Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Aboriginal cosmopolitanism
AU - Clark, Nigel
PY - 2008/9
Y1 - 2008/9
N2 - The current drought in Australia raises questions about the extent to which urban life depends on physical forces that come with their own dynamics and eccentric rhythms. I suggest that currently deepening understandings of the inherent volatility of earth processes might help us appreciate the accomplishments of those who have stayed in place for hundreds or thousands of years: peoples whose ‘nomadic’ journeys through deep time have taken them through major bio- or geo-physical transformations in their environments. In this way, we might learn to recognize how most urban or settled life inherits terrains whose irregularities and extremes have been softened by the efforts of these prior inhabitants. In a world where we can expect major environmental changes to induce new waves of estrangement and displacement, I ask whether a sense of the immeasurable debt which we owe to those people who came before us might help inspire the kind of cosmopolitan sensibilities we would hope for.
AB - The current drought in Australia raises questions about the extent to which urban life depends on physical forces that come with their own dynamics and eccentric rhythms. I suggest that currently deepening understandings of the inherent volatility of earth processes might help us appreciate the accomplishments of those who have stayed in place for hundreds or thousands of years: peoples whose ‘nomadic’ journeys through deep time have taken them through major bio- or geo-physical transformations in their environments. In this way, we might learn to recognize how most urban or settled life inherits terrains whose irregularities and extremes have been softened by the efforts of these prior inhabitants. In a world where we can expect major environmental changes to induce new waves of estrangement and displacement, I ask whether a sense of the immeasurable debt which we owe to those people who came before us might help inspire the kind of cosmopolitan sensibilities we would hope for.
KW - cosmopolitanism
KW - nomadism
KW - estrangement
KW - deterritorialization
KW - deep time
KW - environmental change
KW - Australia
U2 - 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00811.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00811.x
M3 - Journal article
VL - 32
SP - 737
EP - 744
JO - International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
JF - International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
SN - 0309-1317
IS - 3
ER -