Robert Nichols will present on "Exclosure of the Commons: A Predicament of Modern Power."
Abstract: The ‘Enclosures of the Commons’ have become something of an archetypal metaphor for critical theory, particularly work situated at the intersection of anti-capitalist and anti-colonial critique. It is now routinely used to describe the interrelated processes by which the earth has been partitioned into distinct geospatial zones of exclusive control and private ownership and, as such, is central to critiques of both territorial sovereignty and landed property. This talk interrogates the metaphor of an enclosure, suggesting that its theoretical fecundity derives, in part, from its conceptual ambiguity. Specifically, describing the territorial partition of the earth as a series of ‘enclosures’ can elide and obscure its relationship to exclusion. This is pertinent, I contend, for understanding both historical and present-day struggles against enclosure. I draw upon research into Indigenous politics in the Americas to illustrate the predicaments of power that are engendered by enclosure/exclosure as a dialectical process.
Robert Nichols is Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His work in social and political thought takes up questions of power, sovereignty, property, and historical consciousness, especially as they inform and animate struggles at the intersection of anti-capitalism and anti-colonialism. He is the author of, most recently, Theft is Property! Dispossession and Critical Theory.