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This article seeks to unpack notions of governmentality by reading it through the case of nature. By highlighting three key aspects of governmentality - its analytics of power, biopolitics, and technologies of the self - I argue that this approach presents a promising theoretical trend for those who study nature and its rule. However, there have been critiques leveled at this approach which must be considered. Using examples drawn from human/non-human interactions, I explore how the governmentality literature needs to be made more complex and attune to difference. In the final analysis, I argue that the concept of governmentality is not only an effective tool for geographers, but that geography provides a particularly insightful lens with its attention to spatiality, scale, territory and human/non-human relations that enrich the analysis of the making of governable spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geography finally seems to be taking the environment, and particularly nature, seriously in conceptual terms. Stimulated not least by accounts of nature developed by William Cronon and Bruno Latour, and the continued ‘cultural turn’ more generally, articles and indeed whole journals have begun to consider the geographical implications of rethinking nature. Despite Williams’ (1998: 29) claim that the social construction of nature and the environment is now ‘an accepted concept that needs little elaboration, though it still fascinates’, elaboration is in. In this short report, I shall comment on the main themes this elaboration is pursuing and also how this has been criticized as potentially damaging to environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]