Political ecology has often defined itself against Eurocentric conceptions of the world. Nevertheless, recent contributions have questioned the ongoing reproduction of an Anglo-American mainstream against 'other political ecologies'. Decentering Anglo-American political ecology has therefore forced a greater recognition of traditions that have developed under the same banner, albeit in different linguistic or national contexts. In addition, thinking more about the situatedness of knowledge claims has forced a deeper questioning of the Eurocentric and colonial production of political ecological research. In this report I begin by reviewing a range of political ecological traditions before going on to look at decolonial moves within the field. I conclude by considering how political ecologists might reframe their practice as one of relational comparison.
Winter conditions are rapidly changing in temperate ecosystems, particularly for those that experience periods of snow and ice cover. Relatively little is known of winter ecology in these systems, due to a historical research focus on summer 'growing seasons'. We executed the first global quantitative synthesis on under-ice lake ecology, including 36 abiotic and biotic variables from 42 research groups and 101 lakes, examining seasonal differences and connections as well as how seasonal differences vary with geophysical factors. Plankton were more abundant under ice than expected; mean winter values were 43.2% of summer values for chlorophyll a, 15.8% of summer phytoplankton biovolume and 25.3% of summer zooplankton density. Dissolved nitrogen concentrations were typically higher during winter, and these differences were exaggerated in smaller lakes. Lake size also influenced winter-summer patterns for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), with higher winter DOC in smaller lakes. At coarse levels of taxonomic aggregation, phytoplankton and zooplankton community composition showed few systematic differences between seasons, although literature suggests that seasonal differences are frequently lake-specific, species-specific, or occur at the level of functional group. Within the subset of lakes that had longer time series, winter influenced the subsequent summer for some nutrient variables and zooplankton biomass. ; National Science Foundation (NSF DEB) [1431428, 1136637]; Washington State University; Russian Science Foundation [14-14-00400]; Ministry of education and science of Russia Gos-Zasanie project [1354-2014/51]; Natural Environment Research Council [NE/J00829X/1, 1230750, NE/G019622/1, NE/J010227/1] ; Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF DEB #1431428; NSF DEB #1136637) and Washington State University. M. Timofeyev and E. Silow were partially supported by Russian Science Foundation project No 14-14-00400 and Ministry of education and science of Russia Gos-Zasanie project No 1354-2014/51. We are grateful to Marianne Moore, Deniz Ozkundakci, Chris Polashenski and Paula Kankaala for discussions that greatly improved this work. We also gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for contributing to this project: John Anderson, Jill Baron, Rick Bourbonniere, Sandra Brovold, Lluis Camarero, Sudeep Chandra, Jim Cotner, Laura Forsstom, Guillaume Grosbois, Chris Harrod, Klaus D. Joehnk, T.Y. Kim, Daniel Langenhaun, Reet Laugaste, Suzanne McGowan, Virginia Panizzo, Giampaolo Rossetti, R.E.H. Smith, Sarah Spaulding, Helen Tammert, Steve Thackeray, Kyle Zimmer, Priit Zingel and two anonymous reviewers. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.
