| 1. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980, et al.
(författare)
-
Theorizing power in political ecology: the where of power in resource governance projects
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 25:1, s. 381-401
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Power and politics have been central topics from the early days of Political Ecology. There are different and sometimes conflicting conceptualizations of power in this field that portray power alternatively as a resource, personal attribute or relation. The aim of this article is to contribute to theorizations of power by probing contesting views regarding its role in societal change and by presenting a specific conceptualization of power, one which draws on both political ecology and sociotechnical approaches in science and technology studies. We review how power has been conceptualized in the political ecology field and identify three trends that shaped the current discussion. We then develop our conceptual discussion and explicitly ask where power emerges in processes of resource governance projects. We identify four locations that we illustrate empirically through an example of rural electrification in Tanzania that aimed at catalyzing social and economic development by providing renewable energy-based electricity services to people. Our analysis supports the argument that power is relational and productive, and it draws on science and technology studies to bring to the fore the critical role of non-human elements in co-constitution of society—technology—nature. This leads us to see power exercise as having contradictory and ambiguous effects. We conclude that by exploring the tension between human agency and constitutive power, we keep the politics alive throughout the analysis and are able to show why intentional choices and actions really matter for how resource governance projects play out in everyday life.
|
|
| 2. |
- Apostolopoulou, E., et al.
(författare)
-
Radical social innovations and the spatialities of grassroots activism: navigating pathways for tackling inequality and reinventing the commons
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 29, s. 143-188
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, by drawing on empirical evidence from twelve case studies from nine countries from across the Global South and North, we ask how radical grassroots social innovations that are part of social movements and struggles can offer pathways for tackling socio-spatial and socio-environmental inequality and for reinventing the commons. We define radical grassroots social innovations as a set of practices initiated by formal or informal community-led initiatives or/and social movements which aim to generate novel, democratic, socially, spatially and environmentally just solutions to address social needs that are otherwise ignored or marginalised To address our research questions, we draw on the work of Cindi Katz to explore how grassroots innovations relate to practices of resilience, reworking and resistance. We identify possibilities and limitations as well as patterns of spatial practices and pathways of re-scaling and radical praxis, uncovering broadly-shared resemblances across different places. Through this analysis we aim to make a twofold contribution to political ecology and human geography scholarship on grassroots radical activism, social innovation and the spatialities of resistance. First, to reveal the connections between social-environmental struggles, emerging grassroots innovations and broader structural factors that cause, enable or limit them. Second, to explore how grassroots radical innovations stemming from place-based community struggles can relate to resistance practices that would not only successfully oppose inequality and the withering of the commons in the short-term, but would also open long-term pathways to alternative modes of social organization, and a new commons, based on social needs and social rights that are currently unaddressed.
|
|
| 3. |
- Barbesgaard, Mads, et al.
(författare)
-
"Blood on the floor": The nickel commodity frontier and inter-capitalist competition under green extractivism
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451.
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Major companies in the mining industry are strategizing to benefit from the expected rise in demand for energy"transition minerals" that underpin current technologies of decarbonization (such as batteries and wind turbines).This article elucidates their current strategies of accumulation through the case of BHP, the world's largest miningcompany. We draw on political ecology and commodity frontier theory in order to grapple with inter-capitalistcompetition under the current moment of green extractivism by examining firm and state practices in the nickelcommodity frontier. Empirically, we examine the changing role that nickel has played in BHP's asset portfolioduring the past decade where it has attempted to significantly accumulate from the expansion of the nickelcommodity frontier. Yet, despite this centering of the expansion of the nickel commodity frontier for its particularstrategy of accumulation under green extractivism, it has so far been unsuccessful. Given this potential for failureof company practices in commodity frontiers, we argue that green extractivism should not always and everywherebe seen as a story foretold.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
- Farahani, Ilia
(författare)
-
Vanished in gaps, vanquished in rifts : the social ecology of urban spatial change in a working class residential area, Peykan-Shahr, Tehran, Iran
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 20, s. 395-412
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article aims to understand the forms and processes of socio-ecological changes following sociogeographicaldislocation of workers in a working-class neighborhood (Peykan-Shahr) in Iran. The articleintegrates theories of gentrification and metabolic rift. Existing studies on urbanization in Iran refute thepossibility of gentrification. This study, in contrast, by drawing attention to peculiarities of the capitalisteconomy in Iran, adapts the basic economic mechanisms of gentrification such as the rent/value gap and theconcept of absolute rent, concluding that Peykan-Shahr is indeed in a process of gentrification. The theory ofmetabolic rift adds theoretical dimensions and complexity to the analysis and provides a richer understandingof the case. Grounded in Marx's labor theory of value, the analysis shows that by mediating the exploitation oflabor/nature by capital through displacing workers from their houses, gentrification in Peykan-Shahr hascaused a socio-ecological metabolic rift in terms of labor reproduction and deterioration of labor power.
