Becoming Human At The Reptile Center: An Ethnography Of The Psychıc Life Of Conservation

This thesis is an ethnography of a reptile conservation center employing a Lacanian-Zizekian theoretical stance to study the narrative frames through which conservationworkers relate to the environment, reptiles, conservation, in addition to their articulationof environmental ethics. Focusing on Lacanian concepts of alienation andfantasy, this thesis problematizes how the conservation narratives of green fantasyand conservation fantasy structure the workers’ meaning-making processes. It arguesthat while the direct contact with the reptiles they seek to protect enablesthe workers to feel themselves to be ethical and agentive, the neoliberal orderingof the conservation context challenges these beliefs. The resulting tension enablesus to observe the layered and situational articulation of environmental ethics at theintersection of fantasy and desire.