The Nature of the State Excavating the Political Ecologies of the Modern State

The twin categories of the state and nature collectively embody some of the most fundamental reference points around which our lives and thinking are organized. Despite their combined significance, however, the complex relationships that exist between modern states and nature remainunder-theorized and are relatively unexplored. Through a detailed study of different sites, moments, and framing strategies The Nature of the State challenges the ways in which geographers and social scientists approach the study of state-nature relations. The authors analyse different instancesof state-nature interaction from all over the world, considering the geo-politics of resource conflicts, the operation of natural history museums, the organizational practices of environmental departments and ministries, the regulation of genetic science, and contemporary forms of state interventionwithin issues of climate change. Introducing original research into the different institutional, spatial, and temporal strategies used by states to frame the natural world this book provides a critical overview of the latest political and ecological theories and addresses a wide range of pressingsocio-environmental debates.

Dr Mark Whitehead's research focuses on the links between geography, philosophy and environmental politics. This has been explored through projects on interpreting environmental spaces like sustainable neighbourhoods, green cities and ecological regions from an explicitly geographical perspective, as well as more contemporary analyses of cyborg geographies and environmental discourse.
Dr Rhys Jones's research focuses on the links between historical and political geography, particularly the geographies of the state and nationalism. Recent research has examined the placing and scaling of the nation and the long-term transformation of the British state and how this has been a 'peopled' phenomenon.
Professor Martin Jones's research focuses on the links between economic and political geography. He is particularly interested in the geographies of contemporary state intervention through public policy, and the spatially selective political strategies associated with this. Has been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2005): L50,000 over two years for his research into economic and political geography.