I'm a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History and the Coordinator of Environmental Humanities Minor in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oulu. My research interests lie in the environmental history of Western and Northern European peatlands, energy histories, and the use of environmental historical knowledge in environmental education.
International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 2019
This article reviews the formation of the idea of national parks in Finland between the 1880s and... more This article reviews the formation of the idea of national parks in Finland between the 1880s and 1910s. It argues that both the term and the concept of national park evolved in a long-lasting deliberative process between competing definitions. The main actors in this process were geographers, forestry scientists and NGOs devoted to popular education and the promotion of tourism. As a result of the debates, iconic landscapes and species were located in Finnish nature inside the wholly artificial boundaries of the national parks. Eventually, both the science and tourism poles of the decades-long debate were incorporated into the plans and visions for Finland’s national parks in the early twentieth century. The national park debate between the 1880s and 1910s focused mainly on landscapes, land formations and vegetation zones, and not so much on the wildlife or indeed the people who lived inside these areas.
International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 2019
This article reviews the formation of the idea of national parks in Finland between the 1880s and... more This article reviews the formation of the idea of national parks in Finland between the 1880s and 1910s. It argues that both the term and the concept of national park evolved in a long-lasting deliberative process between competing definitions. The main actors in this process were geographers, forestry scientists and NGOs devoted to popular education and the promotion of tourism. As a result of the debates, iconic landscapes and species were located in Finnish nature inside the wholly artificial boundaries of the national parks. Eventually, both the science and tourism poles of the decades-long debate were incorporated into the plans and visions for Finland’s national parks in the early twentieth century.The national park debate between the 1880s and 1910s focused mainly on landscapes, land formations and vegetation zones, and not so much on the wildlife or indeed the people who lived inside these areas.
Vaurastumisen vuodet: Suomen taloushistoria teollistumisen jälkeen, toim. Jaana Laine, Susanna Fellman, Matti Hännikäinen ja Jari Ojala. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2019
This article looks at the imaginaries of progress through technology and new activities by tracin... more This article looks at the imaginaries of progress through technology and new activities by tracing the emergence of Baltic Moorkultur in Estonia and Livonia from the 1850s to the early 1910s. Baltic Moorkultur, a set of modern drainage and peat extraction techniques, has been viewed as part of a modernisation process and evolving visions of future, which touched the identity of Baltic German landowners, scientists and entrepreneurs. General reasons for an impetus for the large-scale reclamation of peatlands were the growth of population, economic liberalisation, growing demand for fuels and the fact that the basis of manorial economy gradually crumbled and led to increasing urge to modernise its source of livelihood. Baltic Moorkultur can be thought as a high-tech response of that time to the exploitation of peatlands. This article explains why it became adopted and how it altered the appraisal of environments that had been perceived as suboptimal.
In The Barents and the Baltic Sea Region: Contacts, Influences and Social Change, eds. Kari Alenius and Matti Enbuske. Rovaniemi, PSHY, 2017
In this article, I study how increasing human activities to explore and exploit the Polar Regions... more In this article, I study how increasing human activities to explore and exploit the Polar Regions were followed and reported on by the Finnish prints and magazines between 1870 and 1910. I trace whether any basic narrative(s) can be found within the reporting and whether the narrative(s) changed during the period in question. I also examine into which geographical areas inside wide circumpolar areas the interest of the Finnish press was especially focused on. As sources, I have used Finnish newspapers and magazines which can be found through electronic databases upheld by the National Library (Kansalliskirjasto). The searches from the digitised material produced altogether 1571 and 216 newspaper and magazine articles respectively. The rather large number of the hits tells about the obvious interest of the Finnish press in the exploration of the Polar Regions. The race for the poles can be considered as a common ‘big story’ of the Europeans and North Americans about the progress and inventiveness of humans to some extent. However, several substories with various nuances and perspectives inside big stories can be specified by countries.
I analyse the narrative(s) of the Finnish prints and magazines within the theoretical frame and concept of ‘frontiers’. I have perceived three intertwined ‘frontiers’ from the basic narrative – that is to say, ‘adventure frontier’, ‘navigation frontier’ and ‘scientific frontier’. Each of these thematic ‘frontiers’ were part of the big story of the exploration and exploitation of the circumpolar areas and embodied aspirations and expectations related to these activities.
