The political ecology of austerity: crisis, social movements, and the environment

In: Routledge explorations in environmental studies

Abstract

"The Political Ecology of Austerity explores the scholarly and political debates surrounding the environmental dimension of austerity policies that has thus far escaped academic, policy and media attention. By contributing to a better comprehension of the full socio-environmental impact of austerity measures, the book highlights the importance of considering environmental issues when analysing austerity and in designing alternative responses to economic crisis in the future. Mobilising detailed case studies from across the western world, the volume documents the ways in which austerity impacts global and local ecologies and peoples, and shapes and gives rise to environmental conflicts and new forms and practices of social mobilization and resistance. By bringing together theoretical debates and rigorous case-study analysis, the book proposes the concept of 'the political ecology of austerity' as an academic and policy relevant term, and political ecology as an appropriate method of analysis that can inform our understanding of the significant shift in environmental protection policies and growth ideologies that we have witnessed over the past decade in the western world at the aftermath of the economic crisis. The Political Ecology of Austerity reveals austerity as neither a "rational" panacea for economic recovery, nor an "irrational" policy that further deepens the economic crisis. Rather, the volume discloses austerity to be a globalised set of tools not only for budgetary discipline, but also for socio-environmental discipline that justifies the continuation of growth-focused global environmental degradation. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of social and political sciences, environmental studies, urban studies and political ecology"--