2017 Theses Master's

Green Governmentality: China and the Environmental Politics of Pastoralism

Pierre, Naika C.

Over the past decade, the Chinese government has embarked on a massive campaign of relocation and rehousing targeted at Tibetan nomads, which has resulted in claims of human rights violations dealing with forcible evictions, lack of transparency, and consultation, as well as with the preservation of indigenous culture, identity, land, and knowledge. Attributing the degradation of the grasslands across the Tibetan Plateau to overgrazing, the government has framed the forced sedentarization of nomads as a prerequisite to ecological and developmental progress. Utilizing the framework of green governmentality, this thesis will research the construction of the Communist Party’s creation of environmental truths, linking the governing of nature with the governing of people as a means of population control. Through the examination of government policies and statements, it will document the process of subject forming that relegates Tibetan nomads into a population needing to be governed over, while justifying and promoting the necessity of the Chinese government to exist in the role of governor.