The basic narrative highlighted the Polar Regions as the lands of ice and snow where the scarcity of light, warmth and nutrition prevailed. At the end of the expeditions, the explorers were up against a frozen sea, glaciers, icebergs, the extreme winter cold and polar nights for the most of the year. It was dangerous and risky to try to get to the poles or navigate the frozen Arctic and Antarctic oceans. In the eyes of Finnish newspapers and magazines, explorers were represented as admired adventures whose voyages demonstrated an inborn tendency of humans to show courage. As a reward, explorers gained international fame and glory and their empirical findings added to the knowledge on circumpolar areas.
Before the 1870s, Europeans or the Americans had not sailed the sea routes which became later on named as the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage. No expedition had ever reached the poles. At the beginning of the 1910s, all of these targets were achieved. The interest of the Finnish prints and magazines in the Polar Regions between the 1870s and 1910s was partly an interest in the discovered and opening sea routes in the broad Arctic and Antarctic areas and the possibilities to tap them commercially.
Even though certain commercial benefits were expected to emerge from the discovered sea routes and circumpolar areas, the press reckoned that eventually science would benefit mostly from these expeditions. It was believed that these ‘scientific frontiers’ would offer information not only on these unknown areas but on the history of the earth as a whole and global weather phenomena as well. Within the basic narrative of the Finnish prints and magazines, the race for the poles and the discovery of new sea routes represented a big story about how the human beings as a consequence of the accumulation of scientific knowledge and technological know-how and their activity would break down barriers of geography and encroach on the until then obscured territories.
In Histories of Technology, the Environment, and Modern Britain, eds. Jon Agar and Jacob Ward. London, UCL Press, 2018
This paper addresses the British and Irish plans and aspirations to tame and refine Irish bogs in... more This paper addresses the British and Irish plans and aspirations to tame and refine Irish bogs in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century within the theoretical frame of ‘frontiers’. In particular, I seek to disentangle how accumulating knowledge on peat soil, new drainage and canal transport technologies inspired those who devoted themselves to the ‘civilisation’ of nature to reappraise peripheral areas and to promote the conversion of these areas into land that is seen as being ‘made valuable’ by the intervention of local people, the state and private enterprises. I consider settlement, the management of resources, and the effects of the centralised laissez-faire trading system dominated by London as the main processes that determined the development of these frontiers.
The period in question in a sense forms a tipping point with respect to the activity of the state and influential scientific and economic societies in attacking the drainage issue which had more or less been on the agenda since the beginning of the eighteenth century. In comparison with eighteenth century aspirations, drainage and reclamation plans became increasingly state-backed and elevated by scientific and technological achievements.
As primary sources, I use Parliamentary Papers related to the draining and cultivating of Irish bogs and improving the navigation of the River Shannon and its tributaries, as well as publications by Arthur Young, Thomas Newenham, Richard Griffith, Robert Fraser and Sir Robert Kane, among others, on the reclamation of Irish bogs for the benefit of agriculture, canal transport and the prosperity of the country. Altogether, I contemplate three interrelated Irish and, equally, British frontiers – that is to say, ‘the agricultural frontier’, ‘the navigation frontier’ and ‘the settlement frontier’ – to elucidate the aspirations, desires and demands when it comes to the socio-ecological transformations of entire ecological systems. These ‘frontiers’ can be analysed in terms of knowledge and technological systems and how they impact on the altered ecologies of Irish peatlands in the ‘Anthropocene epoch.’
This article addresses early modern Baltic environmental history and historical geography by inte... more This article addresses early modern Baltic environmental history and historical geography by interpreting the public writings of August Wilhelm Hupel within the theoretical framework of framing, valuing, and assessing nature and the environment. Hupel’s broad series of publications, issued during the heyday of Baltic Enlightenment, not only contributed to the emergence of Baltic geographical studies but also played a pioneering role in placing the knowledge on Estonian and Livonian topography and nature to order. Although Hupel concerned physical geographical aspects in his writings to some extent, his primary interest definitely focused on human relations with and across space and place. The cameralist thoroughness and calculativeness within that geographical field of enquiry brought about an endeavor to catalogue the parts of nature by using their utility or harmfulness as the measure. However, in Hupel’s opinion the then-prevailing civilisation also contained certain responsibilities for and to nature, particularly regarding forests and their sustainable use (‘nachhaltende Nutzung’), which Hupel wished to promote in the Baltic provinces of Russia.
