Loving lindens, logging spruces : arborism as an apparatus of arboreal inequality

Toplak, Cirila (author)

The article introduces arborism as a conceptual framework for examining how economic, political and cultural practices create hierarchies among species of trees within forest systems. Like with speciesism in critical animal studies, arborism is theorised as a Foucauldian apparatus of power/knowledge that legitimises human-imposed arboreal hierarchies by making certain tree species/individual trees sacred, healing or national icons while others are left invisible or expendable. Drawing on the case of Slovenia’s venerated linden and heavily logged spruce, the article shows how arborism operates through economic logic, nationalist symbolism, heritage protection, and forestry policies. Comparative examples from several other countries reveal the way such hierarchies are reproduced in diverse ecological and cultural contexts. The concept of affective arborism is used to describe the emotional economies that attach value to trees via mourning, memory and awe. Integrating Indigenous ontologies and posthuman relational ethics, the author argues for a post-arborism ethics grounded in reciprocity and multispecies justice rather than charisma or utility.

• Language: English
• Keywords: arborism, forest governance, posthumanism, multispecies justice, ecological governmentality, sustainable forest management, economic aspects, forestry policy
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Geographic coverage: Slovenija
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 09.07.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 327-348
• Numbering: Letn. 63, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-184775
• UDC: 630:141.31:316.75(497.4)
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• DOI: 10.51936/tip.63.2.327
• COBISS.SI-ID: 284619011
• Publication date in RUL: 15.07.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa : revija za družbena vprašanja
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Ljubimo lipe, sekamo smreke

Abstract

Članek uvaja arborizem kot konceptualni okvir za preučevanje, kako ekonomske, politične in kulturne prakse ustvarjajo hierarhije med drevesnimi vrstami znotraj gozdnih sistemov. Arborizem, podobno kot specizem v kritičnih študijah živali, je teoretiziran kot foucaultovski dispozitiv oblasti in vednosti, ki upravičuje človeško vzpostavljene hierarhije med drevesnimi vrstami: nekatere drevesne vrste in posamezna drevesa povzdiguje v svete, zdravilne ali nacionalne ikone, druga drevesa pa dela nevidna ali nepotrebna. Članek na primeru čaščene lipe in ekonomsko izkoriščane smreke v Sloveniji analizira, kako arborizem deluje skozi ekonomsko logiko, nacionalistično simboliko, varstvo dediščine in gozdarske politike. Primerjalni primeri iz več drugih držav razkrivajo, kako se drevesne hierarhije reproducirajo v različnih ekoloških in kulturnih kontekstih. Koncept afektivnega arborizma opisuje čustvene razsežnosti, zaradi katerih ljudje vrednotijo drevesa skozi prizmo žalovanja, spominjanja in strahospoštovanja. Na osnovi staroselskih ontologij in posthumanističnega pojmovanja odnosnosti se avtorica v sklepu zavzame za postarboristično etiko, ki bo temeljila na recipročnosti in medvrstni pravičnosti, ne pa na karizmi ali koristnosti dreves.

• Keywords: arborizem, gozdarstvo, posthumanizem, medvrstna pravičnost, ekološka vladnost, trajnostno gospodarjenje z gozdovi, gospodarski vidik, gozdarska politika