Seite 122 [122]
120 JUDIT FARKAS
Obviously, anthropologys research attitude to small local communities does
not perish when national and global frames of reference are included within the
examination. This is confirmed by several anthropological studies on the effects
of climate change (see Crate — Nuttall 2009), which aim to expose the impacts of
climate change on local cultures, and “to stop the gaps in defective Western
knowledge on anthropogenic modifications” (Moore 2016: 34). One of the motives
which drives them is the strong West-centrism and through-politicization of the
dominant ideas and guidelines about environmental problems and climate change,
which also deeply influence indigenous communities, marginalized groups and
the poor. In this situation, “anthropologists should stand firm in their tradition
of committed localism and ethnographic reflexivity” (Roncoli — Crane — Orlove
2009: 88).
BIOREGIONALISM AND ECO-COSMOPOLITANISM
In our contemporary world, the notion of locality is being reassessed and we need to
take a new approach to it within the framework of globalism. Bioregionalism and eco¬
cosmopolitanism are (local and global, respectively) concepts and interpretive frames
that reflect upon this demand.
Bioregionalism
Bioregionalism holds that human activities and collective structures — politics, economy,
architecture, etc. — are formed and take place within the boundaries of bioregions. The
border of a bioregion is determined by nature, typically the outline of a catchment area
or the features of the terrain. One definition holds that a bioregion “is the general
pattern of the natural features of a given area’, including relief, climate, seasons,
configurations of the terrain, soils, plants, animals and insects (Berg 2002).
Bioregionalism is also a movement which appeared in the 1970s with writings by Allen
Van Newkirk, Peter Berg, Raymond Dasmann, Kirkpatrick Sale, Gary Snyder and
others. Bioregional thought has exercised considerable influence on the American
environmentalist and sustainability movements and plays a central role in the socio¬
ecological vision of the environmental philosopher Murray Bookchin, in which cities
are decentralized semi-autonomous city-states integrated within commonly managed
natural resource regions (Hubbell — Ryan 2022: 81). On Bookchin’s social ecological
vision, see the chapter on Environmental Philosophy; on bioregionalism, see also the
chapter of Dorottya Mendly and Melinda Mihaly on the global challenges of food
supply.
Eco-cosmopolitanism
In response to the predominance of bioregionalism and place-based discourse,
environmental humanist Ursula K. Heise elaborated the theory of eco-cosmopolitanism
in her book Sense of Place and Sense of Planet (2008). Its essence is that each individual
and group should be envisioned as part of a planetary community, which ought to
involve, besides humans, other kinds of living beings. The point is that people and
communities in any part of the world should be viewed as the inhabitants and co¬
three ecological and social movements and anthropology. On bioregionalism and permaculture,
see the chapter, Food as a global challenge; on ecovillages, see the chapter Ecovillages.