Rethinking life-in-common in the Australian landscape

Wendy Harcourt

doi:10.1177/2514848621989602

Wendy Harcourt

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848621989602

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Abstract

This commentary reflects on the shifts in my personal and political lifeworld across time and space by sharing a story of changing awareness about ‘life-in-common’ in the Australian landscape; a landscape that is marked by historical, ecological and resource struggle and injustice. My commentary takes up the rethinking of differential belonging and ‘life-in-common’ as part of the search for alternatives to capitalism and a way to overcome socioecological crises which pays attention to the deep connections of nature and culture. I reflect on life-in-common as an Australian white settler feminist political ecologist wishing to understand how to address the erasures and violence that mark the Australian landscape.

Highlights

This commentary reflects on the shifts in my personal and political lifeworld across time and space by sharing a story of changing awareness about ‘life-in-common’ (Singh, 2017) in the Australian landscape; a landscape that is marked by racialised historical, ecological and resource struggle and injustice
I reflect on life-in-common as a white Australian-born Feminist Political Ecologist wishing to understand how to address the Corresponding author: Wendy Harcourt, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Kortenaerkade 12, The Hague, 2502 LT, Netherlands
From the position of a white settler Australian, I contribute as honestly as I can to the discussions around collective responsibility and the commons by bringing to the discussion the concept of differential belonging

Summary

Introduction

This commentary reflects on the shifts in my personal and political lifeworld across time and space by sharing a story of changing awareness about ‘life-in-common’ (Singh, 2017) in the Australian landscape; a landscape that is marked by racialised historical, ecological and resource struggle and injustice.My commentary explores the term life-in-common, in order to unpack hegemonic understandings of socionature. I seek to show in this commentary how the idea of common responsibility in the Australian context can silence what Indigenous and First Nations peoples have raised in their call for profound rethinking of white settler ways of being.

Results

Conclusion