|
|
| 7. |
- Gallardo-Fernández, Gloria L., 1953-, et al.
(författare)
-
We adapt … but is it good or bad? Locating the political ecology and social-ecological systems debate in reindeer herding in the Swedish Sub-Arctic : Locating the political ecology and social-ecological systems debate in reindeer herding in the Swedish Sub-Arctic
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona Press. - 1073-0451. ; 24, s. 667-691
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reindeer herding (RDH) is a livelihood strategy deeply connected to Sami cultural tradition. This article explores the implications of two theoretical and methodological approaches for grasping complex socio-environmental relationships of RDH in Subarctic Sweden. Based on joint fieldwork, two teams – one that aligns itself with political ecology (PE) and the other with social-ecological systems (SES) – compared PE and SES approaches of understanding RDH. Our purpose was twofold: 1) to describe the situation of Sami RDH through the lenses of PE and SES, exploring how the two approaches interpret the same empirical data; 2) to present an analytical comparison of the ontological and epistemological assumptions of this work, also inferring different courses of action to instigate change for the sustainability of RDH. Key informants from four sameby in the Kiruna region expressed strong support for the continuation of RDH as a cultural andeconomic practice. Concerns about the current situation raised by Sami representatives centered on the cumulative negative impacts on RDH from mining, forestry and tourism. PE and SES researchers offered dissimilar interpretations of the key aspects of the RDH socio-economic situation, namely: the nature and scale of RDH systems; the ubiquitous role of conflict; and conceptualizations of responses to changing socio-environmental conditions. Due to these disparities, PE and SES analyses have radically divergent socio-political implications for what ought to be done to redress the current RDH situation.
|
|
| 8. |
- Gallardo, Gloria, et al.
(författare)
-
We adapt … but is it good or bad? Locating the political ecology and social-ecological systems debate in reindeer herding in the Swedish Sub-Arctic
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - Arizona : The University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 24:1, s. 667-691
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract Reindeer herding (RDH) is a livelihood strategy deeply connected to Sami cultural tradition. This article explores the implications of two theoretical and methodological approaches for grasping complex socioenvironmental relationships of RDH in Subarctic Sweden. Based on joint fieldwork, two teams – one that aligns itself with political ecology (PE) and the other with social-ecological systems (SES) – compared PE and SES approaches of understanding RDH. Our purpose was twofold: 1) to describe the situation of Sami RDH through the lenses of PE and SES, exploring how the two approaches interpret the same empirical data; 2) to present an analytical comparison of the ontological and epistemological assumptions of this work, also inferring different courses of action to instigate change for the sustainability of RDH. Key informants from four sameby in the Kiruna region expressed strong support for the continuation of RDH as a cultural and economic practice. Concerns about the current situation raised by Sami representatives centered on the cumulative negative impacts on RDH from mining, forestry and tourism. PE and SES researchers offered dissimilar interpretations of the key aspects of the RDH socio-economic situation, namely: the nature and scale of RDH systems; the ubiquitous role of conflict; and conceptualizations of responses to changing socioenvironmental conditions. Due to these disparities, PE and SES analyses have radically divergent sociopolitical implications for what ought to be done to redress the current RDH situation.
|
|
| 9. |
- Geschewski, Hanna, et al.
