Mathew Humphrey
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199242672
- eISBN:
- 9780191599514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199242674.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
The proponents of an ecologically inspired form of Marxism, or a Marx‐inspired form of political ecology, argue that eco‐Marxism transcends the anthropocentric‐ecocentric dichotomy, and this chapter ...
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The proponents of an ecologically inspired form of Marxism, or a Marx‐inspired form of political ecology, argue that eco‐Marxism transcends the anthropocentric‐ecocentric dichotomy, and this chapter assesses that claim. The concept of nature in the work of Marx is examined, as are the ecological interpretations of Marx and Engels’ account of the ‘human‐nature metabolism.’ The differences between eco‐Marxism and ‘orthodox Marxism, as well as between eco‐Marxism and other forms of ecological politics are explored. Ultimately, it is held that Marx's commitment to the humanization of nature in the fulfilment of humanity's species‐being disables any form of Marxism from being adequately ecological.Less
The proponents of an ecologically inspired form of Marxism, or a Marx‐inspired form of political ecology, argue that eco‐Marxism transcends the anthropocentric‐ecocentric dichotomy, and this chapter assesses that claim. The concept of nature in the work of Marx is examined, as are the ecological interpretations of Marx and Engels’ account of the ‘human‐nature metabolism.’ The differences between eco‐Marxism and ‘orthodox Marxism, as well as between eco‐Marxism and other forms of ecological politics are explored. Ultimately, it is held that Marx's commitment to the humanization of nature in the fulfilment of humanity's species‐being disables any form of Marxism from being adequately ecological.
Nancy Krieger
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195383874
- eISBN:
- 9780199893607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195383874.003.0007
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
Chapter 7 introduces a newer variant of social epidemiologic theory: ecologically-informed approaches, especially the ecosocial theory of disease distribution, first proposed by this book's author in ...
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Chapter 7 introduces a newer variant of social epidemiologic theory: ecologically-informed approaches, especially the ecosocial theory of disease distribution, first proposed by this book's author in 1994. To situate ecosocial theory, the chapter briefly reviews ecology's origins and current conceptual debates in the field. It then explicates key aspects of ecosocial theory, which systematically links social and biological processes across levels and diverse spatiotemporal scales, paying heed to lifecourse and historical generation, to political economy, and to interrelationships between—and accountability for—diverse forms of social inequality. A central emphasis is on embodiment, referring to how we literally incorporate, biologically, in societal and ecologic context, the material and social world in which we live. Also germane are the cumulative interplay of exposure, susceptibility and resistance, as well as accountability and agency: both for social disparities in health and research to explain these inequities. Parallels to political ecology are also discussed.Less
Chapter 7 introduces a newer variant of social epidemiologic theory: ecologically-informed approaches, especially the ecosocial theory of disease distribution, first proposed by this book's author in 1994. To situate ecosocial theory, the chapter briefly reviews ecology's origins and current conceptual debates in the field. It then explicates key aspects of ecosocial theory, which systematically links social and biological processes across levels and diverse spatiotemporal scales, paying heed to lifecourse and historical generation, to political economy, and to interrelationships between—and accountability for—diverse forms of social inequality. A central emphasis is on embodiment, referring to how we literally incorporate, biologically, in societal and ecologic context, the material and social world in which we live. Also germane are the cumulative interplay of exposure, susceptibility and resistance, as well as accountability and agency: both for social disparities in health and research to explain these inequities. Parallels to political ecology are also discussed.
Andrew R. H. Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813165998
- eISBN:
- 9780813166698
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813165998.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The theocentrism of H. Richard Niebuhr, especially his understanding of value, is uniquely helpful in addressing the problem of value construction and negotiation involved in the debate over MTR. The ...
