Mobilizing theory - Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities - page 34

example, McCarthy, 2005; Cohen and Davidson, 2011, Cohen, 2012; Cohen and
McCarthy, 2014). Cohen (2012) for example, shows that the watershed scale
remains undertheorized and that the conflation between governance tools and
governance units has muddied the waters for analysis.
Counter-hegemonic tools for change
Strategic essentialism
Strategic essentialism is a concept that is often used in postcolonial studies to theorize
citizen group unification. The term was coined by Spivak (1987) to describe a
strategy that nationalities and ethnic and minority groups can use to present
themselves as unified. Although significant differences may exist between individual
members of these groups, the process of “essentializing” the group members to
represent a singular (and simplified) group identity has proved to be a successful
technique to achieve goals (Spivak, 1987, 1988, 1996; Guha and Spivak, 1988).
The Indigenous communities, such as the Coast Salish and Ojibwa Nations,
discussed throughout the volume, provide examples of how cultural groups whose
membership represents a diverse range of bands, tribes, and family recognize the
benefits of strengthening the connections (based on a common language and
traditional networks) both to support the cultural revitalization of individual tribes
and bands and to help negotiate without external agencies.
Performativity
Similarly, techniques such as performance theory (Mountz, 2010) and counter-
mapping (Harris and Hazen, 2006; Sparke, 1998, 2006) are documented strategies
for activists to re-imagine and recreate new space. “Performance theory” is an
analytic to help describe and understand the production of scales and scalar
hierarchies (Mountz, 2010). The concept of performativity was conceived through
the work of critical gender theorist Judith Butler (1997) and has been taken up by
scholars in a range of disciplines, particularly feminist theory, cultural studies, and
philosophy. Her work is also very influential with critical geographic scholars
engaged in issues of environmental governance (see, for example, Sundberg, 2004,
2011; Harris, 2006). Performance theory helps us understand how discourses and
practice can help create (or recreate) new geopolitical scales (Brown and Purcell,
2005; Kaiser and Nikiforova, 2008; Harris and Alatout, 2010; Cohen and Harris,
2014).
Counter-mapping, social media, and virtual rescaling
In addition, cartographic tools such as “counter-mapping” can be used to present
physical spaces as unified. Increasingly, Indigenous activists' movements have
successfully employed tools of counter-mapping to assert rights over land (see
Wainwright and Bryan (2009) for examples in South America). In the Salish region,