This thesis will revisit Michel Foucault's original arguments on the ‘urban problem’ and the concomitant question of circulation, which I contend has been disassociated from more general renderings of his concept of governmentality. Throughout the 1970s, and particularly during his lectures at the Collège de France, Foucault would regularly return to the problem of urban circulation; how it has been conceived, calculated and distributed. Foucault would ponder the ways that material infrastructures have canalised people and resources, and naturalised their complex coexistence, in the interests of urban economic restructuring and state aggrandisement. Here, the ‘question of water’ was not only incidental to Foucault’s analytics of government but absolutely integral. Indeed, according to Foucault, whether flowing through rivers, canals, pipes, pumps, sewers or fountains, or stagnating in swamps, marshes and ditches, water has required the especial attention of town planners attempting to optimise the contentious process of urbanisation. Using Singapore as a case study, I will consider how the circulation of water has been administered under the three technologies of power identified by Foucault, with the greater emphasis put on discipline and security. The overarching argument will be that the modern state was consolidated and subsequently decentralised through the material configuration of drainage infrastructure, reservoirs and distribution systems, where governmental programmes have been co-produced with the technological networks of water circulation. Although disciplinary techniques had initially been found effective in terms of pollution control and flood alleviation, counterproductive consequences of concrete modernism quickly emerged requiring a greater uptake of security mechanisms, where government would be increasingly exercised through practices of exposure rather than enclosure. Mosquitoes were now thriving in the subterranean network of drains, valuable land was being wastefully converted into dormant storm canals, whilst people had become socially and emotionally disconnected from water. Released and revalorised, water now serves as a mobile technology of government which can penetrate and pervade the urban form and the everyday life of its inhabitants, centrifugally unleashing the potency of water flows and human desire whilst facilitating Singapore’s transformation into a global city. With its methodological nominalism and commitment to concrete practices, I argue that once reoriented around the urban problem, Foucault’s analytics can advance environmental politics debates by demonstrating that government is a mundanely material process orchestrated through the everyday infrastructure of water management. In so doing, I also shift the emphasis from the urbanisation of nature to the naturalisation of the urban, of circulation and the art of government itself.

Kennecott copper mine is one of the largest producers of pollution in the United States: it has contaminated over 72 square miles in the Salt Lake Valley. In 1998 alone, Kennecott, which is located only 25 miles southwest of downtown Salt Lake City, released 439 million pounds of toxic material into the Salt Lake Valley. Kennecott was proposed as a Superfund site by the EPA in 1994. Today it is the largest manmade excavation in the world. When mining operations began in 1863 at what is now Kennecott, Salt Lake City was a small city of just over 8,000 (Census, 1860). In recent years, the city has expanded toward Kennecott, so that once distant hazards are now literally in Salt Lake City’s residents’ backyards. According to the basic patterns commonly identified in the academic literatures on environmental justice and urban growth, as the Salt Lake City metropolitan area grows towards Kennecott the assumptions would be (1) Kennecott’s mining activities would be severely hindered by the influence of the EPA or would be forced to close due to the proximity of residents. (2) Those living/moving nearest to the area would most likely be low income people with no other options. (3) Arousal of community opposition to Kennecott as residents continue to move closer, which in this paper is referred to as “reverse” NIMBYism. However, none of the assumptions are the case. Why is it that Kennecott continues to function at full capacity without direct influence by the EPA and those residents encroaching upon it are not of low income and are not in opposition? This study of social, urban and historical geography will address these questions by exploring the spatial, economic and political history of Kennecott, Salt Lake City and the EPA, with a focus on the recent and ongoing development of 20,000 new homes in the area called Daybreak. The analysis will draw on analytical and theoretical approaches common to geographical analyses of urban growth and sprawl, environmental perception and environmental justice in relation to the nexus of spatial, economic and political circumstances which have led to the development of a new housing area on previously polluted land.

This thesis examines the intricate relationship between mangroves and humans in Shyamnagar, Bangladesh. Mangroves in Shyamnagar are found both in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest on earth, and in adaptation projects called nature based solutions (NbS), framed by the resilience narrative. The first part offers an introduction to these discourses, including the role of NGOs and governmental institutions, and critically analyzes the ways in which capitalist and modernist worldviews have influenced the establishment of new interaction zones between humans and mangroves through NbS projects, highlighting the omission of power dynamics and histories of dispossession. The second part delves into the nuanced relationships with the mangrove that transcend dominant global and organizational discourses. By emphasizing the agency of the mangrove as an active participant and co-creator of society in Shyamnagar, the boundaries between humans and nature, and communities and non-humans, are blurred. This challenges the notion of human exceptionalism and underscores the interconnectedness of all beings in shaping local landscapes, dynamics, and identities. The final part explores the relationships of care between humans and mangroves, recognizing the significance of care and affect in shaping human subjectivities and relationships with the biophysical environment. This thesis thereby emphasizes the importance of maintaining multispecies care even within practices that introduce anthropocentric, capitalistic, and market-oriented worldviews. By critically examining these dimensions, this thesis offers insights into the complex interactions between mangroves and humans in Shyamnagar, ultimately contributing to a broader understanding of the interplay between nature, society, and resilience.

