The Political Ecology of Cereal Seed Development in Africa: A History of Selection

The Spanish conquest of the Americas was one of the most dramatic cultural and biological transformations in the history of the world. Small groups of conquistadores toppled enormous empires. Millions of Native Americans died from epidemic disease. Old World animals and plants revolutionized Native American societies, while New World crops fundamentally altered the diet and land-tenure of peasants across Europe. In the words of historian Alfred Crosby (1972: 3),The two worlds, which God had cast asunder, were reunited, and the two worlds, which were so very different, began on that day [I1 October 14921 to become alike.

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Political ecologies of wood and wax: sandalwood and beeswax as symbols and shapers of customary authority in the Oecusse enclave, Timor

Journal of Political Ecology ◽

10.2458/v18i1.21703 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 11 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Laura S. Meitzner Yoder

Keyword(s):

Political Ecology ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Forest Products ◽

The Political ◽

Religious Symbolism ◽

Local Protection ◽

Timor Leste ◽

History Of ◽

Labor Requirements ◽

Political Ecologies

The enclave of Oecusse-Ambeno, Timor Leste, was formed in part through struggles over controlling trade in sandalwood and beeswax, two forest products that continue to influence political and ritual allegiances, and the political history of Oecusse. These products are interwoven with the region's contacts with outsiders, influencing local political hierarchies and roles of kings, village heads, and ritual authorities. While wood and wax are recognized to be of Timorese origin, local myths posit that their use and value was unrecognized before the arrival of Chinese traders and Portuguese missionaries. Several narratives of the origins of trade in sandalwood, and the kings' annual beeswax candle tributes, illustrate the enduring connections among local authorities, forest resource control, religious symbolism, and ritual obligations surrounding harvests of sandalwood and beeswax. Customary practices contribute to forest conservation through local protection of beeswax-producing forests, and by circumscribing the harvest. While both beehives and sandalwood impede intensive agricultural land uses, farmers welcome beeswax as a profitable product that supports ritual. But they resent sandalwood's growth in their fields since it involves more regulation and increased labor requirements. The two products' different ecologies of disturbance and incidence contributed over time to distinct ownership norms and forms of control by customary authorities. This is the "political ecology of wood and wax" in Oecusse.Key words: Oecusse, Timor Leste/East Timor, sandalwood, beeswax, customary authority, colonialism.

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Origins, Benefits and the Political Basis of Agroecology

Agroecology Now! ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-61315-0_2 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 11-28

Author(s):

Colin Ray Anderson ◽

Janneke Bruil ◽

M. Jahi Chappell ◽

Csilla Kiss ◽

Michel Patrick Pimbert

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Political Ecology ◽

Social Relations ◽

The Political ◽

Traditional Practice ◽

The World ◽

History Of ◽

Human Systems

AbstractIn this chapter, we introduce the origins and history of agroecology, outlining its emergence as a science and its longstanding history as a traditional practice throughout the world. We provide a brief review of the evidence of the benefits of agroecology in relation to productivity, livelihoods, biodiversity, nutrition, climate change and enhancing social relations. We then outline our approach to agroecology which is rooted in the tradition of political ecology that posits power and governance have always been the decisive factors in shaping agricultural and other ‘human’ systems.

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Power, Nature, and the City. The Conquest of Water and the Political Ecology of Urbanization in Guayaquil, Ecuador: 1880–1990

Environment and Planning A Economy and Space ◽

10.1068/a290311 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 311-332 ◽

Cited By ~ 169

Author(s):

E Swyngedouw

Keyword(s):

