Basic principles Flashcards
What, fundamentally, does PE do?
PE interrogates the idea of nature and the role of politic and power with nature
Pol Ecol politicises and problematises seemingly apolitical changes to the environment
All about power, control, democracy, appropriation, exclusivity etc
See Perreault, et al, 2015
What is a good citation for the basics of PE? A
Perreault, et al, 2015
(Routeledge handbook)
ADD TO CITATIONS LIST
What is the trouble with the Antropocene?
Conceptualises environmental change as caused by all humans
What is the main theoretical debate in PE?
STS/assemblage/ANT/more-than human
VERSUS
Material and discursive changes (Marxist/Neo-Marxist)
Are all ecological projects apolitical? Why not?`
“Ecological projects are all economic-political projects”
Harvey 1993
Capital is involved and nature is produced
Are all ecological projects apolitical? Why not?`
“Ecological projects are all economic-political projects”
Harvey 1993
Capital is involved and nature is produced
What was the first major publication in PE?
Brookefield and Blaikie 1987
Also Blaikie 1985 soil erosion
What did Bookefield and Blaikie 1987 achieve?
- Gave a political economic perspective of environmental change (proto-Marxist)
- Chains of explanation for envi change
Who has recently combined a social science analysis with a political economic one in PE?
Peet & Watts 2016
What was Bryant and Bailey 1997’s contribution to PE?
Drew attention to the asymmetry of power relations in the political economy
Why is PE considered to be theoretically ambivalent?
It is an approach, a theory and ethos and a method of critique…
Mainly a canon of research (Neumann 2005)
How does Paul Robbins (2011) define PE?
“A hatchet and a seed” (Robbins, 2011)
- creation and destruction
- changes to the environment understood anthropologically
- a focus on groups and households
- Can guide policy (iffy…)
.
.
Robbins 2011
What are the three waves of PE?
1) Marxist (1980s/90s)
- capital
- material changes / material conditions
2) Discursive (1990s/2000s)
- beyond narratives in Neo-Marxist
- produces conflict
- power/knowledge
3) More-than-human (2000s-)
- ANT
- STS
- Assemblage theory / webs of relations
Why can differentiating different traditions in PE be problematic?
- Traditions continue
- Can be revitalised (e.g., hard Marxian approaches returning)
- Approaches can be united and combined
What was the main point in Blaikie 1985?
- Soil degradation caused by political economic changes, not naïve overuse by local people
- Poverty is linked to the global economy and environment
- Sort of a feedback system re marginal returns
What did Eckholm 1976 attribute soil degradation to?
Population growth and marginal returns
Tragedy of the Commons (Hardin 1968)
Critiqued by Blaikie 1985
Where did Blaikie (1985) conduct his study?
- Zambia mining sector expansion during colonialism
- More work-time
- less time attending land
- Taxes = household squeeze
Where did Blaikie (1985) conduct his study?
- Zambia mining sector expansion during colonialism
- More work-time
- less time attending land
- Taxes = household squeeze
What are chains of explanation (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1986)?
- Environmental change does not have a single, superficial cause
- Uncovers social metabolism of capitalism
- Not a simple explanation - multivariate and complex
What is the second contradiction of capitalism?
That capitalism systemically destroys nature
(O’Connor 1998)
What is the first contradiction of capitalism
Capitalism destroys the reproduction of labour and thus capital / capitalist relations
What are 5 enduring concepts in PE?
1) Scale
2) Temporal change
3) Who wins/loses
4) Who (/what?) decides
5) The material base for the means of production
What is a seminal paper from the “discursive turn” in PE?
Swift 1998
- Knowledge and ideas shape environmental relations
- deconstructed narratives
(Also Leach and Mearns 1996)
What is a classic and misleading narrative about desertification?
Stebbing 1937
- A lack of productive management by locals
- State needed to intervene to avoid further desertification
Also Lamprey 1977
How have Stebbing’s narratives been resurrected?
Why is it significant?
UNCOD 1997
- Need forest belts to prevent desertification
- Imposed on people
- A long history of UN / official intl organisations getting involved
Significant because makes the discourse official, appear objective
Why is discourse powerful?
Conceals reality and presents “truths” (Leach and Mearns 1996)
Why did Marxist / Pol Econ and discursive approaches get criticised?
- Too focussed on narratives, not the everyday production of landscapes
- Too human-focussed
- Not enough intersectionality (too generalising)
What is an intriguing study in the more-than-human aspects of PE?
Barua 2014
“Bio-geo-graphy”
- Elephants as actants in landscapes
- How do elephants conceptualise landscapes?
Extend to how would a sloth view the Anthropocene
How can PE be summarised? Limitations?
“A jack of all trades, a maser of none”
- might lack theoretical rigor
Why is it important to reflect on more recent scholarship in PE?
Highlights awareness of recent waves:
- ANT
- Hard Marx / neo-Marx
- Hard Foucault
- Feminist/post col/queer theory
What are situated knowledges?
Haraway 1988
Knowledge is relational, creating a “knowing person”
What is it about capitalism that destroys nature? (2 pts)
- Markets and uneven trade / dependency theory
- Needing to pay for cheap, alienated labour
Who has written about decolonising PE?
Loftus 2019
What is the problem with Loftus’ (2019) argument about decentring PE?
Loftus (2019) suggests decentring PE from the North and studying relations between N-S
The trouble is that these are the realities of environmental change!
Who has written about the multiple meanings of land?
Li 2019
What is the difference between decolonising and decentring?
Decolonising = emphasising indigenous rights
Decentring = different perspectives
(See Loftus 2019)
What is the teleological issue with Marxism?
Focusses on the process of capitalism, and not enough on the epistemology of the approach (focussed on G North)
(Loftus, 2019)
Who has suggested a more pragmatic approach to decolonising PE?
Schulz 2017
Need to facilitate dialogue and not suggest that only those affected should decide
What is a subaltern?
Groups excluded by capitalist institutions (e.g., those excluded from pol forests)
A Gramscian term - one of resistance too
Scott 1985 Weapons of the Weak (counter-hegemonic)
