Published in 2012
As environmental practitioners, we cast nets to sample nature, to gather knowledge, to provoke action. Ornithologists use mist nets to capture birds for banding, advocates and organizers use social networks to foment governmental and public action, and vast amounts of data are gathered from different disciplines to construct climate change models. What do we hope will be the end result of our collective net work, as we seek both the tangible and the ineffable?
Splitting the term “network” in two creates an abundance of associations to explore. The word “net” suggests everything from the Mahayana Buddhist concept of Indra’s net to capitalist definitions of net worth. “Work” might connote the physical toil and sweat of field research or the mental gymnastics of philosophy.
Volume 19 of Whole Terrain seeks creative interpretations of the theme Net Works that encompass the full range and scope of environmental practice. Possible questions include:
- In the animal kingdom, what types of chemical communication spur networked ant colonies toward cooperation or war?
- What elements of local food networks could be created or shored up to strengthen our food systems?
- How have social media sites aided or complicated the work of the environmental movement?
- How are commercial fisheries changing their harvesting practices (e.g. nets) in an age of increasing fisheries collapse and political pressure?
- How does the growing research of mycorrhizal and other mutualistic associations reshape or deepen our understanding of how ecosystems function?
We welcome personal essays, investigative journalistic works, short works of fiction, creative non-fiction, visual art, graphic novel excerpts, and poetry that investigate all aspects of Net Works. Prose submissions are limited to 2,000 words and should be double-spaced, with pages numbered and word note counted. Poetry submissions may contain up to three pertinent poems. Electronic submissions to wholeterrain@antioch.edu are strongly encouraged.
Reading period for Volume 19 concluded December 31, 2011.