(författare)
-
A political ecology of aviation and development : an analysis of relations of power and justice in the (de)construction of Nepal's Second International Airport
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 29:1, s. 51-75
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, we investigate socio-ecological conflicts surrounding the proposed Second International Airport project near Nijgadh, a town in the southern Terai region of Nepal. Praised by the Nepali government as a gamechanger for Nepal's economy, it has come under scrutiny by environmental activists after plans emerged for extensive clearing of the densely forested project site. While public and political debates have focused on the environmental impacts of the project, the area is also home to nearly 8,000 people, most of whom have no formal land rights and belong to Janajati groups, who face displacement. The apparent lack of attention to the project's consequences for local communities raises questions about the safeguarding of their interests. Drawing on justice theories and political ecology, we conducted a case study to investigate the residents' struggle for justice, recognition, and visibility amidst a strong dichotomy of mainstream developmentalist and conservationist discourses. During two months of fieldwork in Nepal, we gathered empirical evidence, including observations, interviews, and project documentation. Our findings suggest that the misrecognition of local communities, particularly in Tangiya Basti, began long before the airport project, and is intertwined with distributive and procedural injustices, reinforced by power asymmetries of various kinds. Overall, we argue that while the airport project is often framed as an environmental conflict, it is also a conflict over claims to social justice and livelihood security.
|
|
| 10. |
- Hinton, Jennifer B., 1982-
(författare)
-
Fit for Purpose? Clarifying the critical role of profit for sustainability
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 27:1, s. 236-262
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This conceptual article contributes to the post-growth strand of political ecology literature, which seeks to find sustainable ways of organizing the economy that do not require economic growth. It explores the idea that transitioning to post-growth societies requires a transition in the relationship-to-profit of business. I first conceptualize relationship-to-profit as the intersection of purpose, investment, and ownership of firms. Specifically, for-profit business structures entail a financial gain purpose, private ownership, and unlimited returns on investment; whereas not-for-profit business structures have a social benefit purpose, collective ownership, and limited returns on investment. I then outline ideal types of for-profit and not-for-profit economies, based on the differences between these two kinds of relationship-to-profit. The first ideal type shows how the for-profit business structure drives consumerism, economic growth, and ecological harm, as well as inequality and political capture, preventing post-growth transitions. These dynamics might be slowed down by businesses that seek to balance private financial gain with social benefit (known as dual-purpose businesses). The second ideal type describes the dynamics that might be expected in an economy consisting of not-for-profit businesses, which have a legal mandate to pursue only social benefit. This analysis explains how transitioning from for-profit to not-for-profit forms of business might change some of the most problematic dynamics of the economy, allowing for post-growth transformations. A brief discussion of the possible shortcomings of a not-for-profit economy is also offered.
|
|
| 11. |
|
|
| 12. |
- Hornborg, Alf, et al.
(författare)
-
Introduction: Ecologically unequal exchange and ecological debt
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 23:1, s. 328-333
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article introduces a Special Section on Ecologically Unequal Exchange (EUE), an underlying source of most of the environmental distribution conflicts in our time. The nine articles discuss theories, methodologies, and empirical case studies pertaining to ecologically unequal exchange, and address its relationship to ecological debt.
|
|
| 13. |
- Iengo, Ilenia, et al.
