Political Ecology: Nature and Society against the Grain

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-413
Author(s):  
Pamela McElwee
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
State Power ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Environmental Relations ◽  
Nature And Society

This essay advances the argument for James C. Scott as a preeminent political ecologist, despite the fact that he has not claimed such a title for himself. While he is variously described as an (errant) political scientist, an (adopted) anthropologist, and a (most of the time) Southeast Asianist, he has not usually been called a card-carrying political ecologist. But in fact, his many works have foreshadowed a number of the topical concerns of political ecologists of Asia, such as his attention to subsistence strategies of peasants, to hegemony and resistance, to state power and simplifications, to anarchism and self-organization, and to ecological transitions and human-nonhuman interactions. The fact that Scott is one of the most-cited theorists in the field of political ecology is further proof of his influence, with authors using Scottian themes to launch critical investigations of how power shapes environmental relations and how politics plays a role in the co-constitution of nature and society.

scholarly journals Water Matters: thinking with water Class Experience

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denisse Roca-Servat ◽  
Polina Golovátina-Mora
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Private University ◽  
The Political ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Master's Program ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Environmental Relations

This article revisits a co-learning experience of a graduate course on the political ecology of water at the Master’s program in Development Studies in a Colombian private university which employed a thinking with water teaching methodology based on the ontological-epistemological-methodological unity. Water as a nearly universal solvent not only conditions life on the planet but also defines human imaginary. The physical characteristics of water such as its fluidity, plasticity, and conductivity enable a multidimensional, nonlineal, and relational thought. Because of its universal familiarity and its indispensability for life, water offers intuitive ways of knowing. The revision of the class experience showed that the materiality of water affects the dynamic of the course. It supports the idea of the performativity (Barad) of our knowledge about Self and the world. Spontaneous and resistant, water clears hidden, silenced, or ignored meanings of both social and environmental relations and, so, stimulates critical self-reflection, catalyzes social change, and promotes social justice.

scholarly journals Dall’ecologia politica attraverso il Capitalocene per una società ecologica

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gioacchino Piras
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Real Solution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Reorganization ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
The Relationship

In the context of Political Ecology, this paper traces the main interpretations that have emphasized the need to rethink the relationship between nature and society in order to find new solutions to the ecological crisis. We will first consider the concept of Capitalocene as an alternative to that of Anthropocene; we will then analyze the reorganization of social relations proposed by Bookchin as well as the concretization of these principles in the democratic confederation of Rojava. The aim of this reflection is to study the social reorganization of democratic confederalism, in its anti-hierarchical, feminist, ecological and selfgoverning dimension, as a perspective in harmony with the theory of the oikeios and, therefore, as a real solution to the ecological crisis.

scholarly journals The Dialectic of the Nature-Society-System

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Production Model ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Means Of Production

There are four logical possibilities for conceiving the relationship of nature and society: the reduction of society to nature, the projection of nature into society, dualism, and a nature-society-dialectic. This differentiation results in four different approaches. Nature is a self-organizing system that produces an evolutionary hierarchy of interconnected systems with specific qualities. Society is a product of nature where humans produce and reproduce structures that enable and constrain human practices in dynamic processes. Parts of nature are observed and appropriated by humans from within society, these parts are socially constructed and form a subsystem of society. The self-organization cycle of nature and the self-organization cycle of the socio-sphere are mutually connected in a productive cycle of society where natural self-organization serves as the material foundation that enables and constrains social self-organization and human production processes transform natural structures and incorporate these very structures into society as means of production (technologies, raw materials). The economy is that part of the socio-sphere where the relationship between nature and the socio-sphere is established, the mediation is achieved by human labour processes. Nature enters the economic process as material input in the form of means of production (constant capital): machines, raw materials, auxiliary materials. Organized nature that is part of the production process in the form of technology increases the productivity of labour and hence reduces the costs of variable capital (total amount of wages) and increases the speed of the production of surplus value. The production system of modern society is oriented on economic profit and productivity, ecological depletion and pollution are by-products of modernization. The Fordist production model that originated in the West and was copied by the Soviet Union is one of the major causes of the global ecological crisis. The productive forces are in modern society socially and ecologically destructive forces. In late capitalism there is a tendency of commodification and privatization of nature and human knowledge. Especially in the later writings of Marx and Engels one can find formulations that suggest a productivist logic that sees nature as an enemy opposed to man, as a resource and object that must be mastered, exploited, and controlled. But throughout the works of Marx and Engels one can find many passages where they argue that there is an antagonism between capitalism and nature that results in ecological degradation and that a free society is also based on alternative, sustainable relationships between man and nature. The idea of an alternative society-nature-relationship and of nature conservation can already be found in the works of Marx and Engels, they are precursors of ecological thinking. In Orthodox Marxism dialectical thinking has been interpreted as deterministic and mechanic laws and misused for arguing that the Soviet system is a free society. An alternative is a dialectic that stresses human practice and that structures condition alternative possibilities for action. Dialectic thinkers like Herbert Marcuse and Ernst Bloch have argued that nature is a producing subject, a non-teleological subject (Marcuse). Describing nature as a subject implies that if man destroys nature the latter as a producing subject will probably produce uncontrollable negative effects on society and that hence nature should be appropriated in sustainable ways. Matter is a natural subject that acts upon itself, whereas man is a human self-conscious subject that acts upon nature and society.

scholarly journals Between crises and insurgencies: the political ecology in defense of shared living

