Political Ecology

1. Political Ecology: More Than Apolitical Ecology

By explaining and constructively exploring the body of research sometimes called political ecology, I intend only to clarify the most persuasive themes in a highly disparate body of writing and show the politics of nature to be both universal and immediate.

Challenging Dominant Narratives. Political ecology emerges as a direct challenge to apolitical ecologies, particularly those rooted in ecoscarcity and modernization theories. These dominant narratives often overlook the influence of political and economic forces, attributing environmental problems solely to population growth or a lack of modern management techniques.

Ecoscarcity vs. Political Economy. Ecoscarcity, exemplified by Malthusian thought, posits that environmental crises arise from unchecked population growth exceeding the environment's carrying capacity. Political ecology, conversely, emphasizes the unequal distribution of resources and power, revealing how economic systems and political structures drive environmental degradation and marginalization. For example, the wildlife crisis in East Africa is more political and economic than demographic, driven by land tenure laws and global commodity markets.

Implicit Politics of Apolitical Approaches. Apolitical ecologies, despite claims of objectivity, often serve specific political agendas. Modernization approaches, which advocate for the diffusion of Western technology and market-based solutions, can lead to the alienation of user groups and the deregulation of environmental controls. Political ecology, by contrast, makes its normative goals explicit, advocating for equity and sustainability.

2. Political Ecology's Deep Roots in Critical Thought

The evidence amassed during these journeys, of plants, people, and animals making a living from the land, convinced Kropotkin, moreover, that the survival and evolution of species is propelled by collective mutual aid, cooperation, and organization between individuals.

Challenging Environmental Determinism. Early geography was often used to justify colonialism and social hierarchies through environmental determinism, which claimed that geographic factors determined human capabilities and cultures. This approach, exemplified by figures like Huntington, reinforced racist and imperialist ideologies.

Early Critics and Alternatives. Figures like Kropotkin, Humboldt, Reclus, Wallace, and Sommerville offered critical alternatives to determinism, emphasizing the importance of cooperation, social justice, and human impact on the environment. Kropotkin's focus on mutual aid and Reclus's advocacy for revolution challenged the notion that social structures and ecological practices were inevitable.

Kropotkin's Vision. Kropotkin's work, rooted in field observations and a concern for marginalized communities, prefigured contemporary political ecology. His focus on production, local knowledge, and the landscape as an object of explanation set a precedent for a critical science of environmental sustainability and equity.

3. Critical Tools Converge to Form Political Ecology

Research tends to reveal winners and losers, hidden costs, and the differential power that produces social and environmental outcomes.

From Hazards Research to Cultural Ecology. The 20th century saw the rise of hazards research, focusing on mitigating risks from environmental events, and cultural ecology, which sought universal rules of human-environment interaction. However, both approaches struggled to account for change in complex political economies.

Key Theoretical Concepts. The emergence of political ecology was fueled by the development of critical theoretical concepts, including:

• Common property theory: Challenging the "tragedy of the commons" and highlighting the potential for collective resource management.
• Marxist political economy: Linking environmental degradation to capital accumulation and exploitation.
• Peasant studies: Emphasizing the agency and rationality of small-scale producers.
• Feminist development studies: Revealing the gendered dimensions of environmental change and resource access.

A New Toolkit. These concepts, combined with insights from environmental history, postcolonial theory, and actor-network theory, provided a robust toolkit for analyzing the political forces at work in environmental access, management, and transformation.

4. Political Ecology: A Text Characterized by Key Elements

Rather, I suggest, political ecology is an urgent kind of argument or text (or book, or mural, or movie, or blog) that examines winners and losers, is narrated using dialectics, begins and/or ends in a contradiction, and surveys both the status of nature and stories about the status of nature.

Beyond Definition: A Community of Practice. Political ecology is not a rigid theory or method, but rather a community of practice united around a certain kind of text. This community includes academics, activists, and NGO workers who share an interest in the condition of the environment and the people who live and work within it.

Key Characteristics of Political Ecology Texts:

• Stress winners and losers: Revealing the unequal distribution of costs and benefits associated with environmental change.
• Narrated with dialectics: Emphasizing the interconnectedness and mutual transformation of humans and non-humans.
• Begin or end from contradictions: Highlighting the inherent tensions and paradoxes in socio-environmental systems.
• Stress simultaneously the politicized state of the environment and the politicized nature of accounts about the state of the environment.

The Hatchet and the Seed. Political ecology texts serve both a critical and a constructive purpose, dismantling flawed accounts of environmental change while exploring alternatives and adaptations.

5. Degradation and Marginalization: A Core Thesis

Similarly, sustainable community management is hypothesized to become unsustainable as a result of efforts by state authorities or outside firms to enclose traditional collective property or impose new/foreign institutions.

The Degradation and Marginalization Thesis. This core thesis posits that seemingly innocuous production systems transition to overexploitation due to state intervention or integration into global markets, leading to poverty and further environmental degradation.

Case Study: Orissa Cattle Breeding Program. A modernization project in Orissa, India, aimed at improving cattle breeding, resulted in the extinction of local breeds, the loss of traditional knowledge, and increased poverty. This failure highlights the dangers of imposing external models without considering local ecological and social contexts.

Key Factors in Degradation and Marginalization:

• State development interventions
• Increasing integration into regional and global markets
• Enclosure of traditional collective property
• Imposition of new institutions

6. Conservation and Control: A Critical Perspective

Control of resources and landscapes has been wrested from producers or producer groups (associated by class, gender, or ethnicity) through the implementation of efforts to preserve “sustainability,” “community,” or “nature.”