(författare)
-
The politicization of ill bodies in Campania, Italy
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : UNIV ARIZONA LIBRARIES. - 1073-0451. ; 24, s. 44-58
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The communities affected by toxic contamination in Campania, Italy, have had to confront the challenge of proving a direct causal connection between exposure to pollutants and health issues, given a long history of mismanagement of waste. Medical studies have been conducted, but the social and political debate is static. In September 2014, the Italian Ministry of Health simply repeated earlier statements that Campania's increasing cancer rates are due to poor lifestyle habits. The article casts light on the politicization of ill bodies of Campania. We analyze three practices of political action and resistance which employed the subjectivization of physical bodies and illnesses to expose environmental injustice affecting communities. In the neighborhood of Pianura, Naples, people gathered medical records as evidence for a trial into 'culpable epidemics.' In the so-called Land of Fires, in the northern periphery of Naples, hundreds of postcards featuring pictures of children killed by rare pathologies were sent to the Italian Head of State and the Pope. Finally, in the town of Acerra, the blood of a dying shepherd became a political object to prove exposure to dioxin contamination in that area. The politicization of illness and bodies conflates the public and private, challenges the mainstream production of knowledge, and proposes an alternative narrative for affected communities and individuals. Nevertheless, the practices of this politicization have differed and are not always 'political', as we will show through the three cases.
|
|
| 14. |
- Khatri Bahadur, Dil, et al.
(författare)
-
Reterritorialization of community forestry: Scientific forest management for commercialization in Nepal.
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 29, s. 455-474
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nepal's community forestry is an example of a decentralized, participatory and autonomous development model. However, recent community forestry practices informed by the concept of scientific forestry in resource-rich and commercially lucrative Terai regions of Nepal have reversed community forestry gains. Scientific forestry, enforced through the Department of Forest has reproduced frontier power dynamics creating reterritorialization of community forestry through commercialization. Discouraging subsistence utilization and increasing commodification of high-value timber resources have been crucial in reconfiguring forest authority and territorial control. Moreover, the Scientific Forestry Programs have informally institutionalized rent-seeking practices at the local level. A local level, power nexus has developed among forest officials, contractors and community elites that systematically undermine local participation, allocation of resources for subsistence livelihoods and local autonomy. In effect, scientific forestry is recentralizing forest authority by legitimizing territorial control and the elite accumulation of benefits.
|
|
| 15. |
- Krause, Torsten
(författare)
-
Reducing deforestation in Colombia while building peace and pursuing business as usual extractivism?
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 27:1, s. 401-418
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, I examine the contradictions and tensions in Colombia's simultaneous embrace of REDD+ and a peace-building process premised on continued extractivism. Colombia is emerging from an internal conflict that lasted more than 50 years. In this process rural land-use is being transformed, generating new conflicts over land use and control with detrimental effects on Colombia's forests. Based on official documents, reports, existing scholarly work, interviews and observations collected during fieldwork in the Colombian Amazon, I analyze the ways in which peace-building and post-conflict transition have precipitated factors which have aggravated land conflicts and led to the escalation of deforestation in Colombia. I argue that Colombia's current REDD+ efforts mainly serve to attract international funding and legitimize the status quo since they remain disconnected from the structural processes that directly and indirectly drive deforestation. As such, REDD+ in Colombia contributes to a contradictory neoliberal approach to development, which promises to safeguard the environment, while supporting large-scale extractive industries, mining, cattle ranching and intensive agriculture, resulting in the increase in deforestation and forest degradation.
|
|
| 16. |
- Oulu, Martin
(författare)
-
Core tenets of the theory of ecologically unequal exchange
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 23:1, s. 446-466
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article, core tenets and claims of the theory of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) are synthesized. EUE theory postulates a net flow of natural resources from peripheral developing to core industrialized countries through international trade, a situation which undermines the development of the periphery while enhancing that of the core. The key claims and EUE mechanisms are categorized and discussed under three topics: 1) the structure of the capitalist world-economy, 2) monetary valuation, and 3) equity and justice. The treadmill logic of capitalism in which capital extracts ecological resources and release waste in an endless pursuit of profits creates an expansionary dynamic which draws peripheral countries into exploitative market relations. This peripheralization is supported by 'free trade' economic policies, while nation-states and other political-economic institutions such as the WTO and IMF provide the regulations which ensure proper functioning of the system. Monetary valuation caps it by obscuring the inverse relationship between thermodynamics and economics, in which low-entropy energy and materials indispensable in economic production processes are lowly priced while processed goods which have dissipated most of their matter-energy are highly priced, ensuring that biophysical resources and profits accumulates in the industrialized Northern countries. This EUE framework is applied to the EU's Raw Materials Initiative from the vantage point of policy as implicit theory. By challenging mainstream policies and their underlying theories, the EUE perspective demonstrates that alternatives to neoliberal policy prescriptions exist and policy can play a crucial role in bringing about the necessary structural changes.