This is an updated annotated bibliography of political ecology and feminist political ecology articles created for the Gender CCRA-7 Gendered Perspectives for Conservation Agriculture: Local soil knowledge and crop-livestock interaction from 2010-2011. This bibliography was used to inform field methods, student thesis work, and the CCRA-7 Research Strategy. ; CCRA-7 (Gendered Knowledge)
Political ecologists have long acknowledged the links between knowledge and power. Recently there has also been a growing interest in detailed studies about knowledge production within critical political ecology. This article is a study of the use of photographs in scientific articles on dryland ecology, and investigates the functions of photographs. Contrary to the straightforward manner in which they are presented, photographs are not value-free documentary proofs of 'how things are.' Rather, photographs constitute arguments in their own right. Using photographic and textual theory, this study analyzes two articles that include photographs of fence-line contrasts between two different management regimes. Contrasting areas divided by a fence-line is a methodology that demonstrates how management differences lead to differences in vegetation. In a Southern African context, however, differences across a fence tend to encompass deep racial and economic divides, and the fence-line photos risk encompassing these differences. This article argues that the fence-line contrast photographs in this study function as models that order the causal links between vegetation dynamics, land tenure and land management. These models correspond closely to equilibrium models in range ecology, and the fence-line photographs thus contribute to a degradation narrative that has been influential for land reform policies in Southern Africa, and that feeds into land use policies that favor private land ownership in communal areas.Keywords: Critical political ecology, fence-line photography, scientific models, rangeland ecology, Southern Africa
Power plays a key role in definitions of political ecology. Likewise, empirical studies within this field tend to provide detailed presentations of various uses of power, involving corporate and conservation interventions influencing access to land and natural resources. The results include struggle and conflict. Yet, there is a lack of theoretical elaboration showing how power may be understood in political ecology. In this article, we start to fill this gap by reviewing the different theoretical perspectives on power that have dominated this field. There are combinations of influences, two of them being actor-oriented and neo-Marxist approaches used from the 1980s. Typically, case studies are presented of environmental interventions by a broad range of actors at various scales from the local to the global. The focus has been on processes involving actors behind these interventions, as well as the outcomes for different social groups. Over the last two decades, in political ecology we have increasingly seen a move in power perspectives towards poststructuralist thinking about "discursive power", inspired by Foucault. Today, the three approaches (actor-oriented, neo-Marxist and Foucauldian) and their combinations form a synergy of power perspectives that provide a set of rich and nuanced insights into how power is manifested in environmental conflicts and governance. We argue that combining power perspectives is one of political ecology's strengths, which should be nurtured through a continuous examination of a broad spectrum of social science theories on power. ; publishedVersion
Power plays a key role in definitions of political ecology. Likewise, empirical studies within this field tend to provide detailed presentations of various uses of power, involving corporate and conservation interventions influencing access to land and natural resources. The results include struggle and conflict. Yet, there is a lack of theoretical elaboration showing how power may be understood in political ecology. In this article, we start to fill this gap by reviewing the different theoretical perspectives on power that have dominated this field. There are combinations of influences, two of them being actor-oriented and neo-Marxist approaches used from the 1980s. Typically, case studies are presented of environmental interventions by a broad range of actors at various scales from the local to the global. The focus has been on processes involving actors behind these interventions, as well as the outcomes for different social groups. Over the last two decades, in political ecology we have increasingly seen a move in power perspectives towards poststructuralist thinking about "discursive power", inspired by Foucault. Today, the three approaches (actor-oriented, neo-Marxist and Foucauldian) and their combinations form a synergy of power perspectives that provide a set of rich and nuanced insights into how power is manifested in environmental conflicts and governance. We argue that combining power perspectives is one of political ecology's strengths, which should be nurtured through a continuous examination of a broad spectrum of social science theories on power.
ABSTRACT: In 1964 Paul Sears asked whether the findings of ecology might act to subvert social and political orders. But ecology might also serve to challenge deeply-held scientific assumptions. To explore how ecology tends to change scientific perspectives, the fundamental assumptions that characterized the 19th Century Newtonian worldview are enumerated as a reference: Nature was assumed to be(1) causally closed, (2) deterministic, (3) universal, (4) reversible, and (5) atomistic. Contemporary ecology, and especially network analysis and the theory of increasing ascendency, are more consonant with an entirely different set of guiding postulates. The emerging ecological worldview differs significantly from the Newtonian metaphysic on all five points: Ecology reveals that nature can be (1) ontically open, (2) contingent, (3) "granular" in space and time, (4) historical, and (5) organic, respectively. Keywords: Aristotelian causalities; ascendency; autocatalysis; indeterminacy; information theory; organicism; propensity; Stochasticism; Telos. ECOLOGIA, A CIÊNCIA SUBVERSIVA? Resumo: Em 1964, Paul Sears indagou se as descobertas da ecologia poderiam agir de modo a subverter as ordens política e social. Mas a ecologia poderia também servir para desafiar pressuposições científicas profundamente arraigadas. Para explorar como a ecologia tende a alterar as perspectivas científicas, as pressuposições fundamentais que caracterizaram a visão de mundo newtoniana do século 19 são enumeradas como referenciais: a Natureza era tomada como sendo (1) causalmente fechada,(2) determinística,(3) universal, (4)reversível e (5) atomística. A ecologia contemporânea, e especialmente a análise de redes e a teoria da ascendência crescente são mais consonantes com um conjunto inteiramente distinto de postulados orientadores. A visão de mundo ecológica emergente difere significativamente da metafísica newtoniana em todos os cinco pontos: a ecologia revela que a natureza pode ser (1) onticamente aberta, (2) contingente, (3) "granular" no ...
