Claus
Publisher:   University of Minnesota Press
Imprint:   University of Minnesota Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 21.60cm
ISBN:  

9781517906627

ISBN 10:   1517906628
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   03 November 2020
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

Contents Abbreviations Introduction: Drawing Near 1. The Airport Problem: Transnational Politics at Japan’s Edge A Song of Scientific Pluralism 2. Satoumi: Localism, Environmentalism, and the Development of an Oceanic Socionature Shiraho’s Nearshore Sea (ino) 3. Conservation in Collaboration: Transforming Practices at World Wide Fund for Nature’s Field Station Seeing the Sea 4. Gustatory Engagements: The Taste of Okinawa’s Sea Gods and Ghosts of the Sea 5. Transnational Conservation: Compositions, Circumventions, and Conflicts Sea Stories 6. Touching and Smelling: Challenging Scientific Authority in Coral Encounters Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

Claus' book offers a most captivating and original ethnographic study that brings together several important topics that have hitherto not been put into dialogue, like the way different boarders - ecological, linguistic, social, sensorial- are linked and function as agents in the reconfiguration of human lives. --Contemporary Japan Through rich ethnographic engagement with conservationists, and local practices that could be glimpsed through the beautiful interludes, this book is an invaluable contribution to scholarly efforts to decolonise conservation that, ultimately, draws the sea near to the readers themselves. --Ethos: Journal of Anthropology An important contribution of anthropological ethnography to the studies of conservation and environmentalism. Concise yet enriching discussions of Japanese and Okinawan center-peripheral relations also make this ethnography an excellent case study and teaching resource for contemporary Japanese society and environmental politics. --American Anthropologist This is a fascinating, original, and important ethnography of how conservation can decolonize itself and the multiple benefits of doing so. In thought-provoking and clear prose, C. Anne Claus has provided a sympathetic and challenging account that will be warmly welcomed by anyone working with, on, or for conservation. It is especially interesting for anyone who wants to better understand how large conservation organizations like the WWF function--and change. --Dan Brockington, author of Fortress Conservation and Nature Unbound

This is a fascinating, original, and important ethnography of how conservation can decolonize itself and the multiple benefits of doing so. In thought-provoking and clear prose, C. Anne Claus has provided a sympathetic and challenging account that will be warmly welcomed by anyone working with, on, or for conservation. It is especially interesting for anyone who wants to better understand how large conservation organizations like the WWF function-and change. -Dan Brockington, author of Fortress Conservation and Nature Unbound Claus' book offers a most captivating and original ethnographic study that brings together several important topics that have hitherto not been put into dialogue, like the way different boarders - ecological, linguistic, social, sensorial- are linked and function as agents in the reconfiguration of human lives. -Contemporary Japan Through rich ethnographic engagement with conservationists, and local practices that could be glimpsed through the beautiful interludes, this book is an invaluable contribution to scholarly efforts to decolonise conservation that, ultimately, draws the sea near to the readers themselves. -Ethos: Journal of Anthropology An important contribution of anthropological ethnography to the studies of conservation and environmentalism. Concise yet enriching discussions of Japanese and Okinawan center-peripheral relations also make this ethnography an excellent case study and teaching resource for contemporary Japanese society and environmental politics. -American Anthropologist

This is a fascinating, original, and important ethnography of how conservation can decolonize itself and the multiple benefits of doing so. In thought-provoking and clear prose, C. Anne Claus has provided a sympathetic and challenging account that will be warmly welcomed by anyone working with, on, or for conservation. It is especially interesting for anyone who wants to better understand how large conservation organizations like the WWF function--and change. --Dan Brockington, author of Fortress Conservation and Nature Unbound

Author Information

C. Anne Claus is assistant professor of anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C.

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