|
|
| 17. |
- Ring, Mikael, 1962
(författare)
-
SandLife and the death of dunes: political ecology discourses from conservation to restoration in Haverdal, Sweden
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of political ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 27:1, s. 57-83
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study concerns narratives and practices developed within landscape management in a Natura 2000 area in the south-west of Sweden. This European Union-funded project shifted focus from morphological and passive conservation management to intervening in biological management. Iinvestigate some of the consequences ofre-politicized discourses and practices during this period. I ask how a traditional policy view on conservation washandled during this change, and what role EU funding has inpreservingor changinga traditional management policy forlandscape conservation. The conclusions are that landscape protection is driven by political and ideological values connected with institutionalized aesthetic components that are adjusted to whatever disciplinary focus prevails at the time. However, traditional approaches are retained, excluding participatory methods and the social dimensions on landscape management. To some extent, the available EU funding leverages alignment of project goals and management, influencing landscape alteration.
|
|
| 18. |
- Rusca, Maria, et al.
(författare)
-
Speculative Political Ecologies : (re)imagining urban futures of climate extremes
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona Press. - 1073-0451. ; 30:1, s. 581-608
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- What role can a speculative political ecology play in (re)imaging urban futures of climate extremes? In recent years, narratives of dystopian futures of climate extremes have proliferated in geosciences, and across the media and creative arts. These anxiety-fueled narratives often generate a sense of resignation and unavoidability, which contributes to foreclosing the possibility of radically different political projects. In this article, we argue that these narratives conceal the coproduction of nature and society and treat nature as the problem, thereby locking futures into dystopic configurations. Political ecology scholarship can contribute to generate a politics of possibility by reconceptualizing the relations that constitute urban futures under climate extremes as socionatural. This, we argue, calls for a more experimental political ecology and new forms of theorizing. To this aim, we develop a speculative political ecological approach grounded on a numerical model that examines the potential of transformative change in the aftermath of extreme flood events in a capitalist city. Analytically, this opens a unique possibility of exploring urban futures beyond current trajectories, and how these alternative futures might transform vulnerability and inequality across urban spaces. From a policy perspective, we lay the foundations for a new generation of models that apprehend the role of power and agency in shaping uneven urban futures of climate extremes.
|
|
| 19. |
- Sánchez García, Paula Andrea, et al.
(författare)
-
The political economy of deforestation in the Colombian Amazon
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 31:1, s. 178-199
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Colombian Amazon has experienced rapid forest loss in the past decades due to growing colonization, infrastructure development, and commercial agriculture expansion. While much of the analyses of deforestation in the Amazon have been in Brazil, there is a need to extend to Colombia where forest and land use exploitation are driven by post-conflict social and political dynamics. This research contributes to this knowledge gap by unpacking the mechanisms underpinning deforestation on the northwestern side of the Colombian Amazon. We used theory-building process-tracing to guide us in conceptualizing the underlying logics of deforestation in the region through qualitative text analysis of policy documents, articles, reports, and grey literature, and virtual semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local actors. Findings indicate that the power vacuum resulting from the demobilization of FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), Marxist-Leninist guerrillas, acted as a window of opportunity for peasants, squatters, narco-traffickers, cattle ranchers, landlords, and other investors to access public lands and capitalize from converting forests to coca crops and pastures for cattle ranching. Accumulation of land and surplus primarily from cattle ranching and coca production has increased the ability of these actors to reshape the landscape and societal structures. Traditional elites and old and emerging narco-bourgeoisie have capitalized on preexisting power asymmetries by disproportionally accumulating land, money, gun power, influence, and prestige seeking to consolidate territorial hegemony, and controlling the means for material reproduction in society. Powerful actors use their resources and prestige to displace historically marginalized groups – such as indigenous communities, peasants and squatters – from their means of subsistence and production, resulting in the installation of a capitalist economy based on land rent and drug trafficking, where less powerful and marginalized actors engage in deforestation as means for capital accumulation and subsidizing their peasant and subsistence economies. All this has deepened forest loss, inequalities, and conflict over land access between actors.
