Exploring Ecological Unsustainability: An Ecocultural and Ecospatial study of Uzma Aslam Khan’s Thinner Than Skin

Abstract

This study examines the novel Thinner Than Skin (2012) by Uzma Aslam Khan with kaleidoscopic lens of Ecoculture and Ecospatial perspective, social division and environmental disruption caused by an unstable spatial development and spatial inequality. The study seeks to question the prevailing norms of a transformed and unsustainable society by analyzing the literary perspectives related to ecoculture, ecospatial and sustainable developmental goals. Khan’s works are renowned for their thorough elucidation of environmental issues, concerns and the crises of cultural identities. The northern regions of Pakistan, despite their abundant natural resources, are being devastated by the increasing influence of consumerism, urbanization, technology, global trade, politics and capitalism. The study seeks to examine the notion of ecoculture, ecospatial and its significance in current discourse of environmentalism and promoting the current discourse of the interconnectedness between culture and the environment (Naess, 1994). It also examines concept of Production of Space by Lefebvre (1974/1991) and its relation to space and its socio-environmental implications. Urban areas and the way they are designed, not only shape the physical layout but also influence the ecological and socio-political layers of society, as well as the identities and behaviors of its inhabitants. The complex and unequal division of physical space results in the emergence of marginalized groups known as otherization of ‘spatial and urban others’, resultantly it leads to injustice in terms of both spatial and environmental conditions. This paper aims to illustrate the significance of ecological, ecocultural and ecospatial awareness in the face of the imminent global ecological disaster.