The multicultural city of Melbourne, situated in the ecologically vulnerable state of Victoria, Australia, provides the research context for this qualitative study of the 'interfaith ecology movement.' This emerging New Social Movement under globalisation brings together the themes of religion, diversity, environmentalism and peace. It is situated at the intersection of the contemporary interfaith dialogue and the environment movements. This research is an ethnographic exploration of the fledgling cultural forms, structures, practices, motivations and challenges of this global grassroots community movement as it develops. The ecophilosophical position of panpsychism provides the ethical, epistemological and ontological framework for this research. It informs the principles of the research methodology through which the eco-spiritual themes as well as the social, cultural and interpersonal relationships that characterise the interfaith ecology movement are explored. Research was carried out between 2007 – 2010 primarily through engaging community groups and organisations working on interfaith ecology themes into Participatory Action Research projects and activities. This study discloses aspects of Australia's subtle and elusive spirituality, as well as local postcolonial and ecological identity politics at play with cosmopolitan spiritual and ecological experiences and identities. This study is therefore broadly relevant to the contemporary context of civic participation, environmental action and spiritual exploration under globalisation. Through its organisations and projects, the interfaith ecology movement generates both inspiration and friction as participants navigate each other's differences in the complex process of project planning and practical action. Often hampered by cross-purposes in the development stages, these projects frequently reach a creative synergy, bridging the divides between participants. Perpetual learning and compromise characterises the practice of the movement as participants bear witness to the surfacing of an authentic dialogue of difference in the often muddy waters of social, spiritual and ecological change.
The societal issues relevant to the subject of industrial ecology call for the participation of broadly educated engineers who can integrate their technology with the social, political, environmental, and economic aspects of its applications. This increase in the responsibility of traditional engineering to include the end-use, obsolescence, and disposition of technical products signals a new era for engineering education.
How to predict the evolution of ecosystems is one of the numerous questions asked of ecologists by managers and politicians. To answer this we will need to give a scientific definition to concepts like sustainability, integrity, resilience and ecosystem health. This is not an easy task, as modern ecosystem theory exemplifies. Ecosystems show a high degree of complexity, based upon a high number of compartments, interactions and regulations. The last two decades have offered proposals for interpretation of ecosystems within a framework of thermodynamics. The entrance point of such an understanding of ecosystems was delivered more than 50 years ago through Schrodinger's and Prigogine's interpretations of living systems as "negentropy feeders" and "dissipative structures", respectively. Combining these views from the far from equilibrium thermodynamics to traditional classical thermodynamics, and ecology is obviously not going to happen without problems. There seems little reason to doubt that far from equilibrium systems, such as organisms or ecosystems, also have to obey fundamental physical principles such as mass conservation, first and second law of thermodynamics. Both have been applied in ecology since the 1950s and lately the concepts of exergy and entropy have been introduced. Exergy has recently been proposed, from several directions, as a useful indicator of the state, structure and function of the ecosystem. The proposals take two main directions, one concerned with the exergy stored in the ecosystem, the other with the exergy degraded and entropy formation. The implementation of exergy in ecology has often been explained as a translation of the Darwinian principle of "survival of the fittest" into thermodynamics. The fittest ecosystem, being the one able to use and store fluxes of energy and materials in the most efficient manner. The major problem in the transfer to ecology is that thermodynamic properties can only be calculated and not measured. Most of the supportive evidence comes from aquatic ecosystems. Results show that natural and culturally induced changes in the ecosystems, are accompanied by a variations in exergy. In brief, ecological succession is followed by an increase of exergy. This paper aims to describe the state-of-the-art in implementation of thermodynamics into ecology. This includes a brief outline of the history and the derivation of the thermodynamic functions used today. Examples of applications and results achieved up to now are given, and the importance to management laid out. Some suggestions for essential future research agendas of issues that needs resolution are given.