|
|
| 20. |
- Singleton, Benedict, 1983-
(författare)
-
Love-iathan, the meat-whale and hidden people : ordering Faroese pilot whaling
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - Tucson, USA : University of Arizona Libraries. - 1073-0451. ; 23, s. 26-48
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A key question in any environmental dispute is the nature of what is under discussion. 'Cosmopolitics' – political battles over the form of reality – are a feature of many environmental clashes. This article focuses on one such clash: during the summer of 2014, grindadráp – the iconic practice of driving pilot whales for meat – was the big news item in the Faroe Islands. More accurately, a conservation campaign by the controversial group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS), Operation Grindstop 2014, garnered most attention. Aiming to stop or at least disrupt the 'barbaric' and 'sadistic' grindadráp, SSCS were involved in several confrontations with Faroese authorities and publicly engaged with Faroese pro-whaling advocates in several discussions that were seemingly fruitless. Based on 3 months fieldwork during the campaign, this article describes a 'political ontology' of Grindstop 2014. What emerged was a 'hybrid' born of a clash between two fundamentally dissonant systems of ordering, which structured and were reinforced by various practices, both discursive and material. Activists on both sides were engaged in a cosmopolitical struggle to decisively enact their orderings, creating alternative stories of whales, Faroese whaling, the ocean environment and modernity. The aim is to understand what happened when these orderings met. This article argues that throughout the summer these two orderings moved apart, consequently hiding the diversity of opinion and discussion within Faroese society around grindadráp. As such, alternative orderings of grindadráp were suppressed, notably those voiced by Faroese activists arguing that the practice should cease because of the high levels of toxins in pilot whale meat.
|
|
| 21. |
- Singleton, Benedict, 1983
(författare)
-
The whale watched and whaled: exploring the orderings of a complex environmental issue through the lens of rubbish theory
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 28, s. 395-415
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The political ecological study of environmental issues is often concerned with the interactions of diverse actors, leading to accounts of different, conflicting worldviews. While different epistemological and ontological standpoints are covered, there is consensus that environmental issues are simultaneously social and material, and that worldviews differ. In this article, I argue Michael Thompson's rubbish theory can be usefully employed to compare and contrast environmental perspectives ultimately rooted in conflicting epistemological and ontological understandings of a situation. Rubbish theory describes the categorization of objects into durables, transients and rubbish, and movements between these categories. Rubbish theory focuses on how objects are restricted in their movement and how this reflects the distribution of power and status in society. Two aspects of a society may then be assessed: 1) its value system, and 2) the extent to which different groups may alter that value system. Dynamic changes in these two aspects are then traceable. As an example of extant environmental conflicts rooted in different worldviews, this article focuses on historic and contemporary issues around the consumption of whale meat. Focusing upon whaling and whale-watching, I argue that historic and contemporary conflicts manifest different orderings and that these comprise different epistemological standpoints, which as value systems are comparable within rubbish theory.
|
|
| 22. |
- Speckhahn, Sophia, et al.
