I'm starting on my environmental history-related thesis this coming semester, and am in a bit of a pickle. My original supervisor suggested a good theme would be to do a study on how an environmental organization or a political party uses the word 'nature'. Said supervisor then fell out with the university, and quit. I am struggling to see how such a study would be conducted, but as finals are just over I haven't had much time to start yet. I have not yet met my new supervisor, but I would like to be prepared when meeting him, so my question is, I guess, are there any studies you guys could point me towards that could serve as inspiration? Or is a thesis on this subject a total pipe dream?
Cheers!
tl;dr: Are there any studies of how an organization uses a particular term, for example 'nature'?
For a course on environmental history at Utrecht University we read some works on the subject, notably one by John McNeill, Something new under the sun, an environmental history of the twentieth century (2000). In the chapter on politics and environment he mentions that prior to the 60's and 70's environmental policy was haphazard. There were not much central ideas on how to properly organise society around the environment. Note however that this discludes ideas of forest and wildlife rejuvenation that had been prevailant for centuries. On the grand level of political ideologies, McNeill writes, the stance towards nature can be well described by the words of Marx; '"the exploitation of man by man" [was given] way to "the exploitation of nature by man"' (p. 332).
Nature was something that had to be harnassed and used. That did not mean that it was to be treated carelessly. Ordnances on forest preservation are reered towards wood production, laws forbidding the use of certain areas can be seen as religious practice and decrees on hunting or fishing quota's can be seen as an effort to control 'the commons', as written by Garrett Harding in his 1968 article.
On your question of how organisations and political parties started to use the term nature, it would be interesting to look at the different UN organisations that were conceived in the post-WW2 period. Examples are the IUCN (International union for the conservation of nature), the WHO (you know this one), as well as the FAO and maybe also UNESCO. McNeill writes also on the first international conference of the environment in Stockholm (1972), which apparently formed into the UNEP.
I cant for the life of me remember the other works that were important. The course was some time ago and I lost my original notes. One author I do remember coming back a lot was JAred Diamond and his 2005 work Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. A word of advice and caution, Diamond tends to present his information very selectively, so watch out for taking his info at face value, but cross check the material because it may yield good things. Also, Diamond is a breeze to read.