Controlling Animals: Power, Foucault, and Species Management

Abstract

Environmental theorists have used Foucault's work on biopolitics, governmentality, and disciplinary power to examine nature conservation and domesticated animals. This article applies Foucault's studies to evaluate how current species management practices for the reintroduction of the grizzly bear, wolf, whooping crane, and condor create animals and landscapes that are simultaneously docile and useful in the context of the tourist economy. This analysis concludes that managers need to acknowledge that using sophisticated technologies (i.e., geographic positioning systems [GPS]) for species management is, ironically, creating a “wild” animal that is constructed by human means and desires.