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The theocentrism of H. Richard Niebuhr, especially his understanding of value, is uniquely helpful in addressing the problem of value construction and negotiation involved in the debate over MTR. The author first examines several alternative ethical perspectives and shows that, although they offer important insights, none is sufficiently attuned to its own methodological presuppositions to allow Appalachian intertextuality to “speak for itself.” The perspectives considered—ecofeminism, liberation theology, environmental justice, environmental pragmatism, and political ecology—are promising, in that they all seek, on some level, to understand and address the power of the social discourses that define an ostensibly environmental issue like MTR. After considering the strengths and weaknesses of each in relation to MTR and Appalachia in particular, the author turns more directly to the question of values to examine this inadequacy more clearly. He concludes that Niebuhr’s relational theory of value offers the most accurate and helpful foundation for an ethical approach to MTR, one that is capable of relativizing fundamental assumptions and thereby founding a thorough critique of the discourses that surround the issue.Less
The theocentrism of H. Richard Niebuhr, especially his understanding of value, is uniquely helpful in addressing the problem of value construction and negotiation involved in the debate over MTR. The author first examines several alternative ethical perspectives and shows that, although they offer important insights, none is sufficiently attuned to its own methodological presuppositions to allow Appalachian intertextuality to “speak for itself.” The perspectives considered—ecofeminism, liberation theology, environmental justice, environmental pragmatism, and political ecology—are promising, in that they all seek, on some level, to understand and address the power of the social discourses that define an ostensibly environmental issue like MTR. After considering the strengths and weaknesses of each in relation to MTR and Appalachia in particular, the author turns more directly to the question of values to examine this inadequacy more clearly. He concludes that Niebuhr’s relational theory of value offers the most accurate and helpful foundation for an ethical approach to MTR, one that is capable of relativizing fundamental assumptions and thereby founding a thorough critique of the discourses that surround the issue.
Christopher Sneddon
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226284316
- eISBN:
- 9780226284453
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226284453.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter examines the contemporary geopolitics of large dams, asking to what extent can the lessons of the Bureau’s overseas endeavors be applied within current debates over large dams, water ...
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This chapter examines the contemporary geopolitics of large dams, asking to what extent can the lessons of the Bureau’s overseas endeavors be applied within current debates over large dams, water development and world politics. In the current era, the Global South is confronted with a plethora of reinvigorated plans for infrastructure development on major river basins including, for example, the Mekong, the Blue Nile and the Amazon regions. The global dam industry and the proponents of large-scale water infrastructure (including the World Bank) have championed hydropower development as a renewable and clean alternative to fossil fuels, although many scientists have reservations about these claims. China’s emerging role as global financier of large hydroelectric dams, particularly in Africa, demonstrates that the linkages among economic development, technical assistance and geopolitics remain highly relevant to understanding world politics and the geographic transformations brought about through altered rivers. This chapter also proposes a “new” political ecology of large dams and river basin development that accounts for the changing geopolitical and environmental circumstances of the 21st century. A geopolitical analysis of dams enriches explanations of their continued salience to governments as developmental engines and the emergence of a globally influential anti-dam social movement.Less
This chapter examines the contemporary geopolitics of large dams, asking to what extent can the lessons of the Bureau’s overseas endeavors be applied within current debates over large dams, water development and world politics. In the current era, the Global South is confronted with a plethora of reinvigorated plans for infrastructure development on major river basins including, for example, the Mekong, the Blue Nile and the Amazon regions. The global dam industry and the proponents of large-scale water infrastructure (including the World Bank) have championed hydropower development as a renewable and clean alternative to fossil fuels, although many scientists have reservations about these claims. China’s emerging role as global financier of large hydroelectric dams, particularly in Africa, demonstrates that the linkages among economic development, technical assistance and geopolitics remain highly relevant to understanding world politics and the geographic transformations brought about through altered rivers. This chapter also proposes a “new” political ecology of large dams and river basin development that accounts for the changing geopolitical and environmental circumstances of the 21st century. A geopolitical analysis of dams enriches explanations of their continued salience to governments as developmental engines and the emergence of a globally influential anti-dam social movement.
