Topographies of security and the multiple spatialities of (conservation) power: Verticality, surveillance, and space-time compression in the bush

Abstract

This article advances the analytic of topography to account for vertical and horizontal dimensions of space, power, and the ways in which they articulate with biophysical and political-ecological dynamics to (re)-shape socio-spatial and socio-natural relations. While commonly used to refer to the horizontal, vertical, and environmental features of a particular landscape, social scientists use the language of topography to understand the connections between spaces, processes, and power dynamics. I combine these literal and metaphorical understandings of topography to examine how multiple dimensions of space and power coalesce to protect certain bodies, police others, and secure the space within each move. In response to increases in commercial poaching, for example, conservation-security actors are increasingly going aerial to mobilise the vertical as a dimension of space and power to protect wildlife, neutralise those who threaten them, and ultimately secure conservation areas below. Verticality thus becomes important as both an empirical and analytical phenomenon that matters for understanding shifting power dynamics in contexts where actors seek to secure space and resources from perceived threats. But, the vertical does not exist on its own. It is in the interaction of the horizontal, vertical, and political-ecological dynamics of protected areas that conservation-related power-geometries are altered. A topographical analysis results in a nuanced understanding of how the workings of power and related security practices and technologies work to (re-)shape human environment and territorial relations.

Complexities and surprises in local resistance to neoliberal conservation: Multiple environmentalities, technologies of the self and the poststructural geography of local engagement with REDD+

“…This focus foregrounds the complexity and dynamism that more closely reflect the everyday reality of local communities (Hall et al, 2015). Such a focus would also unveil local aspirations, granting insights into how and why contemporary conservation regimes repeatedly find a foothold in communities, despite the emptiness of their promises (Kansanga & Luginaah, 2019;Massarella, Sallu, Ensor, & Marchant, 2018), their failure to deliver change (Lund, Sungusia, Mabele, & Scheba, 2017;West, 2006), and the various forms of violence by which they often get enacted on the ground (Howson, 2018;Mabele, 2017;Margulies & Karanth, 2018;Marijnen & Verweijen, 2016;Massé, 2018;Milne & Mahanty, 2018). In the following section, we turn to the governmental process of model making as an entry point to understanding Ekuri's community technologies.…”

Geographies of conservation III: Nature’s spaces

“…Movement of rangers by air allows rapid deployment in remote areas. Such technologies reduce the frictions that limit the exercise of power, and have become central to securing conservation territories (Massé, 2018).…”

“…Maps, and the centralized analysis of spatial digital data from multiple sensors and sources, underpin the enforcement of the boundaries of conservation spaces. Massé (2018) uses the concept of topography to explore the way multiple spaces of power combine to police conservation lands, protecting selected bodies (often charismatic rare species such as rhinos), and proscribing others (particularly poachers). The rise of airborne surveillance, particularly from fixed wing aircraft, helicopters and drones, has transformed the work of protected area rangers in South Africa, enabling essential ground patrols to be targeted rapidly and effectively to prevent border transgressions.…”

Infrastructure, wildlife tourism, (il)legible populations: A comparative study of two districts in contemporary Botswana

“…Instead, elected officials and administrators opt for the mode of transport preferred by the makgoa , or tourists. 18 Air travel and air power within the conservation context, or as Massé (2018) suggests, “verticality”, become synonymous with state actors. Local residents, on the other hand, are subject to the vagaries of their poorly maintained and not infrequently impassable dirt road.…”