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Lucena Empinotti ◽  
Sue A. S. Iamamoto ◽  
Isabella Lamas ◽  
Felipe Milanez
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Environmental Destruction ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Environmental Relations ◽  
Political Ecologies

Abstract This article offers a review of the recent trajectories of political ecologies as communities of practice and movements for environmental justice, as well as a paradigm of scientific analysis. In this introduction to the 2021 special issue “Decolonial Insurgencies and Emancipatory Horizons: contributions from Political Ecology” of the Ambiente & Sociedade journal, we present a reflection on the contemporary socio-environmental reality, characterized by crises, environmental destruction, and climate emergency, focusing on the role of political ecology as a privileged space to critically discuss the socio-environmental relations that constitute new forms of violent appropriation of nature. Facing the tension of the current context marked by the rise of phenomena such as authoritarianism, climate change denial, and inequality, we highlight the construction of counter-narratives and alternatives that mobilize other horizons of emancipation and living projects through insurgencies and movements that emerge from the protagonism of marginalized populations and struggles for environmental justice.

scholarly journals Contested Dam Development in Iran: A Case Study of the Exercise of State Power over Local People

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 5476
Author(s):  
Elham Hoominfar ◽  
Claudia Radel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
National Development ◽  
State Power ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Central Component ◽  
Dam Building ◽  
Iranian State

In this article, we address the interaction of the Iranian State, an agent of power, with affected village residents, as four dam projects are planned and implemented. Dams, recently positioned as a green energy source, are a central component to Iran’s national development strategies; yet historically their construction has been a source of significant conflict and resistance around the world. We focus on ten villages facing displacement or partial loss of lands at the time of the research, and we answer the question: During dam building and resettlement processes, how have residents experienced their role in decision making and the exercise of state power over them? Through a lens of political ecology, we engage with Lukes’ theory of power to interpret data from 18 focus group discussions and 20 in-depth interviews with residents, as well as from 10 interviews with local and state authorities. This case study illustrates how, from the perspectives of residents of rural communities, the Iranian State applies its power over them through multiple, simultaneous means. Coercion, non-decision making, and the withholding of information emerge from analysis as the primary successful mechanisms, while discursive consent-production emerges as largely unsuccessful. We demonstrate how lack of data or other information provision for natural resource development projects can be an important lever the state uses to exercise power, especially when combined with non-decision making. Although all Lukes’ dimensions of power apply to this case, non-decision making was most severe in its experienced effects, as residents suffered from uncertainty and an inability to move forward with individual plans. Our research provides insight into how conflicts over state-sponsored dam building can embody the contest between a sustainable development centered on justice/equity and one centered on economic growth.

scholarly journals Political and event ecology: critiques and opportunities for collaboration

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Penna-Firme
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Atlantic Forest ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Local Livelihoods ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Environmental Relations

The field of political ecology has striven to balance a focus on symbolic and materialist aspects of humanenvironment relations. Event ecology has emerged not only as a major materialistic approach for the study of human-environmental relations, but also as an important set of critiques of political ecology's supposed lack of ecology and overreliance on a priori assumptions about the linkages between local environmental changes and macropolitical economic phenomena. This article discusses the origins and progress of event ecology, while demonstrating its strengths and limitations vis-à-vis the development of political ecology research. Based on participant observation and interviews conducted among local residents of a small village (a quilombola community) in a state park in São Paulo, Brazil, I propose a collaborative event ecology that combines the rationale of event ecology with critical perspectives inspired by political ecology's focus on power relations, conservation and justice. Unlike the strict application of event ecology, I contend that scrutinizing events other than researcher-oriented ones may help us better understand why some places achieve conservation while others do not. The article concludes that assessing conservation effectiveness and change through environmental outcomes alone risks being seen as socially unjust in the eyes of locals while posing a real threat to local livelihoods and community-based development expectations.Key words: collaborative event ecology, conservation with justice, quilombola communities, Atlantic Forest, Brazil. 

scholarly journals Performing nature's value: software and the making of Oregon's ecosystem services markets

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Nost
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
The Us ◽  
Conservation Projects ◽  
Nature And Society

Full-text, in-print version here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0308518X15616631Geographers of technology illustrate software code’s contexts, effects, and agencies as it shapes urban space and everyday life, but the consequences of code for nature remain understudied. Political ecologists have critiqued remote sensing and GIS-based conservation projects, but have not engaged more broadly with the role of software in the contested production, circulation, and application of ecological knowledge. Yet, around the world, data analytics firms and conservation nonprofits argue for optimizing environmental management through faster and bigger data collection and new techniques of data manipulation and visualization. I present a case study from the US state of Oregon illustrating how conservationists and environmental regulators employ computer programming to plan markets in which entrepreneurs restore stream and wetland ecosystem services to earn offset credits. In these markets, code-executed algorithms constituting spreadsheets, web maps, and GIS utilities generate, relate, and make sense of the data that defines credit commodities. I argue that code tends toward three effects: producing a landscape defined by wetlands' modeled value; performing social relations associated with nature’s neoliberalization and financialization; legitimating these moves. Although emphasis on the performativity of code and other technological objects is warranted, the contexts in which these are authored, deployed, and evaluated should remain central to understanding environmental governance. This is to caution against seeing technology as reducing nature and society to state or capitalist rationalities and to hesitate to differentiate prima facie code’s work on space and on nature. I call for bridging political ecology and geographies of technology in ways that can explain how code is generative of environmental knowledge, change, and conflict.Citation: Nost, E. 2015. Performing nature's value: software and the making of Oregon's ecosystem services markets.Environment and PlanningA47(12):2573-2590.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document