Governing wildfire risk in Canada : The rise of an apparatus of security
department or school: Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Non UBC
department or school: Community, Culture and Global Studies, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
identifier citation: Asiyanbi, A., & Davidsen, C. (2023). Governing wildfire risk in Canada: The rise of an apparatus of security. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 113(5), 1207-1223.
creator: Asiyanbi, Adeniyi
creator: Davidsen, Conny
issued: 2024-07-24T15:50:40Z
issued: 2023-03-15
description: This article argues that the governance of wildfire risk in Canada is increasingly oriented towards governance through a security apparatus. As climate change complicates wildfire “problems” in fast-expanding wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas, fire managers and other actors increasingly seek a shift towards a fire-permitting, risk-based fire management style, even as the balance between private and public responsibility for wildfire protection gets renegotiated. This approach, typified by FireSmart, is characterised by a gradual, geographically uneven shift from state-centred, fire suppression towards a multiplicity assembled around an expectation of security and the promise of economic freedom. These multiple shifts, we argue, reflect a characteristic approach to governing through the Foucauldian “apparatus of security”, a mechanism of power which seeks security through economic freedom and indirect governmental intervention. Central to the emerging apparatus of wildfire security are three core rationalizing discourses focused on the valorization of the individual’s capacity for wildfire management and protection, the negotiation of limits of state and public institutions in wildfire management, and the invitation to live resiliently with wildfires by embracing biophysical contingency. At stake is the complex politics through which the very ideas of wildfire risk, responsibility, and security are being, and can be, reconstituted. Our analysis furthers the poststructural geographies of wildfires and climate risk governance in Canada and beyond.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/88681
note: Accepted Version 1 Adeniyi Asiyanbi (Corresponding Author) Department of Community Culture and Global Studies, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Canada a.asiyanbi@ubc.ca Conny Davidsen Department of Geography University of Calgary, Canada Asiyanbi, A., & Davidsen, C. (2023). Governing wildfire risk in Canada: The rise of an apparatus of security. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 113(5), 1207-1223. Governing wildfire risk in Canada: the rise of an apparatus of security. This article argues that the governance of wildfire risk in Canada is increasingly oriented towards governance through a security apparatus. As climate change complicates wildfire “problems” in fast-expanding wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas, fire managers and other actors increasingly seek a shift towards a fire-permitting, risk-based fire management style, even as the balance between private and public responsibility for wildfire protection gets renegotiated. This approach, typified by FireSmart, is characterised by a gradual, geographically uneven shift from state-centred, fire suppression towards a multiplicity assembled around an expectation of security and the promise of economic freedom. These multiple shifts, we argue, reflect a characteristic approach to governing through the Foucauldian “apparatus of security”, a mechanism of power which seeks security through economic freedom and indirect governmental intervention. Central to the emerging apparatus of wildfire security are three core rationalizing discourses focused on the valorization of the individual’s capacity for wildfire management and protection, the negotiation of limits of state and public institutions in wildfire management, and the invitation to live resiliently with wildfires by embracing biophysical contingency. At stake is the complex politics through which the very ideas of wildfire risk, responsibility, and security are being, and can be, reconstituted. Our analysis furthers the poststructural ge…
has type: Article
has type: Postprint
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0444804
language: eng
peer review status: Reviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2023.2175638
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Faculty
subject: Governance
subject: Wildfires
subject: Climate change
subject: Security
subject: Neoliberalism
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88681