A struggle around the limits of nature : A study of how man and nature are portrayed in opposition to modern forestry

The purpose of the study is to investigate how people, in a situation of ongoing environmental and climate change, problematize Swedish forestry. Based on the discourses and logics that are expressed, the focus is on how the resistance is made through notions of the Swedish forest, social categories, nature and man's place in nature. The analysis shows how scientific knowledge and cultural knowledge from the participants' imaginary worlds interact in the crisis discourse the group creates about the Swedish forest. In the social reality of the crisis discourse, it becomes central to make other people "wake up" and see how forestry and the majority's way of life threatens not only the forest but all life on earth. The discussions can be described as a negotiation over what is "natural" as well as what and who is imagined to be part of "nature". Paradoxically, man is articulated both as part of ecological systems and as an "unnatural" intruder in nature: like a pest