War of the Whales: Post-Sovereign Science and Agonistic Cosmopolitics in Japanese-Global Whaling Assemblages

TY - JOUR

T1 - War of the Whales

T2 - Post-Sovereign Science and Agonistic Cosmopolitics in Japanese-Global Whaling Assemblages

AU - Blok, Anders

PY - 2011/1

Y1 - 2011/1

N2 - This article examines some of the difficulties of universalistic science in situations of deep conflict over global nature, using empirical material pertaining to ongoing controversies in the context of Japanese whaling practices. Within global-scale whaling assemblages since the 1970s, science has become a "post-sovereigna" authority, unable to impose any stable definition of nature on all actors. Instead, across spaces of deep antagonistic differences, anti- and pro-whalers now ontologically enact a multiplicity of mutually irreconcilable versions of whales. Empirically, the article attempts to map out a "cosmograma" of Japanese pro-whaling enactments of abundant and "killablea" whales. Following the political ecology of Bruno Latour, the global-scale situation is conceptualized as one of cosmopolitics, the politics of forging a common world across divergences in nature-cultures. Pointing to tensions inherent in this concept, the article ends by suggesting a move toward "agonistic cosmopolitics," in clarifying the constructive potentials of a Latourian anti-essentialist political ecology.

AB - This article examines some of the difficulties of universalistic science in situations of deep conflict over global nature, using empirical material pertaining to ongoing controversies in the context of Japanese whaling practices. Within global-scale whaling assemblages since the 1970s, science has become a "post-sovereigna" authority, unable to impose any stable definition of nature on all actors. Instead, across spaces of deep antagonistic differences, anti- and pro-whalers now ontologically enact a multiplicity of mutually irreconcilable versions of whales. Empirically, the article attempts to map out a "cosmograma" of Japanese pro-whaling enactments of abundant and "killablea" whales. Following the political ecology of Bruno Latour, the global-scale situation is conceptualized as one of cosmopolitics, the politics of forging a common world across divergences in nature-cultures. Pointing to tensions inherent in this concept, the article ends by suggesting a move toward "agonistic cosmopolitics," in clarifying the constructive potentials of a Latourian anti-essentialist political ecology.

U2 - 10.1177/0162243910366133

DO - 10.1177/0162243910366133

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0162-2439

VL - 36

SP - 55

EP - 81

JO - Science Technology and Human Values

JF - Science Technology and Human Values

IS - 1

ER -