Chapter 6. Lexical fixedness within the field of life sciences in late modern English

Probiotic Environmentalities: Rewilding with Wolves and Worms

Theory Culture & Society ◽

10.1177/0263276417695866 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 34 (4) ◽

pp. 27-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Jamie Lorimer

Keyword(s):

Environmental Health ◽

Life Sciences ◽

Human Microbiome ◽

Keystone Species ◽

Life Forms ◽

Ecological Systems ◽

Nature Reserves ◽

Late Modern

A probiotic turn is underway in the management of human and environmental health. Modern approaches are being challenged by deliberate interventions that introduce formerly taboo life forms into bodies, homes, cities and the wider countryside. These are guided by concepts drawn from the life sciences, including immunity and resilience. This analysis critically evaluates this turn, drawing on examples of rewilding nature reserves and reworming the human microbiome. It identifies a common ontology of socio-ecological systems marked by anthropogenic absences and tipped across thresholds into less desirable states. It examines the operation of an environmental mode of biopower associated with deliberate efforts to engineer ecologies through the introduction of keystone species. It offers a set of criteria for critically evaluating the degree to which these interventions transform or sustain prevalent forms of late modern biopolitics. The conclusion reflects on the potentials of probiotic environmentalities for hospitable government beyond the Anthropocene.

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Was late Modern English scientific writing impersonal?

International Journal of Corpus Linguistics ◽

10.1075/ijcl.21.4.03mon ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 499-526 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Leida Maria Monaco

Keyword(s):

Subject Matter ◽

Life Sciences ◽

Natural Sciences ◽

Scientific Writing ◽

Multidimensional Analysis ◽

The Other ◽

Linguistic Features ◽

Register Variation ◽

Scientific Disciplines ◽

Late Modern

This paper focuses on the use of certain linguistic features conveying impersonal style in late Modern English scientific prose (1700–1900). Samples are taken from two subcorpora of the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing, one from the humanities (Philosophy) and the other from natural sciences (Life Sciences). The methodology applied is based on Biber’s (1988) Multidimensional Analysis, consisting of a study of register variation as manifested through sets of co-occurring linguistic features with a shared discursive function. The aim of the present study is to detect variation across scientific disciplines, genres, and subject matter. Findings are compared to those found in both diachronic and contemporary reference corpora.

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