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2
to maintain itself in a specific environment, … today we (human ecologists) are
more likely to ask: What are the problems confronted by the populations at this
place? How do individual actors deal with them?’ (Bates and Tucker 2010: 4).
In such analyses, key concepts from the discipline of ecology are used such as
resilience, stability, equilibrium, non-equilibrium, carrying capacity, habitat, niche,
territory, food chains and energy flows. But social science themes such as division
of labour, social hierarchies and property rights are often also discussed.
In particular, cultural ecology’s focus on smallholders has been influential in
political ecology. Cultural ecologists, such as Robert Netting (1934–1995), have
demonstrated how small-scale producers operate within complex and variable systems, but manage to navigate these systems in rational and comprehensible ways
(Robbins 2020a). Netting carried out detailed empirical studies of smallholder
agriculture in Switzerland and Nigeria. These studies resulted in three classics in
cultural ecology; Cultural Ecology (1977), Balancing on an Alp (1981), and
Smallholders, Householders (1993).
Netting’s main thesis was that smallholders possess sufficient knowledge, motivation and ecological insight to manage land and environments in sustainable
ways. He also demonstrated that small-scale agriculture can be intensified and efficient. While small-scale producers are often seen from the outside as primitive,
conservative and inefficient, Netting argued that it is rather the modern state that
is primitive, especially in the way it treats smallholders.
Definition
The methodological approach called progressive contextualization represents another
example where cultural ecology has influenced political ecology. This approach was
introduced by Andrew Vayda (1983), who is another prominent human and cultural
ecologist, for instance as the founder of the journal Human Ecology.
Vayda illustrates progressive contextualization by referring to a study where
» a goal of the investigators was to understand the forces contributing to deforestation in the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. To achieve this goal, they started by focusing on specific activities, such as
timber cutting, performed by specific people in specific places at specific times.
They then traced the causes and effects of these activities outwards. In doing
so, they remained committed to the holistic premise that adequate understanding of problems can be gained only if they are seen as part of a complex of
interacting causes and effects. But the investigators avoided a priori definitions
of the boundaries of such complexes - for example, that they correspond to the
boundaries of an ecosystem or of a human community. (Vayda 1983: 266)
Clearly inspired by progressive contextualization, political ecologist Piers Blaikie
and cultural ecologist Harold Brookfield introduced a related approach they
called chains of explanation, which can be used to identify the causes of
environmental degradation. As a methodological rule of the thumb, Blaikie and
Brookfield (1987) recommend starting empirical examinations at the level of the
immediate land manager, and work upwards in chains of explanations through
national and global scales.
Chapter 2 · Theoretical Influences and Recent Directions
2
to maintain itself in a specific environment, … today we (human ecologists) are
more likely to ask: What are the problems confronted by the populations at this
place? How do individual actors deal with them?’ (Bates and Tucker 2010: 4).
In such analyses, key concepts from the discipline of ecology are used such as
resilience, stability, equilibrium, non-equilibrium, carrying capacity, habitat, niche,
territory, food chains and energy flows. But social science themes such as division
of labour, social hierarchies and property rights are often also discussed.
In particular, cultural ecology’s focus on smallholders has been influential in
political ecology. Cultural ecologists, such as Robert Netting (1934–1995), have
demonstrated how small-scale producers operate within complex and variable systems, but manage to navigate these systems in rational and comprehensible ways
(Robbins 2020a). Netting carried out detailed empirical studies of smallholder
agriculture in Switzerland and Nigeria. These studies resulted in three classics in
cultural ecology; Cultural Ecology (1977), Balancing on an Alp (1981), and
Smallholders, Householders (1993).
Netting’s main thesis was that smallholders possess sufficient knowledge, motivation and ecological insight to manage land and environments in sustainable
ways. He also demonstrated that small-scale agriculture can be intensified and efficient. While small-scale producers are often seen from the outside as primitive,
conservative and inefficient, Netting argued that it is rather the modern state that
is primitive, especially in the way it treats smallholders.
Definition
The methodological approach called progressive contextualization represents another
example where cultural ecology has influenced political ecology. This approach was
introduced by Andrew Vayda (1983), who is another prominent human and cultural
ecologist, for instance as the founder of the journal Human Ecology.
Vayda illustrates progressive contextualization by referring to a study where
» a goal of the investigators was to understand the forces contributing to deforestation in the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. To achieve this goal, they started by focusing on specific activities, such as
timber cutting, performed by specific people in specific places at specific times.
They then traced the causes and effects of these activities outwards. In doing
so, they remained committed to the holistic premise that adequate understanding of problems can be gained only if they are seen as part of a complex of
interacting causes and effects. But the investigators avoided a priori definitions
of the boundaries of such complexes - for example, that they correspond to the
boundaries of an ecosystem or of a human community. (Vayda 1983: 266)
Clearly inspired by progressive contextualization, political ecologist Piers Blaikie
and cultural ecologist Harold Brookfield introduced a related approach they
called chains of explanation, which can be used to identify the causes of
environmental degradation. As a methodological rule of the thumb, Blaikie and
Brookfield (1987) recommend starting empirical examinations at the level of the
immediate land manager, and work upwards in chains of explanations through
national and global scales.
Chapter 2 · Theoretical Influences and Recent Directions