Political Ecology ◽

Social Power ◽

The Political ◽

Water Control ◽

Urbanization Process ◽

Supply Condition ◽

History Of ◽

Political Economic ◽

Relations Of Power ◽

The City

In this paper, I seek to explore how the circulation of water is embedded in the political ecology of power, through which the urbanization process unfolds. I attempt to reconstruct the urbanization process as simultaneously a political-economic and ecological process. This will be discussed through the exploration of the history of the urbanization of water in Guayaquil, Ecuador. As approximately 36% of its two million inhabitants has no access to piped potable water, water becomes subject to an intense social struggle for control and/or access. Mechanisms of exclusion from and access to water, particularly in cities which have a problematic water-supply condition, lay bare how both the transformation of nature and the urbanization process are organized in and through mechanisms of social power. In order to unravel the relations of power that are inscribed in the way the urbanization of nature unfolded I document and analyze the historical geography of water control in the context of the political ecology of Guayaquil's urbanization. In short, Guayaquil's urbanization process is written from the perspective of the drive to urbanize and domesticate nature's water and the parallel necessity to push the ecological frontier outward as the city expands. I show how this political ecology of urbanization takes place through deeply exclusive and marginalizing processes that structure relations of access to and exclusion from access to nature's water.

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Seeing like the people: a history of territory and resistance in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon

Journal of Political Ecology ◽

10.2458/v27i1.23286 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 1110-1127

Author(s):

Diana Vela-Almeida

Keyword(s):

Political Ecology ◽

Large Scale ◽

Spatial Relations ◽

The Political ◽

Political Rationality ◽

The People ◽

Ecuadorian Amazon ◽

History Of ◽

Commodification Of Nature ◽

Mining Pressure

The Cordillera del Condor in the Ecuadorian Amazon has been analyzed frequently in the literature of extractivism in Latin America, due to the current mining pressure on this territory. Mining is, however, the most recent in a long history of territorial transformations in the region. The production of territory in the Cordillera del Condor is the result of a complex historical accumulation of events, motivated by the political economy of the country that has transformed the people and its land. By studying the main events of state deterritorialization, this article examines multiple socio-spatial relations that occurred in the Cordillera del Condor. This article identifies three main events of state deterritorialization: (1) colonization and evangelization, (2) the Ecuador-Peru war and (3) large-scale mining. The analysis illustrates how territory is constantly integrated into the economic and political rationality of the nation-state and discusses these transformations in line with the institutionalization of new forms of organization, legibility, commodification of nature and subjectification of people. In contrast, the study also illustrates how people inhabiting this space counteract state deterritorialization by deploying the same strategies as the state; reinforcing reterritorialization in their own terms. The article concludes by highlighting the agency of people to reshape state mechanisms in the struggle of defining a territory.Keywords: state deterritorialization, reterritorialization, political ecology, Cordillera del Condor, Ecuador

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Imprints: the history of water management and canals in Piacenza, Italy

Urban History ◽

10.1017/s0963926816000341 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 188-207

Author(s):

CHERYL BRADBEE

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Political Ecology ◽

Water System ◽

Water Systems ◽

The Political ◽

Urban Water ◽

Yield Information ◽

History Of ◽

The City

ABSTRACTThe political ecology of historical urban water systems can yield information on the long-term, social organization of resource infrastructure and its management. In this article, the water system of Piacenza, Italy, is examined through its history and the documents of the Congregazione sopra l'ornato, the committee in charge of water management in the city, under the Farnese dukes, from 1545 to 1736. The documents include letters from residents, responses and orders from the committee, tax documents and engineering reports. These records tell a story of a water system and its relationship to the city residents.

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The political ecology of human-elephant relations: comparing local perceptions of elephants around Chyulu Hills and Mount Kasigau in southern Kenya

Journal of Political Ecology ◽

10.2458/v24i1.20968 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 801 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Peter N. Kamau

Keyword(s):

Political Ecology ◽

Protected Areas ◽

National Park ◽

The Political ◽

Local Perceptions ◽

Elephant Conservation ◽

Management Plans ◽

History Of ◽

Local Residents ◽

And Control

Abstract Although African elephants have a global appeal and donors especially in the global North significantly support their protection, rural African's attitudes towards elephant conservation are complex, and discouraging in certain locations. A proper understanding of the attitudes of people living around protected areas towards elephants is important for designing successful elephant conservation programs. Using a political ecology framework, this study assessed attitudes towards elephant among two communities living near protected areas in the Tsavo region of Kenya; the Kamba who live around Chyulu Hills National Park and the Kasigau Taita who live around Mt. Kasigau Forest, Kenya. I conducted in depth interviews with local residents, to examine the link between local attitudes towards elephants with the political-ecological history of extra-local effects especially the establishment and management of protected areas. The results show that residents around Mt. Kasigau had more favorable attitudes towards elephants than those around the Chyulu Hills National Park. This article concludes that local perceptions about elephants in the Tsavo region are political, they are embedded in issues of rights to livelihood, and access to and control over lands and resources. I argue that local meanings and concerns about elephants need to be integrated in the management plans of protected areas. Key Words: elephants, Chyulu Hills, Mount Kasigau, conservation, political ecology, protected areas

