Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Geology and Geography
Committee Chair
Brent McCusker
Committee Member
Jamie Shinn
Committee Member
Bradley Wilson
Committee Member
Karen Culcasi
Committee Member
Robert Maxon
Abstract
Using a political ecology framework, I explore the relationship between international trophy hunting and South Africa’s private wildlife ranching industry. I interrogate the intersection of colonialism, capitalism, and conservation, which at its nexus are the discourses, policies, and logics that greenwash the production of nature. The proceeding chapters highlight a number of specific themes that problematize the neoliberalization of nature, including (i) the contradictions of imposing a market value to nonhumans; (ii) the operationalization of socioeconomic and environmental frameworks to justify trophy hunting and the breeding of nonhumans for profit; (iii) the use of African landscape and wildlife imagery to market trophy hunting; and (iv) how industry advocates advance a politics of scale, fear, and difference to strengthen cultural identities and cultivate a sense of belonging. Data reveal that private wildlife ranching paradoxically privileges some species over others, which means that some nonhuman lives are more intensely manipulated and violently exploited than others. Consequently, this dissertation calls for greater consideration of nonhuman sentience and complexity in decisions regarding wildlife conservation rather than an utilitarian ethos guided by colonial epistemologies and neoliberal logics that abstract nonhuman lives into parts for capitalist accumulation.
Recommended Citation
Knieter, Dave E., "Bullets, Breeding, and Biodiversity: An analysis of trophy hunting in South Africa's green wildlife economy" (2020). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 7543.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/7543