(författare)
-
The irresistible solution: rationale and risks of extending water limits through desalination in the case of Gotland, Sweden
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 26:1, s. 128-149
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Water resources are under increasing pressure, and there are tensions between increasing demand and the natural limits to potable water supply. Authorities must find solutions that fulfil societal demands without compromising environmental integrity. As one way to counteract water deficits, desalination has evolved as an attractive solution. This technology is contested and associated with a variety of social, environmental and economic consequences; yet it is increasingly used. In Sweden, the technology is rare but recent droughts have spurred interest. On the island of Gotland, where Sweden's first larger desalination plant was inaugurated in 2016, we examine the perceived benefits and drawbacks of desalination as well as the decision-making process that led up to its implementation. Through qualitative analysis of public documents and stakeholder interviews, we identify mechanisms that contributed to desalination becoming a favored solution. We find that it is associated with a number of benefits that are in line with broader development goals, against which its drawbacks are considered to be acceptable or externalized. Desalination extends natural limits to permit development, delaying deeper social and economic restructuring. Rather than arguing against desalination per se, we emphasize the risk of the depoliticization of water supply through technocratic decision-making, the normalization of scarcity and certain technologies, and the urgency that builds around increasing water supply 'at any economic cost.' These tendencies obscure drawbacks, limitations and conflicting interests. They foreclose the questioning of resource intensive development. In order to invoke transformation towards long-term sustainability of Gotland's water supply, policy-makers should seek to diversify their sources of knowledge and encourage more open democratic debate around alternative regional development pathways.
|
|
| 23. |
- Takedomi Karlsson, Mariko, et al.
(författare)
-
Selling women the green dream: the paradox of feminism and sustainability in fashion marketing
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 27:1, s. 335-359
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores the paradox of corporations using social and environmental justice concerns to market products that are themselves made in conditions of environmental and social injustice, most often in the Global South. The effects of the fashion industry on people is two-pronged: 1) the unsafe and exploitative conditions under which many garment workers operate, and 2) the severe and harmful water and air pollution caused by fashion industry factories. There are thus contradictions inherent in the manner in which corporations, through their marketing, seek to foster feminism and environmentalism, whilst sourcing their garments from factories that operate in problematic ways. Using case studies of advertising campaigns from three Swedish companies, H&M, Monki and Gina Tricot, we conducted a discourse analysis to understand the messages to consumers as well as the image of the company that is portrayed. Through our political ecology analysis, we suggest that the promotion of feminism and environmentalism is not consistently applied by companies in their own practices and could at worst be labeled green and 'fem washing.' These approaches can also be deeply problematic when they lead to the exotification of others, and cultural appropriation. We further find that the marketing strategies in fashion serve not only to promote the sale of products but also have the effect of placing environmental responsibility onto individual consumers. Ultimately, fashion marketing serves to obfuscate ecologically unequal exchange and the true costs of fashion.
|
|
| 24. |
- Turhan, Ethemcan, et al.
(författare)
-
The post-politics of the green economy in Turkey : re-claiming the future?
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : UNIV ARIZONA LIBRARIES. - 1073-0451. ; 24, s. 277-295
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The green economy is often defined as an economic configu ration that results in improved human well - being and social equity, while reducing (or at least decoupling from) environmental risks . It is elusive, and can be read as a new way of ensuring and maintaining capital accumulation accompanied by neoliberal austerity policies , where a green rationale is required to maintain the structural roots of the global political economy. As such, critics often identify its self -contradictory nature , in giving legitimacy and coherence to a number of public policies. This article critically examines the post- politicisation of the green economy , by tracing its social construction and meaning -making . In doing so, it follows the green economy debate in the post -politicization of the environment in Turkey, a rapidly developing country with significant socio -ecological challenges. Th e analysis suggests that the green economy will become more important at Turkey tr ies to meet international environmental agreements . Th e article sheds light on its preparatory report for the Rio+20 Summit, titled Turkey' s sustainable development report: claiming the futu re 2012 . We find that the green economy serves as a useful discursive tool to legitimize a state - facilitated, market -driven, full -frontal assault on ecosystems in Turkey, particularly in the energy sector. We argue that a clear rejection of such framings and the development of alternatives to post - politicization, are the two key challenges facing the environmental movement in the country.
