The pluriversal anthropocene in Laomudeng Nu village of Yunnan : environmental governance, indigenous knowledge and community economies

Abstract

The Anthropocene has become an inevitable and essential context for the comprehensive and interdisciplinary discussion on issues involving human society and its negotiations with nature. In the face of the intersectional socio-ecological challenges, such as climate change, environmental crisis, social inequality and injustice, human geography offers profound reflections on the ontology and politics of the Anthropocene, calling for the provoked engagement of social sciences and envisioning a pluriversal Anthropocene. On this basis, socio-cultural contingency and bottom-up agency constitute two contextualised and practical analytical perspectives, which are the research concerns of socio-cultural geography.

From these perspectives, this thesis explores the human-nature relationship and interaction in often neglected geographical marginal and socio-economically underdeveloped areas, contributing to the understanding and enrichment of the pluriversal Anthropocene. Specifically, this thesis adopts a combination of longitudinal diachronic and horizontal synchronic methods to conduct a detailed case study with three concentrations: 1) retrospectively tracing the human-nature interaction history to understand environmental concepts and practices embedded in local conditions; 2) revealing the tension between top-down hierarchies in current environmental governance and indigenous contexts; 3) exploring the performance and heuristics of socio-cultural contexts and bottom-up actions with a future-oriented attitude.

Laomudeng Nu Village of the Nujiang region, Yunnan Province, is selected as the empirical case of the thesis. It is a typical ethnic minority area located on the southwestern border of China, with a pristine ecological environment, rich natural resources and a backwards level of socio-economic development. First, in dialogue with the current international discourse of climate and environmental justice, the thesis divides the historical human-nature dynamics of the non-modernised, non-climate-threatened Laomudeng Nu people across three stages, advocating for diversified discourses for justice beyond the Western-centric ones based on decolonisation and victim narratives. Second, it scrutinises the unsatisfactory top-down environmental governance practices of the Grain for Green Programme in Laomudeng, underscoring the necessity of prioritising local socio-cultural contexts and enabling grassroots initiatives for effectiveness and justice. Third, by unfolding the revolution of indigenous environmental knowledge and localised adaptation of the tea industry of the Laomudeng Nu people, it demonstrates how indigenous communities actively reshape knowledge and integrate external practices according to local needs, challenging colonial-decolonial binaries by centring indigenous subjectivities and context-driven revolution. Fourth, engaging with diverse and community economies theory, it examines the self-organised development of the tourism industry of Laomudeng and its tension after the intervention of administrative and capitalist forces, emphasising indigenous ethical economic practices while reminding them of their fragility.

Theoretically, this thesis advocates “seeing the absence” to construct the conceptual framework of the pluriversal Anthropocene, challenging the dominant universal discourses and approaches by centring marginalised socio-ecological systems and intersectional power relations. Moreover, it prioritises indigenous socio-cultural contexts and bottom-up actions, emphasising indigenous knowledge and participatory community economies as situated, participatory alternatives to dominant paradigms. Practically, it highlights Laomudeng’s traditions as fragile yet vital seeds for a pluriversal Anthropocene, urging empowerment of indigenous subjectivities facing capitalist forces to foster equal, just and sustainable pathways through self-determination and reduced external intervention.