The power of the wild

The power of the wild is an idea that has been important in
western thought as a place of refuge or separation where we can
feel the power of nature. It is a place where humans are not in
control and their power is limited. Using nature as a category of
power creates a dichotomy between humans and nature, which is
problematic because humans are very much part of eco-systems in
which we live. Is it then valid for historians to invoke models
of power dynamics to study past interactions between humans and
nature? This was one of the questions considered at a workshop
held at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, England in April 2013. The
participants of the workshop also examined if a nature reserve
like Wicken Fen can be made wild again, a process called
re-wilding.


In episode 53 of this podcast series Dolly Jorgensen argued that
no re-wilding is needed but that the wild is all around us, even
in urban settings. In this episode of the podcast Paul Warde,
reader in history at the University of East Anglia, argues that
the experience of the wild is hard to find in an urban
environment, even an urban park or in a nature reserve in densely
populated England. The question is then if rewilding of an
heavily dominated human landscape like Wicken Fen is possible and
can be returned to a "wild state". This desire of rewilding
Wicken Fen also led to the question whether such a rewilded area
would be truly wild.


Music credits: Truth and Fact (Orchestral) by Zapac, available
from ccMixter. Into The Garden by Loveshadow, available from
ccMixter. Etincelle by Oursvince, available from Jamendo