|
|
| 25. |
- Uggla, Ylva, 1960-
(författare)
-
What is this thing called 'natural'? : The nature-culture divide in climate change and biodiversity policy
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 17, s. 79-91
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper treats two highly topical and interconnected environmental issues—climate change and biodiversity—in which the nature-culture divide appears in policy and regulation. The aim is to analyze how “the natural” and concerns for biodiversity and climate change are constructed in applicable regulatory frameworks, and to explore social and environmental consequences of these constructions. The analysis indicates that biodiversity and climate change regulation help construct nature and culture as separate categories and give rise to the notion that the natural state is worth protecting from human intrusion. The notion of human agency, however, is ambiguous because humans are depicted as having the power and skill to protect and even recreate “natural nature”. The paper concludes that, although nature and the natural are often used as politically- and socially-neutral concepts, the definition of natural nature as a place devoid of humans has social as well as environmental consequences.
|
|
| 26. |
- Vladimirova, Vladislava, 1975-
(författare)
-
Politics of the green economy in Russia's European North
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 24, s. 297-323
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The global drive for a greener economy generates controversy in Russia, a country that is dependent on export of raw mineral resources. Debates are most heated in relation to the North, where resource extraction takes place. In an environment of high unemployment and low income ecological issues are priority for a few environmentalists. Russian politicians, who support the green economy in international fora, instead emphasize economic development at home and show little interest in environmental protection. This article focuses on the controversies over policies from the perspective of environmentalists and members of local communities in Murmansk Region who are struggling to establish a national park in the Khibiny Mountains. The initiative has been presented by some environmentalists as a contribution to the green economy, but it also demonstrates mechanisms of nature governance in Russia, as well as the limited possibilities for bottom-up participation of NGOs, scholars, and the indigenous community. The article also situates the green economy in Russia within critical analysis of the global green economy, which reveals common trends and problems. Russia replicates the common overemphasis on economic development and commoditization of nature rather than radical reformation of nature's value and use.
|
|
| 27. |
- Warlenius, Rikard
(författare)
-
Linking ecological debt and ecologically unequal exchange: stocks, flows, and carbon sink appropriation
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 23:1, s. 364-380
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ecological debt is usually conceptualized as the accumulated result of different kinds of uneven flows of natural resources and waste, but these flows are seldom referred to as ecologically unequal exchange. Ecologically unequal exchange, on the other hand, is usually defined as different flows of resources and waste, but the accumulated results of these flows are seldom referred to as ecological debt. In this article, influential definitions and conceptualizations of ecological debt and ecologically unequal exchange are compared and the notions linked together analytically with a stock-flow perspective. A particular challenge is presented by emissions of substances that have global consequences, most importantly carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. They form part of ecologically unequal exchange, but what is unequal is not the exchange of resources or energy, but the appropriation of the sinks that absorb these substances. New concepts, unequal sink appropriation and the more specific carbon sink appropriation are proposed as a way of highlighting this distinction.
|
|
| 28. |
- Zhang, Qian, 1977-
(författare)
-
Managing sandstorms through resettling pastoralists in China : how multiple forms of power govern the environment at/across scales
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - : University of Arizona. - 1073-0451. ; 25:1, s. 364-380
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study uses concepts of power and 'scaled politics' to analyze the effects of environmentalization and technocratic and market-based measures in China. Political scientists have explored the politics behind the proactive engagement of the Chinese state in governing the environment since the 2000s, also drawing on political ecology. Based on policy document analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, the study investigates a case of ecological resettlement in Inner Mongolia by examining how this became a new solution to desertification and rangeland degradation. The article shows how resettlement was implemented through multi-scalar practices and the reconfiguration of spatial relations, and why pastoral households responded to resettlement in certain ways. The state turned certain areas and people (associated with overgrazing) into subjects of governance. By distinguishing the different strategies used by central and local government, the analysis shows that disciplinary and neoliberal environmentality are associated with scalar practices between the state and the people, and within the state system. Neoliberal environmentality, however, counteracts the making of environmental subjects and encounters resistance. Sovereign environmentality is still deployed as a means to control local government and the obedience of herders. Pastoralists resist this, depending on their different subjectivities. The study advances our understanding of the multiple governmentality perspective, its analytics, and scalar processes.
|
|
| 29. |
|
|
