52
2
Gómez-Baggethun (2020: 2) responds first by stating that while limits may be flexible and to some extent constructed, ‘the economy cannot grow perpetually: the
scale of the economic sub-system is limited by the size of the host ecosystem’, and
‘in today’s post-truth era, banalizing research on ecological limits as mere narratives or social constructs pays service (albeit unintendedly) to the same elites and
business powers against which such claims where initially conceived’.
With the growing threat and urgency of climate change, political ecology
becomes increasingly torn between on the one hand deconstructions of claims and
narratives of degradation, limits and scarcity emerging from environmental science
and on the other hand contributing to alternative sustainabilities within the operating space of planetary boundaries.
The two political ecology traditions have, however, recently found a meeting
and discussion space in the international network on political ecology called
POLLEN (7 politicalecologynetwork. org) including the organization of biennial
conferences where these questions are being further explored.
? Questions
1. Identify and define at least two conceptual tools from Marxist political economy
that are used in political ecology.
2. Select a case of an environmental conflict you know and try to identify causes
through a chain of explanations or web or relations.
3. Give two examples of how poststructuralism has influenced political ecology.
4. What are the main influences of peasant studies on political ecology?
5. What are the similarities and differences between environmental justice and
political ecology?
6. Do you see a tension in political ecology between deconstructions of degradation, limits and scarcity on the one hand and taking seriously notions of sustainability within planetary boundaries on the other hand? How can we deal with this
tension?
References
Adams, W., and M. Mulligan, eds. 2003. Decolonizing nature: Strategies for conservation in a postcolonial era. London: Earthscan.
Adger, W.N., T.A. Benjaminsen, K. Brown, and H. Svarstad. 2001. Advancing a political ecology of
global environmental discourses. Development and Change 32 (4): 681–715.
Agrawal, A. 2005. Environmentality: Technologies of government and the making of subjects. Durham:
Duke University Press.
Agyeman, J. 2013. Global environmental justice or Le droit au monde? Geoforum 54: 236–238.
Álvarez, L., and B. Coolsaet. 2018. Decolonizing environmental justice studies: A Latin American
perspective. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 2018: 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2018.15
58272.
Barthes, R. 1961 (1977). Image, music, text. New York: Hill & Wang.
———. 1972 (2013). Mythologies. New York: Hill & Wang.
Bassett, T.J., and K. Bi Zuéli. 2000. Environmental discourses and the Ivorian savanna. Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 90 (1): 67–95.
Bates, D.G., and J. Tucker, eds. 2010. Human ecology: Contemporary research and practice. New York:
Springer.
Chapter 2 · Theoretical Influences and Recent Directions
2
Gómez-Baggethun (2020: 2) responds first by stating that while limits may be flexible and to some extent constructed, ‘the economy cannot grow perpetually: the
scale of the economic sub-system is limited by the size of the host ecosystem’, and
‘in today’s post-truth era, banalizing research on ecological limits as mere narratives or social constructs pays service (albeit unintendedly) to the same elites and
business powers against which such claims where initially conceived’.
With the growing threat and urgency of climate change, political ecology
becomes increasingly torn between on the one hand deconstructions of claims and
narratives of degradation, limits and scarcity emerging from environmental science
and on the other hand contributing to alternative sustainabilities within the operating space of planetary boundaries.
The two political ecology traditions have, however, recently found a meeting
and discussion space in the international network on political ecology called
POLLEN (7 politicalecologynetwork. org) including the organization of biennial
conferences where these questions are being further explored.
? Questions
1. Identify and define at least two conceptual tools from Marxist political economy
that are used in political ecology.
2. Select a case of an environmental conflict you know and try to identify causes
through a chain of explanations or web or relations.
3. Give two examples of how poststructuralism has influenced political ecology.
4. What are the main influences of peasant studies on political ecology?
5. What are the similarities and differences between environmental justice and
political ecology?
6. Do you see a tension in political ecology between deconstructions of degradation, limits and scarcity on the one hand and taking seriously notions of sustainability within planetary boundaries on the other hand? How can we deal with this
tension?
References
Adams, W., and M. Mulligan, eds. 2003. Decolonizing nature: Strategies for conservation in a postcolonial era. London: Earthscan.
Adger, W.N., T.A. Benjaminsen, K. Brown, and H. Svarstad. 2001. Advancing a political ecology of
global environmental discourses. Development and Change 32 (4): 681–715.
Agrawal, A. 2005. Environmentality: Technologies of government and the making of subjects. Durham:
Duke University Press.
Agyeman, J. 2013. Global environmental justice or Le droit au monde? Geoforum 54: 236–238.
Álvarez, L., and B. Coolsaet. 2018. Decolonizing environmental justice studies: A Latin American
perspective. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 2018: 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2018.15
58272.
Barthes, R. 1961 (1977). Image, music, text. New York: Hill & Wang.
———. 1972 (2013). Mythologies. New York: Hill & Wang.
Bassett, T.J., and K. Bi Zuéli. 2000. Environmental discourses and the Ivorian savanna. Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 90 (1): 67–95.
Bates, D.G., and J. Tucker, eds. 2010. Human ecology: Contemporary research and practice. New York:
Springer.
Chapter 2 · Theoretical Influences and Recent Directions