Environmentalism today largely pivots around globalisation discourse; there are ostensibly no local issues - they are global. Just try performing a Google search with the keywords "environment" and "globalisation": one gets 35,800,000 hits (and counting). This is not simply about global ecosystems. Environmental/globalisation discourse is also now very much about the identities and voices of those affected by environmental change.
Thomas Friedman has suggested that globalisation is not all homogenisation. Through what he has termed "the globalisation of the local", we could thus understand globalisation as providing a means for local actors to draw attention to environmental issues and assert their cultural identities. In this sense then, perhaps nothing is really 'local' anymore.
Thomas Friedman has suggested that globalisation is not all homogenisation. Through what he has termed "the globalisation of the local", we could thus understand globalisation as providing a means for local actors to draw attention to environmental issues and assert their cultural identities. In this sense then, perhaps nothing is really 'local' anymore.
To me, the crux of the matter is how different key actors construct different representations of those affected by environmental issues - the local actors themselves, the state, and international organisations / NGOs. These contesting representations have implications on the outcomes of attempts to solve environmental problems, and also demonstrate how the 'local' is now inextricably intertwined with discursive strategies beyond the local.
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