RATIONALIZATION AND CONSERVATION - ECOLOGY AND THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURE IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM

Nature conservation in the UK comprises not only a response to the per ceived impacts of rationalization on nature but is itself a dimension of that process of rationalization. The paper describes the developmen t of conservation institutions and ideologies in the UK and considers the ways in which ecology (and particularly ideas of nature as equilib rium) have provided the intellectual framework for conservation. Ecolo gy underpinned the establishment of government conservation institutio ns, provided intellectual strategies for classifying and objectifying nature, and provided the knowledge base for the control and management of nature. The paper discusses the implications of non-equilibrial id eas in ecology for ideas and practice in conservation and the implicat ions of responses to them in the form of re-rationalization.