This paper deals with some variables that are not generally included as economic or market variables in order to show how these affect the question of population growth, which is after all the core of resource allocation. It shows that population growth may also depend on better medical treatments, higher productivity, less local violence and the decline of customary restraints (i.e. social and family pressures), and not only on the evaluation of the benefits and losses of having more children in relation to limited property resources. On the other hand, as far as demographic transition is concerned, there is one essential factor that affects family size throughout the world. This is education. School has decreased mortality by the emphasis on personal and household hygiene. It has then decreased fertility by the increased costs of bringing up children in a school situation, i.e. demographic transition is set in progress without urbanization, industrialization and scarcely without modernization, except for the school itself. Education, as we know it, preceded industrialization and intrusive urbanization in Europe too. It was not until very late (1870) that attempts at introducing compulsory education were made, and it was mass schooling that made a marked difference. Widespread education may also accomplish the control on fertility, i.e. later marriage. Education promotes consumerism and when there is a large gap between achievement in the economic and educational domains, major difficulties arise. Despite earlier hopes the economy has not expanded pari passu with education. There is a gap between the literates and the number of jobs. This discrepancy has produced a floating population of the young who are a threat to political stability. The other outlet is migration overseas. For good or for bad the globalisation of education releases a potent force in the globalisation of the family.
Power plays a key role in definitions of political ecology. Likewise, empirical studies within this field tend to provide detailed presentations of various uses of power, involving corporate and conservation interventions influencing access to land and natural resources. The results include struggle and conflict. Yet, there is a lack of theoretical elaboration showing how power may be understood in political ecology. In this article, we start to fill this gap by reviewing the different theoretical perspectives on power that have dominated this field. There are combinations of influences, two of them being actor-oriented and neo-Marxist approaches used from the 1980s. Typically, case studies are presented of environmental interventions by a broad range of actors at various scales from the local to the global. The focus has been on processes involving actors behind these interventions, as well as the outcomes for different social groups. Over the last two decades, in political ecology we have increasingly seen a move in power perspectives towards poststructuralist thinking about "discursive power", inspired by Foucault. Today, the three approaches (actor-oriented, neo-Marxist and Foucauldian) and their combinations form a synergy of power perspectives that provide a set of rich and nuanced insights into how power is manifested in environmental conflicts and governance. We argue that combining power perspectives is one of political ecology's strengths, which should be nurtured through a continuous examination of a broad spectrum of social science theories on power. ; Norges forskningsråd 250975 ; publishedVersion
How to predict the evolution of ecosystems is one of the numerous questions asked of ecologists by managers and politicians. To answer this we will need to give a scientific definition to concepts like sustainability, integrity, resilience and ecosystem health. This is not an easy task, as modern ecosystem theory exemplifies. Ecosystems show a high degree of complexity, based upon a high number of compartments, interactions and regulations. The last two decades have offered proposals for interpretation of ecosystems within a framework of thermodynamics. The entrance point of such an understanding of ecosystems was delivered more than 50 years ago through Schrödinger's and Prigogine's interpretations of living systems as "negentropy feeders" and "dissipative structures", respectively. Combining these views from the far from equilibrium thermodynamics to traditional classical thermodynamics, and ecology is obviously not going to happen without problems. There seems little reason to doubt that far from equilibrium systems, such as organisms or ecosystems, also have to obey fundamental physical principles such as mass conservation, first and second law of thermodynamics. Both have been applied in ecology since the 1950s and lately the concepts of exergy and entropy have been introduced. Exergy has recently been proposed, from several directions, as a useful indicator of the state, structure and function of the ecosystem. The proposals take two main directions, one concerned with the exergy stored in the ecosystem, the other with the exergy degraded and entropy formation. The implementation of exergy in ecology has often been explained as a translation of the Darwinian principle of "survival of the fittest" into thermodynamics. The fittest ecosystem, being the one able to use and store fluxes of energy and materials in the most efficient manner. The major problem in the transfer to ecology is that thermodynamic properties can only be calculated and not measured. Most of the supportive evidence comes from aquatic ...
The 5-year EU project project Securing the Conservation of biodiversity across Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales (SCALES) has come to an end in July 2014 resulting in a first of its kind description of challenges that arise in protecting biodiversity across different scales. A wide range of practical methods and recommendations to improve conservation at regional, national and supranational scales are included in a book published as a synthesis of project outcome. The book "Scaling in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation" was published in open access via Pensoft Publisher's Advanced Books platform. Results are also presented in an easy to use interactive SCALETOOL, specifically developed for the needs of policy and decision-makers. The tool also provides access to a range of biodiversity data and driver maps compiled or created in the project.