Andrew R. H. Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813165998
- eISBN:
- 9780813166698
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813165998.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The idea of Appalachia as a discrete region with its own peculiar ecology, people, and customs is the result of a long series of interrelated discourses. This chapter examines three pairs of ...
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The idea of Appalachia as a discrete region with its own peculiar ecology, people, and customs is the result of a long series of interrelated discourses. This chapter examines three pairs of concepts—power and powerlessness, insiders and outsiders, and destruction and reclamation—that are relevant for MTR and provide particularly rich territory for an analysis from a theocentric perspective. These ideas have played a role in descriptions of the region and debates about MTR, making their analysis important to ethical thought. After discussing the choice of these particular pairs and the method of analysis, the author turns to the concepts themselves.Less
The idea of Appalachia as a discrete region with its own peculiar ecology, people, and customs is the result of a long series of interrelated discourses. This chapter examines three pairs of concepts—power and powerlessness, insiders and outsiders, and destruction and reclamation—that are relevant for MTR and provide particularly rich territory for an analysis from a theocentric perspective. These ideas have played a role in descriptions of the region and debates about MTR, making their analysis important to ethical thought. After discussing the choice of these particular pairs and the method of analysis, the author turns to the concepts themselves.
Ashley Carse
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262028110
- eISBN:
- 9780262320467
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028110.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book traces the water that flows into and out from the Panama Canal to explain how global shipping is entangled with Panama’s cultural and physical landscapes. By following container ships as ...
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This book traces the water that flows into and out from the Panama Canal to explain how global shipping is entangled with Panama’s cultural and physical landscapes. By following container ships as they travel downstream along maritime routes and tracing rivers upstream across the populated watershed that feeds the canal, it explores the politics of environmental management around a waterway that links faraway ports and markets to nearby farms, forests, cities, and rural communities. The book draws on a wide range of ethnographic and archival material to show the social and ecological implications of transportation across Panama. The canal moves ships over an aquatic staircase of locks that demand an enormous amount of fresh water from the surrounding region. Each passing ship drains 52 million gallons out to sea—a volume comparable to the daily water use of half a million Panamanians. The book argues that infrastructures like the Panama Canal do not simply conquer nature; they rework ecologies in ways that serve specific political and economic priorities. Interweaving histories that range from the depopulation of the US Canal Zone a century ago to road construction conflicts and water hyacinth invasions in canal waters, the book illuminates the human and nonhuman actors that have come together at the margins of the famous trade route. Beyond the Big Ditch calls us to consider how infrastructures are simultaneously linked to global networks and embedded in places, giving rise to political ecologies with winners and losers who are connected across great distances.Less
This book traces the water that flows into and out from the Panama Canal to explain how global shipping is entangled with Panama’s cultural and physical landscapes. By following container ships as they travel downstream along maritime routes and tracing rivers upstream across the populated watershed that feeds the canal, it explores the politics of environmental management around a waterway that links faraway ports and markets to nearby farms, forests, cities, and rural communities. The book draws on a wide range of ethnographic and archival material to show the social and ecological implications of transportation across Panama. The canal moves ships over an aquatic staircase of locks that demand an enormous amount of fresh water from the surrounding region. Each passing ship drains 52 million gallons out to sea—a volume comparable to the daily water use of half a million Panamanians. The book argues that infrastructures like the Panama Canal do not simply conquer nature; they rework ecologies in ways that serve specific political and economic priorities. Interweaving histories that range from the depopulation of the US Canal Zone a century ago to road construction conflicts and water hyacinth invasions in canal waters, the book illuminates the human and nonhuman actors that have come together at the margins of the famous trade route. Beyond the Big Ditch calls us to consider how infrastructures are simultaneously linked to global networks and embedded in places, giving rise to political ecologies with winners and losers who are connected across great distances.
Clint Carroll
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816690893
- eISBN:
- 9781452950709
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816690893.003.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
The book opens with a meeting of elders. Roots of Our Renewal analyzes the historical roots of this transformation, examines how Cherokees are currently dealing with its related obstacles, and ...
