Corporeal citizenship: rethinking green citizenship through the body

Building upon the work of green theorists and corporeal and material feminists, the epistemological construal of contemporary approaches to green citizenship is challenged, and the more ontological approach of ‘corporeal citizenship’ is advocated. With this term an understanding of citizenship is advanced that is not only embodied and attentive to the particularities of human difference but also one that recognises humans' inescapable embeddedness in differing social and natural (discursive and material) contexts that shape subjectivity and condition our collective agency. Bodies are envisioned as porous but resistant, plural and connected in an effort to unsettle the nature/culture dualism and broaden the range and scope of issues considered environmental. This approach also offers the opportunity to rethink traditional conceptions of agency and citizenship practices while providing a foundation for greater cooperation with advocates of environmental justice.