Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2019
This article interrogates how the provision (or absence) of state infrastructure such as roads, b... more This article interrogates how the provision (or absence) of state infrastructure such as roads, bridges, permanent buildings, water reticulation, electricity, and transport facilities in regions hosting the lucrative tourism industry is linked to state control and regulation of the use of space, as well as the daily lives of conservation-adjacent citizens. Using the dialectic of legibility and illegibility in the context of Botswana's expansive wildlife tourism industry, it examines how ambiguous government expansions and retractions of infrastructure function as mechanisms of state-building in relation to the natural environment. In Botswana's western region, the provision of infrastructure draws out previously sparsely populated and seasonally mobile people from ''the bush'' to live in state-sanctioned villages, pulling them into a relationship of ''legibility'' with the state. However, in the north, where the bulk of the tourism industry is based, the calculus is different. The allocation of infrastructure is delayed or denied in order to maintain the fiction of a people-free wilderness that appeals to foreign tourist consumers-pushing local people into ''illegibility''. The myth of a people-less wilderness produces highly differentiated modes of state intervention in rural areas, shifting local peoples' ability to interface with the state, the tourism industry, and other citizens. This article conceptualizes illegibility not as a form of resistance to, or avoidance of, state power but in the unique context produced by enclave wildlife tourism, an alternative manifestation of state power.
In this article, two white, Western female researchers reflect on the methodological, ethical, a... more In this article, two white, Western female researchers reflect on the methodological, ethical, and practical dilemmas experienced while conducting social science fieldwork in Botswana for their doctoral degrees. In addition, their shared research assistant examines her role as a social and cultural interlocutor, which was essential to the researchers’ successful navigation in their various field sites. Drawing on distinct but common experiences conducting research in northern and western regions of rural Botswana, the authors reflexively consider a series of interwoven issues tied to their positionalities: the disparity in benefits and return on research investment between the researcher and research participants; the nature of commodified or transactional relations, especially in an impoverished region highly dependent on foreign tourists; the complex nature of researcher–research assistant relationships; and the contradictory dynamics of being female researchers in a patriarchal society while also embodying privileges of whiteness and Western nationality. Building on these reflections, the authors engage with current debates in the social sciences to argue that researcher reflexivity is not an adequate end point and should result in engagement with ethical and epistemological questions regarding the decolonization of research practices more broadly.
RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society, 2018
LaRocco, Annette A. “Memory as Claim-making in Kalahari Socio-environments.” In: “Sites of Rememb... more LaRocco, Annette A. “Memory as Claim-making in Kalahari Socio-environments.” In: “Sites of Remembering: Landscapes, Lessons, Policies,” edited by Vikas Lakhani and Eveline de Smalen, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2018, no. 3, 27–32.
LaRocco, A. (2016). “The comprehensive hunting ban: strengthening the state through participatory... more LaRocco, A. (2016). “The comprehensive hunting ban: strengthening the state through participatory conservation in contemporary Botswana” in Ramutsindela, M., Miescher, G., and Boehi, M. (eds.), The Politics of Nature and Science in Southern Africa. Basel, Switzerland: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, pp 179-207.
EU Development Policies: Between Norms and Geopolitics, 2019
This chapter offers an analysis of EU’s formal development interventions in the conservation sect... more This chapter offers an analysis of EU’s formal development interventions in the conservation sector. The flagship initiative, Biodiversity for Life (B4L), seeks to mainstream environment into EU development initiatives around the world. Focusing on B4L, this chapter draws attention to the potential conflicts and contradictions incumbent in these biodiversity-focused development programs on the African continent. In addition to addressing the long history of European intervention in African environments that shadow contemporary development interventions, LaRocco explores their implications in an assessment of Manners’ conception of Normative Power Europe (NPE) in Africa. The chapter concludes with a case study of Virunga National Park in the DR Congo and probes the nature of the EU’s normative framework for involvement in the national park and its operationalization on the ground.
Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2019
This article interrogates how the provision (or absence) of state infrastructure such as roads, b... more This article interrogates how the provision (or absence) of state infrastructure such as roads, bridges, permanent buildings, water reticulation, electricity, and transport facilities in regions hosting the lucrative tourism industry is linked to state control and regulation of the use of space, as well as the daily lives of conservation-adjacent citizens. Using the dialectic of legibility and illegibility in the context of Botswana's expansive wildlife tourism industry, it examines how ambiguous government expansions and retractions of infrastructure function as mechanisms of state-building in relation to the natural environment. In Botswana's western region, the provision of infrastructure draws out previously sparsely populated and seasonally mobile people from ''the bush'' to live in state-sanctioned villages, pulling them into a relationship of ''legibility'' with the state. However, in the north, where the bulk of the tourism industry is based, the calculus is different. The allocation of infrastructure is delayed or denied in order to maintain the fiction of a people-free wilderness that appeals to foreign tourist consumers-pushing local people into ''illegibility''. The myth of a people-less wilderness produces highly differentiated modes of state intervention in rural areas, shifting local peoples' ability to interface with the state, the tourism industry, and other citizens. This article conceptualizes illegibility not as a form of resistance to, or avoidance of, state power but in the unique context produced by enclave wildlife tourism, an alternative manifestation of state power.
In this article, two white, Western female researchers reflect on the methodological, ethical, a... more In this article, two white, Western female researchers reflect on the methodological, ethical, and practical dilemmas experienced while conducting social science fieldwork in Botswana for their doctoral degrees. In addition, their shared research assistant examines her role as a social and cultural interlocutor, which was essential to the researchers’ successful navigation in their various field sites. Drawing on distinct but common experiences conducting research in northern and western regions of rural Botswana, the authors reflexively consider a series of interwoven issues tied to their positionalities: the disparity in benefits and return on research investment between the researcher and research participants; the nature of commodified or transactional relations, especially in an impoverished region highly dependent on foreign tourists; the complex nature of researcher–research assistant relationships; and the contradictory dynamics of being female researchers in a patriarchal society while also embodying privileges of whiteness and Western nationality. Building on these reflections, the authors engage with current debates in the social sciences to argue that researcher reflexivity is not an adequate end point and should result in engagement with ethical and epistemological questions regarding the decolonization of research practices more broadly.
RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society, 2018
LaRocco, Annette A. “Memory as Claim-making in Kalahari Socio-environments.” In: “Sites of Rememb... more LaRocco, Annette A. “Memory as Claim-making in Kalahari Socio-environments.” In: “Sites of Remembering: Landscapes, Lessons, Policies,” edited by Vikas Lakhani and Eveline de Smalen, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2018, no. 3, 27–32.
LaRocco, A. (2016). “The comprehensive hunting ban: strengthening the state through participatory... more LaRocco, A. (2016). “The comprehensive hunting ban: strengthening the state through participatory conservation in contemporary Botswana” in Ramutsindela, M., Miescher, G., and Boehi, M. (eds.), The Politics of Nature and Science in Southern Africa. Basel, Switzerland: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, pp 179-207.
EU Development Policies: Between Norms and Geopolitics, 2019
This chapter offers an analysis of EU’s formal development interventions in the conservation sect... more This chapter offers an analysis of EU’s formal development interventions in the conservation sector. The flagship initiative, Biodiversity for Life (B4L), seeks to mainstream environment into EU development initiatives around the world. Focusing on B4L, this chapter draws attention to the potential conflicts and contradictions incumbent in these biodiversity-focused development programs on the African continent. In addition to addressing the long history of European intervention in African environments that shadow contemporary development interventions, LaRocco explores their implications in an assessment of Manners’ conception of Normative Power Europe (NPE) in Africa. The chapter concludes with a case study of Virunga National Park in the DR Congo and probes the nature of the EU’s normative framework for involvement in the national park and its operationalization on the ground.
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