The Paradox of Protected Natural Area Landscapes: An Interpretation of Ka'ena Point Natural Area Reserve, O'ahu, Hawai'i As a Gardened Space
Year: 2002
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis critically evaluates protected natural areas in terms of the production of space and the cultural representation and definition of nature within them. Idealized representations of nature in protected areas are mediated through Western cultural discourses; space is seen as being wild, natural and conceptually autonomous from the human realm. By using the garden analogy as a metaphoric device, I deconstruct some common representations of nature to reveal how various Western rhetorics and discourses dominate ideas about natural space in protected areas. I interpret the landscape of Kaʻena Point Natural Area Reserve and illustrate that it can be seen as a socially produced space in which nature is controlled, restored, and modified. Paradoxically, protected natural areas are created as wilderness spaces, but their nature is partly constructed (physically and conceptually) and wholly defined through cultural discourse and representation.
Author: Adam D. Rose
Language: English
Subfield: Nature and Landscape Conservation
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2283850119