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At home in the postcolony: Ecology, empire and domesticity at the Lamto field station, Ivory Coast

Social Studies of Science ◽

10.1177/0306312716649800 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 46 (6) ◽

pp. 877-893 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Guillaume Lachenal

Keyword(s):

Political Ecology ◽

Ivory Coast ◽

The Political ◽

Research Station ◽

Field Station ◽

Post Colonial ◽

History Of ◽

Scientific Project ◽

At Home ◽

Postcolonial Politics

This article is a history of the field station Lamto, in Ivory Coast, which was created by French ecologists in 1962, after independence. It retraces the origins, the logics and the contradictions of an extraordinarily ambitious scientific project, which aimed at the systematic, holistic, quantitative and multi-disciplinary description of a unit of African nature – the savannah ecosystem. It explores how knowledge-making was articulated with work hierarchies and postcolonial politics, lifestyles, values and affects. It reconstitutes the political ecology of a research station in ecology, following in its residences, laboratories and open-air experiments the co-production of domesticity, nature, science and (post-)colonial situations.

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The Social Origins and Provenance of the English Bishops during the Reign of Edward II

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society ◽

10.1017/s0080440100017540 ◽

1959 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 51-79

Author(s):

K. Edwards

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Social Background ◽

Early Career ◽

The Political ◽

Social Origins ◽

Political Activities ◽

Edward Ii ◽

The Social ◽

Complete Study ◽

History Of

During the last twenty or twenty-five years medieval historians have been much interested in the composition of the English episcopate. A number of studies of it have been published on periods ranging from the eleventh to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A further paper might well seem superfluous. My reason for offering one is that most previous writers have concentrated on analysing the professional circles from which the bishops were drawn, and suggesting the influences which their early careers as royal clerks, university masters and students, secular or regular clergy, may have had on their later work as bishops. They have shown comparatively little interest in their social background and provenance, except for those bishops who belonged to magnate families. Some years ago, when working on the political activities of Edward II's bishops, it seemed to me that social origins, family connexions and provenance might in a number of cases have had at least as much influence on a bishop's attitude to politics as his early career. I there fore collected information about the origins and provenance of these bishops. I now think that a rather more careful and complete study of this subject might throw further light not only on the political history of the reign, but on other problems connected with the character and work of the English episcopate. There is a general impression that in England in the later middle ages the bishops' ties with their dioceses were becoming less close, and that they were normally spending less time in diocesan work than their predecessors in the thirteenth century.

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Essays of a “comparatively progressive” economist (On the 150th birth anniversary of Vladimir Geleznoff)

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2019-10-135-145 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 135-145

Author(s):

Viktor A. Popov

Keyword(s):

Economic Theory ◽

Political Economy ◽

Economic Thought ◽

History Of Economic Thought ◽

The Political ◽

Russian History ◽

Working Ability ◽

Intellectual Inquiry ◽

History Of

Deep comprehension of the advanced economic theory, the talent of lecturer enforced by the outstanding working ability forwarded Vladimir Geleznoff scarcely at the end of his thirties to prepare the publication of “The essays of the political economy” (1898). The subsequent publishing success (8 editions in Russia, the 1918-year edition in Germany) sufficiently demonstrates that Geleznoff well succeded in meeting the intellectual inquiry of the crossroad epoch of the Russian history and by that taking the worthful place in the history of economic thought in Russia. Being an acknowledged historian of science V. Geleznoff was the first and up to now one of the few to demonstrate the worldwide community of economists the theoretically saturated view of Russian economic thought in its most fruitful period (end of XIX — first quarter of XX century).

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