In the weeds: Thinking through anthropological and other social science approaches to invasive plant species and their control

As climate change and biodiversity loss dismantle the world's ecosystems, we are becoming a planet of weeds. The spread of invasive plant species poses acute challenges to human and non-human life, threatening biodiversity, economic livelihoods, and human health. In anthropology, there has been an embrace of the concept of “weediness” as generative in recent years, both as a way to think through unexpected flourishings amidst the ruins of capitalism, and to challenge an anthropocentric view of vegetal value. However, in contexts where the spread of invasive plant species threatens livelihoods, lifeworlds, biodiversity and ecosystems, there is an urgent need to take seriously the negative consequences of weedy proliferation, something that is perhaps best achieved through a vegetal political ecology approach. This paper traces recent developments in anthropological and social science scholarship related to invasive plants and the techniques used to control them. Literatures investigating the role that weeds play in the social world, across anthropology, geography, critical plant studies and related disciplines are brought into conversation with toxicities literatures to think about how the histories and futures of weeds and their control sit in (and shape) landscapes and bodies in uneven ways.