The 18 th century appears to be of great importance in the sense that the idea of the distinction... more The 18 th century appears to be of great importance in the sense that the idea of the distinction between " worthless nature " and " valuable property " , which later became so obvious and natural, began to take shape in Europe. This paper traces the value changes and changing notions regarding Nordic bogs, fens and mires by studying master's dissertations defended at the Academy of Åbo in the 1750s-1790s. Four topoi are used to elucidate typical arguments and conceptions of the research material: 1. the topos of utility; 2. the topos of profitability; 3. the topos of climate change; and, 4. the topos of health. In summary, the main aim of the authors was to justify the arguments on the uselessness and harmfulness of bogs, fens and mires in natural condition and to convince the landowners of the benefits obtained by converting bogs, fens and mires to agricultural or peat extraction areas. Finally, the ways in which the topoi affected the development of the ideas of scale and regional differentiation are studied.
International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 2019
This article reviews the formation of the idea of national parks in Finland between the 1880s and... more This article reviews the formation of the idea of national parks in Finland between the 1880s and 1910s. It argues that both the term and the concept of national park evolved in a long-lasting deliberative process between competing definitions. The main actors in this process were geographers, forestry scientists and NGOs devoted to popular education and the promotion of tourism. As a result of the debates, iconic landscapes and species were located in Finnish nature inside the wholly artificial boundaries of the national parks. Eventually, both the science and tourism poles of the decades-long debate were incorporated into the plans and visions for Finland’s national parks in the early twentieth century. The national park debate between the 1880s and 1910s focused mainly on landscapes, land formations and vegetation zones, and not so much on the wildlife or indeed the people who lived inside these areas.
International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 2019
This article reviews the formation of the idea of national parks in Finland between the 1880s and... more This article reviews the formation of the idea of national parks in Finland between the 1880s and 1910s. It argues that both the term and the concept of national park evolved in a long-lasting deliberative process between competing definitions. The main actors in this process were geographers, forestry scientists and NGOs devoted to popular education and the promotion of tourism. As a result of the debates, iconic landscapes and species were located in Finnish nature inside the wholly artificial boundaries of the national parks. Eventually, both the science and tourism poles of the decades-long debate were incorporated into the plans and visions for Finland’s national parks in the early twentieth century.The national park debate between the 1880s and 1910s focused mainly on landscapes, land formations and vegetation zones, and not so much on the wildlife or indeed the people who lived inside these areas.
Vaurastumisen vuodet: Suomen taloushistoria teollistumisen jälkeen, toim. Jaana Laine, Susanna Fellman, Matti Hännikäinen ja Jari Ojala. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2019
This article looks at the imaginaries of progress through technology and new activities by tracin... more This article looks at the imaginaries of progress through technology and new activities by tracing the emergence of Baltic Moorkultur in Estonia and Livonia from the 1850s to the early 1910s. Baltic Moorkultur, a set of modern drainage and peat extraction techniques, has been viewed as part of a modernisation process and evolving visions of future, which touched the identity of Baltic German landowners, scientists and entrepreneurs. General reasons for an impetus for the large-scale reclamation of peatlands were the growth of population, economic liberalisation, growing demand for fuels and the fact that the basis of manorial economy gradually crumbled and led to increasing urge to modernise its source of livelihood. Baltic Moorkultur can be thought as a high-tech response of that time to the exploitation of peatlands. This article explains why it became adopted and how it altered the appraisal of environments that had been perceived as suboptimal.
In The Barents and the Baltic Sea Region: Contacts, Influences and Social Change, eds. Kari Alenius and Matti Enbuske. Rovaniemi, PSHY, 2017
In this article, I study how increasing human activities to explore and exploit the Polar Regions... more In this article, I study how increasing human activities to explore and exploit the Polar Regions were followed and reported on by the Finnish prints and magazines between 1870 and 1910. I trace whether any basic narrative(s) can be found within the reporting and whether the narrative(s) changed during the period in question. I also examine into which geographical areas inside wide circumpolar areas the interest of the Finnish press was especially focused on. As sources, I have used Finnish newspapers and magazines which can be found through electronic databases upheld by the National Library (Kansalliskirjasto). The searches from the digitised material produced altogether 1571 and 216 newspaper and magazine articles respectively. The rather large number of the hits tells about the obvious interest of the Finnish press in the exploration of the Polar Regions. The race for the poles can be considered as a common ‘big story’ of the Europeans and North Americans about the progress and inventiveness of humans to some extent. However, several substories with various nuances and perspectives inside big stories can be specified by countries.
