Environmental governance: Broadening ontological spaces for a more livable world

This paper contributes to global debates on environmental governance by drawing recent ontological scholarship ask: What would it mean ontologically engage the concept of governance? By examining underpinnings three domains (land, water, biodiversity), we find that dominant contemporary concepts and policy instruments are grounded in a modernist ontology which actively shapes world, making certain aspects relationships visible while invisibilizing others. We then survey ethnographic other literature highlight how such categories their relations have been conceived otherwise implications breaking out for governance. Lastly, argue answering our opening question requires confronting coloniality woven into project consider instead embrace pluralism practice. In particular, examine what taking seriously right self-determination enshrined United Nations Declaration Rights Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) could acknowledging ontologies as systems own right; challenges opportunities exist recognizing translating across socio-legal regimes; embracing dynamism hybridity might complicate or advance struggles material cognitive justice.