The Conservation and Control Thesis. This thesis argues that conservation efforts often lead to the displacement of local communities and the disabling of their traditional systems of livelihood, production, and socio-political organization.

Case Study: East African Wildlife Conservation. The removal of the Masai people from wildlife park areas in East Africa has led to violent conflicts and the disruption of traditional land management practices. This highlights the political and social costs of conservation efforts that prioritize wildlife over human needs.

Key Elements of the Conservation and Control Thesis:

• Wresting control of resources from local producers
• Imposing external definitions of "sustainability" and "nature"
• Disabling local systems of livelihood and production

7. Environmental Conflict: Power and Resource Struggles

Similarly, environmental problems become “socialized” when such groups secure control of collective resources at the expense of others by leveraging management interventions by development authorities, state agents, or private firms.

The Environmental Conflict Thesis. This thesis posits that increasing scarcities produced through resource enclosure or appropriation accelerate conflict between groups, and that environmental problems become "socialized" when powerful groups secure control of collective resources at the expense of others.

Case Study: Oaxaca Garbage Dump. In Oaxaca, Mexico, a conflict over waste management highlights the tensions between different marginal communities and the state. Residents near the dumpsite block the flow of waste to demand resources, while garbage pickers are deprived of their livelihoods.

Key Drivers of Environmental Conflict:

• Resource enclosure and appropriation
• Unequal distribution of environmental burdens
• Conflicting interests between different social groups

8. Environmental Subjects: Identity and Action

Institutionalized and power-laden environmental management regimes have led to the emergence of new kinds of people, with their own emerging self-definitions, understandings of the world, and ecological ideologies and behaviors.

The Environmental Subjects and Identity Thesis. This thesis argues that institutionalized environmental management regimes lead to the emergence of new kinds of people with their own self-definitions, understandings of the world, and ecological ideologies and behaviors.

Case Study: Kumaon Forest Management. In Kumaon, India, the decentralization of forest management to local councils led to a transformation of people's attitudes about the forest and themselves. Kumaonis, who had previously burned down the forests, now vigorously protected them, internalizing the state's vision of the environment.

Key Elements of the Environmental Subjects and Identity Thesis:

• Institutionalized environmental management regimes
• Emergence of new self-definitions and understandings of the world
• Linkage between environmental actions and political identities

9. Political Objects: Non-Humans as Actors

Material characteristics of non-human nature and its components (dung, climate, refrigerators, bacteria, lawn grass, road salt, goats, and tropical soils) impinge upon the world of human struggles and are entwined within them, and so are inevitably political.

The Political Objects and Actors Thesis. This thesis argues that the material characteristics of non-human nature impinge upon the world of human struggles and are entwined within them, making them inevitably political.

Case Study: Fresh Food. The demand for fresh food, driven by modern refrigeration and transportation, has transformed the global food system, creating new economic actors and dependencies. Freshness, therefore, is not a natural state but a product of political and economic forces.

Key Aspects of the Political Objects and Actors Thesis:

• Material characteristics of non-human nature
• Entwinement of non-humans in human struggles
• Transformation of non-humans through these interactions

10. Land Change Science: A Useful but Limited Lens

By uniting highly specialized skills in agronomy, pedology, and hydrology with social and cultural exploration, cultural ecology has, moreover, created a model for integrative multidisciplinary research in anthropology and geography.

Land Change Science: Monitoring and Modeling. Land change science focuses on tracking and explaining changes in land and ecosystems, using remote sensing, spatial modeling, and systems thinking. It aims to provide useful outputs for climate scientists and policymakers.

The Southern Yucatán Peninsular Region (SYPR) Project. This project, a land change science collaboration in Mexico, demonstrates the use of remote sensing and household surveys to model future land cover under different scenarios.

Lessons for Political Ecology:

• Integration with global scientific communities
• Creative adoption of remote sensing and GIS technology
• Use of environmental science to evaluate non-human influences

11. Causal Explanation: Rigor and Reduction

As a general rule, more attention to political influences on human/environment interactions and on environmental change itself is no doubt a good thing, since such influences are no doubt often important . . .

Causal Explanation: Empirical Observation and Hypothesis Testing. Causal explanation emphasizes empirical observation, hypothesis testing, and the elimination of competing explanations to determine the causes of specific events.

Against Political Ecology? Vayda and Walters argue that political ecology is often too theoretical and interpretive, focusing on effects rather than causes. They advocate for a more evidence-based approach that seeks to answer "why" questions through rigorous investigation.

Lessons for Political Ecology:

• Emphasize empirical observation and hypothesis testing
• Focus on specific events and their causes
• Avoid reifying concepts and assuming structural influences

12. Beyond Political Ecology: Integration and Action

I am forced to conclude that there is as much or more need for political ecology now than seven years ago, and the revised version of the book you have in your hands is the result.

The Limits of Political Ecology. Political ecology, as a case study-based approach, can be too small to encompass worldwide connections or too large to encourage immediate action. It needs to reach both outward to a more synthetic global politics and inward to a highly immersive form of practice.

Reaching Out: Climate Change. Addressing global climate change requires bridging diverse communities and linking local actions to global processes. Political ecology needs to connect the trash pickers of Ghana with the hiking clubs of Tucson.

Reaching In: School Gardens. Addressing urban health and obesity requires immersing researchers in local practices and building relationships with communities. Political ecology needs to move beyond abstract analysis and engage in transformative action.

Last updated: April 28, 2025