Environmentality on the Canadian Prairies: Settler‐Farmer Subjectivities and Agri‐Environmental Objects
Published online on October 06, 2017
Abstract
State and institutional actors have been shaping settler‐farmer subjectivities in order to transform the landscape and thus the history and geography of the Canadian Prairies. This paper expands the application of environmentality from its origins in colonial forestry to interrogate agriculture on prairie landscapes. The Canadian state used the technologies of environmentality to influence “common sense” attitudes and behaviours, which acted to deterritorialize Indigenous communities and then manipulated their subjectivities to guarantee settler‐farmer access to land. Later, institutions and states moulded settler‐farmer subjectivities of correct farming behaviour in an effort to convert soil, water, and seeds into economic resources. These environmental objects, in turn, acted upon settler‐farmer subjects by setting biophysical and genetic limits such as soil fertility, water quality and quantity, and plant hardiness and disease resistance. Resisting environmentality requires understanding processes of subjugation while also creating counter‐narratives of “good” farming behaviour and Indigenous‐settler relations.