I analyse the narrative(s) of the Finnish prints and magazines within the theoretical frame and concept of ‘frontiers’. I have perceived three intertwined ‘frontiers’ from the basic narrative – that is to say, ‘adventure frontier’, ‘navigation frontier’ and ‘scientific frontier’. Each of these thematic ‘frontiers’ were part of the big story of the exploration and exploitation of the circumpolar areas and embodied aspirations and expectations related to these activities.
The basic narrative highlighted the Polar Regions as the lands of ice and snow where the scarcity of light, warmth and nutrition prevailed. At the end of the expeditions, the explorers were up against a frozen sea, glaciers, icebergs, the extreme winter cold and polar nights for the most of the year. It was dangerous and risky to try to get to the poles or navigate the frozen Arctic and Antarctic oceans. In the eyes of Finnish newspapers and magazines, explorers were represented as admired adventures whose voyages demonstrated an inborn tendency of humans to show courage. As a reward, explorers gained international fame and glory and their empirical findings added to the knowledge on circumpolar areas.
Before the 1870s, Europeans or the Americans had not sailed the sea routes which became later on named as the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage. No expedition had ever reached the poles. At the beginning of the 1910s, all of these targets were achieved. The interest of the Finnish prints and magazines in the Polar Regions between the 1870s and 1910s was partly an interest in the discovered and opening sea routes in the broad Arctic and Antarctic areas and the possibilities to tap them commercially.
Even though certain commercial benefits were expected to emerge from the discovered sea routes and circumpolar areas, the press reckoned that eventually science would benefit mostly from these expeditions. It was believed that these ‘scientific frontiers’ would offer information not only on these unknown areas but on the history of the earth as a whole and global weather phenomena as well. Within the basic narrative of the Finnish prints and magazines, the race for the poles and the discovery of new sea routes represented a big story about how the human beings as a consequence of the accumulation of scientific knowledge and technological know-how and their activity would break down barriers of geography and encroach on the until then obscured territories.
In Histories of Technology, the Environment, and Modern Britain, eds. Jon Agar and Jacob Ward. London, UCL Press, 2018
This paper addresses the British and Irish plans and aspirations to tame and refine Irish bogs in... more This paper addresses the British and Irish plans and aspirations to tame and refine Irish bogs in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century within the theoretical frame of ‘frontiers’. In particular, I seek to disentangle how accumulating knowledge on peat soil, new drainage and canal transport technologies inspired those who devoted themselves to the ‘civilisation’ of nature to reappraise peripheral areas and to promote the conversion of these areas into land that is seen as being ‘made valuable’ by the intervention of local people, the state and private enterprises. I consider settlement, the management of resources, and the effects of the centralised laissez-faire trading system dominated by London as the main processes that determined the development of these frontiers.
The period in question in a sense forms a tipping point with respect to the activity of the state and influential scientific and economic societies in attacking the drainage issue which had more or less been on the agenda since the beginning of the eighteenth century. In comparison with eighteenth century aspirations, drainage and reclamation plans became increasingly state-backed and elevated by scientific and technological achievements.
As primary sources, I use Parliamentary Papers related to the draining and cultivating of Irish bogs and improving the navigation of the River Shannon and its tributaries, as well as publications by Arthur Young, Thomas Newenham, Richard Griffith, Robert Fraser and Sir Robert Kane, among others, on the reclamation of Irish bogs for the benefit of agriculture, canal transport and the prosperity of the country. Altogether, I contemplate three interrelated Irish and, equally, British frontiers – that is to say, ‘the agricultural frontier’, ‘the navigation frontier’ and ‘the settlement frontier’ – to elucidate the aspirations, desires and demands when it comes to the socio-ecological transformations of entire ecological systems. These ‘frontiers’ can be analysed in terms of knowledge and technological systems and how they impact on the altered ecologies of Irish peatlands in the ‘Anthropocene epoch.’
This article addresses early modern Baltic environmental history and historical geography by inte... more This article addresses early modern Baltic environmental history and historical geography by interpreting the public writings of August Wilhelm Hupel within the theoretical framework of framing, valuing, and assessing nature and the environment. Hupel’s broad series of publications, issued during the heyday of Baltic Enlightenment, not only contributed to the emergence of Baltic geographical studies but also played a pioneering role in placing the knowledge on Estonian and Livonian topography and nature to order. Although Hupel concerned physical geographical aspects in his writings to some extent, his primary interest definitely focused on human relations with and across space and place. The cameralist thoroughness and calculativeness within that geographical field of enquiry brought about an endeavor to catalogue the parts of nature by using their utility or harmfulness as the measure. However, in Hupel’s opinion the then-prevailing civilisation also contained certain responsibilities for and to nature, particularly regarding forests and their sustainable use (‘nachhaltende Nutzung’), which Hupel wished to promote in the Baltic provinces of Russia.
The 18 th century appears to be of great importance in the sense that the idea of the distinction... more The 18 th century appears to be of great importance in the sense that the idea of the distinction between " worthless nature " and " valuable property " , which later became so obvious and natural, began to take shape in Europe. This paper traces the value changes and changing notions regarding Nordic bogs, fens and mires by studying master's dissertations defended at the Academy of Åbo in the 1750s-1790s. Four topoi are used to elucidate typical arguments and conceptions of the research material: 1. the topos of utility; 2. the topos of profitability; 3. the topos of climate change; and, 4. the topos of health. In summary, the main aim of the authors was to justify the arguments on the uselessness and harmfulness of bogs, fens and mires in natural condition and to convince the landowners of the benefits obtained by converting bogs, fens and mires to agricultural or peat extraction areas. Finally, the ways in which the topoi affected the development of the ideas of scale and regional differentiation are studied.
Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavak... more Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi Historica-rakennuksen salissa 320 lokakuun 21. päivänä 2006 kello 12. ... Petri Karonen, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä Editor in Chief Heikki Hanka, ...
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Papers by Esa Ruuskanen
I analyse the narrative(s) of the Finnish prints and magazines within the theoretical frame and concept of ‘frontiers’. I have perceived three intertwined ‘frontiers’ from the basic narrative – that is to say, ‘adventure frontier’, ‘navigation frontier’ and ‘scientific frontier’. Each of these thematic ‘frontiers’ were part of the big story of the exploration and exploitation of the circumpolar areas and embodied aspirations and expectations related to these activities.
The basic narrative highlighted the Polar Regions as the lands of ice and snow where the scarcity of light, warmth and nutrition prevailed. At the end of the expeditions, the explorers were up against a frozen sea, glaciers, icebergs, the extreme winter cold and polar nights for the most of the year. It was dangerous and risky to try to get to the poles or navigate the frozen Arctic and Antarctic oceans. In the eyes of Finnish newspapers and magazines, explorers were represented as admired adventures whose voyages demonstrated an inborn tendency of humans to show courage. As a reward, explorers gained international fame and glory and their empirical findings added to the knowledge on circumpolar areas.
Before the 1870s, Europeans or the Americans had not sailed the sea routes which became later on named as the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage. No expedition had ever reached the poles. At the beginning of the 1910s, all of these targets were achieved. The interest of the Finnish prints and magazines in the Polar Regions between the 1870s and 1910s was partly an interest in the discovered and opening sea routes in the broad Arctic and Antarctic areas and the possibilities to tap them commercially.
Even though certain commercial benefits were expected to emerge from the discovered sea routes and circumpolar areas, the press reckoned that eventually science would benefit mostly from these expeditions. It was believed that these ‘scientific frontiers’ would offer information not only on these unknown areas but on the history of the earth as a whole and global weather phenomena as well. Within the basic narrative of the Finnish prints and magazines, the race for the poles and the discovery of new sea routes represented a big story about how the human beings as a consequence of the accumulation of scientific knowledge and technological know-how and their activity would break down barriers of geography and encroach on the until then obscured territories.
