Lecture 2: Power and the Environment Flashcards
What does “how we look shapes what we see” mean in the context of political ecology?
It means that the way we perceive or approach the environment influences our understanding of it, which in turn shapes what actions we think should be taken.
What is Political Ecology?
Political Ecology is a framework that looks at the environment through the lens of power dynamics, exploring how power structures influence environmental issues and the distribution of resources.
What are some of the key concepts in Political Ecology?
Key concepts include:
Marginality: power differences shape how people treat the environment.
Ecology: human relationship with the physical environment.
Political Economy: how political economy affects the environment.
How did the 19th century coal regime support mass democratic politics, and why did the 20th and 21st century oil regime not support mass democratic politics?
The 19th century coal regime was labor-intensive, giving workers the power to make demands and organize politically, which helped advance democratic rights such as enfranchisement. In contrast, the oil regime was not labor-intensive, which reduced workers’ ability to organize and exert political power.
How did Neoliberalism influence Chile’s environmental policy, and what happened in 1981 related to water rights?
Neoliberalism encouraged privatization and marketization of natural resources, like water rights. In 1981, the Pinochet government rewrote the Chilean Water Code, allowing private individuals to own and trade water rights. This led to increased water demand, social inequality, and water scarcity.
What is depoliticization in environmental politics?
Depoliticization removes environmental issues from democratic debate, presenting them as technical or scientific problems that experts, not citizens, should solve.
How does post-politics affect environmental issues?
Post-politics promotes consensus around a particular political viewpoint, removing democratic debate and obscuring the power dynamics behind decision-making.
What is the role of “Nature” discourse in depoliticization?
Talking about “Nature” as a fixed, uncontestable entity depoliticizes the environment by ignoring its social construction and removing it from the realm of public deliberation.
How does Swyngedouw describe the two-sided discourse around climate change?
One discourse sees climate change as an apocalyptic threat, while the other suggests only minor reforms are needed, both of which depoliticize the issue by removing it from democratic contestation.
How does Swyngedouw describe the process of fetishizing carbon in environmental politics?
Fetishizing carbon refers to reducing environmental harm to the problem of excess atmospheric carbon. This constrains environmental politics by framing CO2 as a common enemy, which:
Identifies environmental harm as external to current social, political, and economic systems.
Rules out dissensus by promoting unity, leading to consensus.
Turns environmental politics into a technical issue, managed by experts and technocrats, rather than a broader societal debate.
How does environmental re-politicization differ from depoliticization?
Environmental re-politicization recognizes the indeterminacy of nature, embraces political divisions, demands equality, and opens the possibility of diverse socio-ecological futures, promoting democratic debate.
What are the four key elements of environmental re-politicization, according to Swyngedouw?
The four elements are:
Recognizing the indeterminacy of nature.
Acknowledging the constitutive split of the people.
Pursuing egalitarian democratic demands.
Embracing different socio-ecological futures.
What is the significance of “how we look at something shapes what we see” in the context of de-politicization?
De-politicization hides how power structures influence environmental issues and prevents democratic citizens from engaging in meaningful debate, reducing the scope for understanding and addressing environmental power dynamics.
