On the Interactive Nature of Place-Making: Modifying Growth Machine Theory to Capture the Spatial and Temporal Connections that Spawned the Asian Carp Invasion

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ABSTRACT Growth machine theory has provided an influential foundation for thinking about the political economy of place-making and related environmental transformations. It remains silent, however, on how such dynamics can connect through time and space to influence subsequent growth machine dynamics elsewhere. I address this gap by advancing a modified “incorporated comparison” of the Asian carp invasion, an invasive species event generating significant social turmoil in the American Midwest. Empirics draw from document analysis and 71 semi-structured interviews. Results illuminate how local place-making and landscape transformations can connect in contingent ways to render nature a powerful force in subsequent growth-machine battles.