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The book opens with a meeting of elders. Roots of Our Renewal analyzes the historical roots of this transformation, examines how Cherokees are currently dealing with its related obstacles, and discusses the implications for Indian Country and beyond.Less
The book opens with a meeting of elders. Roots of Our Renewal analyzes the historical roots of this transformation, examines how Cherokees are currently dealing with its related obstacles, and discusses the implications for Indian Country and beyond.
Alex Loftus
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665716
- eISBN:
- 9781452946849
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665716.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
This book develops a conversation between Marxist theories of everyday life and recent work in urban political ecology, arguing for a philosophy of praxis in relation to the politics of urban ...
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This book develops a conversation between Marxist theories of everyday life and recent work in urban political ecology, arguing for a philosophy of praxis in relation to the politics of urban environments. Grounding its theoretical debate in empirical studies of struggles to obtain water in the informal settlements of Durban, South Africa, as well as in the creative acts of insurgent art activists in London, the book builds on the work of key Marxist thinkers to redefine “environmental politics.” A Marxist philosophy of praxis—that world-changing ideas emerge from the acts of everyday people—undergirds the book. Our daily reality, states the book, is woven out of the entanglements of social and natural relations, and as such a kind of environmental politics is automatically incorporated into our lives. Nevertheless, one effect of the public recognition of global environmental change, asserts Loftus, has been a resurgence of dualistic understandings of the world: for example, that nature is inflicting revenge on arrogant human societies. The book reformulates—with the assistance of such philosophers as Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, Henri Lefebvre, and others—a politics of the environment in which everyday subjectivity is at the heart of a revolutionary politics.Less
This book develops a conversation between Marxist theories of everyday life and recent work in urban political ecology, arguing for a philosophy of praxis in relation to the politics of urban environments. Grounding its theoretical debate in empirical studies of struggles to obtain water in the informal settlements of Durban, South Africa, as well as in the creative acts of insurgent art activists in London, the book builds on the work of key Marxist thinkers to redefine “environmental politics.” A Marxist philosophy of praxis—that world-changing ideas emerge from the acts of everyday people—undergirds the book. Our daily reality, states the book, is woven out of the entanglements of social and natural relations, and as such a kind of environmental politics is automatically incorporated into our lives. Nevertheless, one effect of the public recognition of global environmental change, asserts Loftus, has been a resurgence of dualistic understandings of the world: for example, that nature is inflicting revenge on arrogant human societies. The book reformulates—with the assistance of such philosophers as Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, Henri Lefebvre, and others—a politics of the environment in which everyday subjectivity is at the heart of a revolutionary politics.
Ben Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198078524
- eISBN:
- 9780199082278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198078524.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
The narrative of crisis has too easily sidelined the voices and interests of people caught up in the global environmental agenda. Critics of the neglect of victims of conservation have articulated ...
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The narrative of crisis has too easily sidelined the voices and interests of people caught up in the global environmental agenda. Critics of the neglect of victims of conservation have articulated compelling evidence of widespread concern that excluding people from the picture is counter-productive, and based on culturally specific modern notions of ‘nature’. The problematic of power across coexisting regimes of territory and life brings attention to the qualities of conflict, negotiation, and hierarchy that characterize the locally perceived relationships between species, groups of people, and the kinds of authority recognized in the agency of the state and the Gods. Rather than simply ‘resources’, human ecology comes to be about the struggles, contests, and hardships that punctuate the attempts of willful actors in the world to lead purposeful lives in an environment shared by an enormous variety of life forms.Less
The narrative of crisis has too easily sidelined the voices and interests of people caught up in the global environmental agenda. Critics of the neglect of victims of conservation have articulated compelling evidence of widespread concern that excluding people from the picture is counter-productive, and based on culturally specific modern notions of ‘nature’. The problematic of power across coexisting regimes of territory and life brings attention to the qualities of conflict, negotiation, and hierarchy that characterize the locally perceived relationships between species, groups of people, and the kinds of authority recognized in the agency of the state and the Gods. