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Owain Jones and Paul Cloke, Oxford and New York: Berg, 2002, xii + 252 pages (paper).
Reviewer: Wayne Fife Memorial University of Newfoundland
I originally encountered this book as part of a reading group at Memorial University. I took extensive notes on it before we met and what follows is to be taken as my own opinion, but that opinion has inevitably been influenced by the lively discussion that this work engendered among our group. Reaction to the book ranged from not liking it very much at all to deciding that it usefully considered a number of issues related to human and non-human agency, questions about re-conceptualizing "nature," and why human beings have such an attachment to "place." One thing that we discovered in our discussion was that the differences in our perceptions of the book were partially related to why each of us was reading it. Those who read it more as "just another book" and compared it to other theoretical works concerning poststructuralism, network theory, and/or political ecology tended to be least satisfied with it; while those who read it as a work that pertained more directly to research problems that they were currently engaging with tended to feel that they gained far more from it. As I am currently involved in research associated with national parks and other issues relating to nature tourism, I was the member of the group who most found Tree Cultures to be useful, as it helped me think through a number of important issues related to political ecology in general and national parks in particular (although national parks are not part of the book's overt agenda). I would, therefore, recommend this book primarily to researchers struggling first hand with issues involving relationships between humans and the non-human world, especially those that revolve around organic entities such as trees or other non-conscious beings.
Tree Cultures can be divided into two main parts. Part 1 is entitled "Placing Trees in...