The period in question in a sense forms a tipping point with respect to the activity of the state and influential scientific and economic societies in attacking the drainage issue which had more or less been on the agenda since the beginning of the eighteenth century. In comparison with eighteenth century aspirations, drainage and reclamation plans became increasingly state-backed and elevated by scientific and technological achievements.
As primary sources, I use Parliamentary Papers related to the draining and cultivating of Irish bogs and improving the navigation of the River Shannon and its tributaries, as well as publications by Arthur Young, Thomas Newenham, Richard Griffith, Robert Fraser and Sir Robert Kane, among others, on the reclamation of Irish bogs for the benefit of agriculture, canal transport and the prosperity of the country. Altogether, I contemplate three interrelated Irish and, equally, British frontiers – that is to say, ‘the agricultural frontier’, ‘the navigation frontier’ and ‘the settlement frontier’ – to elucidate the aspirations, desires and demands when it comes to the socio-ecological transformations of entire ecological systems. These ‘frontiers’ can be analysed in terms of knowledge and technological systems and how they impact on the altered ecologies of Irish peatlands in the ‘Anthropocene epoch.’
I analyse the narrative(s) of the Finnish prints and magazines within the theoretical frame and concept of ‘frontiers’. I have perceived three intertwined ‘frontiers’ from the basic narrative – that is to say, ‘adventure frontier’, ‘navigation frontier’ and ‘scientific frontier’. Each of these thematic ‘frontiers’ were part of the big story of the exploration and exploitation of the circumpolar areas and embodied aspirations and expectations related to these activities.
The basic narrative highlighted the Polar Regions as the lands of ice and snow where the scarcity of light, warmth and nutrition prevailed. At the end of the expeditions, the explorers were up against a frozen sea, glaciers, icebergs, the extreme winter cold and polar nights for the most of the year. It was dangerous and risky to try to get to the poles or navigate the frozen Arctic and Antarctic oceans. In the eyes of Finnish newspapers and magazines, explorers were represented as admired adventures whose voyages demonstrated an inborn tendency of humans to show courage. As a reward, explorers gained international fame and glory and their empirical findings added to the knowledge on circumpolar areas.
Before the 1870s, Europeans or the Americans had not sailed the sea routes which became later on named as the Northeast Passage and the Northwest Passage. No expedition had ever reached the poles. At the beginning of the 1910s, all of these targets were achieved. The interest of the Finnish prints and magazines in the Polar Regions between the 1870s and 1910s was partly an interest in the discovered and opening sea routes in the broad Arctic and Antarctic areas and the possibilities to tap them commercially.
Even though certain commercial benefits were expected to emerge from the discovered sea routes and circumpolar areas, the press reckoned that eventually science would benefit mostly from these expeditions. It was believed that these ‘scientific frontiers’ would offer information not only on these unknown areas but on the history of the earth as a whole and global weather phenomena as well. Within the basic narrative of the Finnish prints and magazines, the race for the poles and the discovery of new sea routes represented a big story about how the human beings as a consequence of the accumulation of scientific knowledge and technological know-how and their activity would break down barriers of geography and encroach on the until then obscured territories.
The period in question in a sense forms a tipping point with respect to the activity of the state and influential scientific and economic societies in attacking the drainage issue which had more or less been on the agenda since the beginning of the eighteenth century. In comparison with eighteenth century aspirations, drainage and reclamation plans became increasingly state-backed and elevated by scientific and technological achievements.
As primary sources, I use Parliamentary Papers related to the draining and cultivating of Irish bogs and improving the navigation of the River Shannon and its tributaries, as well as publications by Arthur Young, Thomas Newenham, Richard Griffith, Robert Fraser and Sir Robert Kane, among others, on the reclamation of Irish bogs for the benefit of agriculture, canal transport and the prosperity of the country. Altogether, I contemplate three interrelated Irish and, equally, British frontiers – that is to say, ‘the agricultural frontier’, ‘the navigation frontier’ and ‘the settlement frontier’ – to elucidate the aspirations, desires and demands when it comes to the socio-ecological transformations of entire ecological systems. These ‘frontiers’ can be analysed in terms of knowledge and technological systems and how they impact on the altered ecologies of Irish peatlands in the ‘Anthropocene epoch.’