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As the plastic crisis has emerged as a prominent environmental issue, among others like climate change and biodiversity loss, it has become increasingly important to examine current models of plastic governance. Studying plastic governance provides opportunities to better understand, challenge and hopefully improve upon the landscape of governance within the plastic crisis. For the purposes of this paper, plastic governance is defined as the management and regulation of plastic throughout its life cycle, from production to disposal. The plastic crisis has complex socio-political and ecological dimensions that shape both plastic's problems and potential solutions. Environmental rhetoric surrounding plastic and plastic governance fosters, as well as exemplifies, the dynamic human and ecological dimensions at play in the plastic crisis. For example, the prominence of rhetoric like "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" and recycling generally demonstrate the creation and reinforcement of waste management and consumer responsibility as the main problems and solutions within plastic governance. Focusing on Canada and the recent announcement of a national ban on single-use plastic, I explore the impacts of environmental rhetoric on the existing and developing governance landscape for plastic. By examining the use of or appeal to environmental rhetoric among state, corporate and civil actors in Canada, I apply concepts from the social science theories of critical political ecology and constructivism in order to gain a deeper understanding of the political and ecological dimensions of the plastic crisis and governance. In particular, I examine the ways in which the coproduction of science and politics informs the characterization of the plastic crisis itself as well as any potential solutions. By studying how rhetoric shapes the problems and solutions we see and emphasize, I will identify and explore norms and gaps within governance throughout plastic’s life cycle. As well, I consider rhetoric surrounding the actors within the plastic crisis and examine how identity and perception play a role in plastic governance. This research allows for deeper critique of plastic policies or initiatives in order to provide potential recommendations for advancing environmental sustainability in Canada.

This dissertation examines the operation of neoliberal environmentality through the instrumentalization of the Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Wyoming. It treats technological interventions within environmental construction as generating biotic-machinic entanglements termed technonature. I present the formation and operation of the Wyoming Conservation Exchange as a case study of technonatural territorialization connected to global trona and hydrocarbon commodity flows. The theoretical framework elaborates how "the environment" is constructed and governed through tactical instrumental deployments connected to technocratic management allowing economically powerful actors to inscribe their desires within Wyoming's landscape, politics and biota as a function of environmental security related to commodity development. The question motivating this work is "Whose environment is the Environmental Defense Fund defending?" The Greater Sage-grouse has become an object of U.S. Federal environmental governance since the late 1990's. It has experienced significant population declines due to anthropogenic disturbance and habitat loss through industrial action across its range. Wyoming's Sagebrush Steppe contains 37.5% of the remaining range wide population. The grouse was listed as a candidate species under the 1973 U.S. Endangered Species Act triggering responses from Federal, State, and international wildlife management agencies, as well as environmental non-governmental organizations. Wyoming could lose nearly a quarter of its surface should Federal regulations require the designation of critical sage-grouse habitat. Governor Dave Freudenthal signed Executive Order 2008-2 into law in response to the regulatory threat to Wyoming's hydrocarbon and mineral based economy. The grouse, in response was de-listed as a candidate species in 2015 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. EO 2008-2 established the Wyoming Core Area Strategy as a statewide conservation umbrella and laid the framework for a habitat mitigation economy allowing industrial activity to continue within sage-grouse habitat. This incentivized the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to test a market-based instrument – a habitat exchange – within Wyoming. The Greater Sage-grouse is a test species as it is highly sensitive to changes in its environment and this dissertation examines how the habitat mitigation economy advanced by EDF is drawing the grouse into global commodity networks as a territorialization process for global flows of hydrocarbons and minerals. At stake is the ability to write the history of the species, land, and the global environment as EDF develops conservation technologies prioritizing flows critical to the hydrocarbon environment through the technology of the Wyoming Conservation Exchange. / Doctor of Philosophy / The Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) entered Euro-American scientific study as early as the Lewis and Clark expedition as they explored the Intermountain region of Western North America. The first thorough scientific study of the sage-grouse in the 20th Century, The Sage Grouse in Wyoming, by Dr. Robert Lansing Patterson included the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on grouse populations. Since the 1952 publication of Patterson's study, Greater Sage-grouse numbers have been declining as the bird loses its home to encroachments such as urbanization, agriculture, grazing, mining, and fossil fuel extraction. The last stronghold of the grouse is the Sagebrush Steppe within Wyoming containing nearly 40% of the remaining population. Known for its flamboyant mating displays, the ground-dwelling avian species has become a political flashpoint in conservation, land management, and environmental circles as its numbers declined steadily since the 1990's due to an accelerating energy boom threatening its habitat. The bird became a threat to extractive industry in Wyoming at the turn of the Millennium as environmentally concerned groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (UFWS) to evaluate its populations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Nearly a quarter of Wyoming's surface would be strictly policed as critical habitat were the grouse listed as endangered or threatened under the ESA. Wyoming and its partners created the Wyoming Core Area Protection Strategy (CAP) as a wildlife management framework through Executive Order 2008-2. The Wyoming CAP includes the foundation of a habitat mitigation economy allowing industry to trade surface disturbances within critical sage-grouse habitat for modified land purportedly to the benefit of the species. The Nature Conservancy invited the Environmental Defense Fund to form the Wyoming Conservation Exchange – a market-based conservation instrument tailored to trading in habitat mitigation credits. This dissertation studies the Wyoming Conservation Exchange as an instrument connected to larger networks of wildlife management agencies, non-governmental organizations, and mining and fossil fuel interests. It evaluates the effects of the Wyoming Conservation Exchange and the economy it seeks to establish as changing how the environment is managed across the Sagebrush Steppe. Environmental Defense Fund's conservation instrument is reviewed through the economy created for and through the Greater Sage-grouse as an object of environmental governance. Habitat offsetting can, has and will change the physical, and political environment of Wyoming allowing powerful actors to write the rules of how the environment should be managed. As such, this dissertation questions whose environment the Environmental Defense Fund is defending as it explores sage-grouse management within the state.