The political ecology of nostalgia

In seeking to counter the grand narrative of capitalist "progress" with an alternative narrative of its own, ecological theory resounds with the clash of disputed histories. Visions of a better, more sustainable ecological future are tied to a variety of interpretations of the past. History is deployed to establish what is possible for humanity, or appealed to as a proof that a way of life which once existed before can — if we so will it — be realized agai