Heritage and the Politics of Invasive Alien Species

Exploring invasive species as heritage work, this Element reveals how culture, memory, identity, and affect shape environmental governance.

This Element explores the politics of invasive alien species through the lens of critical heritage studies, highlighting how species management intersects with cultural values, identity, and notions of belonging. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.This Element explores the politics of invasive alien species (IAS) through the lens of critical heritage studies, highlighting how species management intersects with cultural values, identity, and notions of belonging. Focusing on two Swedish case studies-the Garden Lupin and the Signal Crayfish-it examines how environmental and heritage discourses are entangled in practices of conservation and tradition. IAS management is framed as 'heritage work,' shaped by emotional attachments, historical narratives, and affective alliances. By treating IAS not only as ecological threats but as cultural phenomena, the Element challenges dominant ecological paradigms, emphasizing the socio-political dimensions of nature conservation. It argues that understandings of 'native' and 'non-native' are shaped by memory, tradition, and temporality, often leading to conflicting interpretations of landscape and heritage. This interdisciplinary approach offers new insights into the cultural dynamics underpinning environmental governance in the Anthropocene. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.