The spectacle of nature in the global economy of appearances: Anthropological engagements with the spectacular mediations of transnational conservation

Demands for economic growth are often visibly at odds with public concerns about what this growth portends for the future of our planet. In this context the production and dissemination of images not only shape people’s perceptions of the world, but mediate social and human—environmental relationships. Debord saw such mediation as a central feature of late capitalism, in which images become commodities alienated from the relationships that produced them and consumed in ignorance of the same. As biodiversity conservation and capitalism become increasingly intertwined, human— environmental relationships are being spectacularized in a proliferating smorgasbord of images and media. This article presents a theoretical framework for thinking about these transformations as they pertain to biodiversity conservation, consumerism and the environmental contradictions of global neoliberalism. I then use fieldwork from Tanzania to demonstrate the value of this approach. I conclude by discussing the larger social and theoretical implications of this material.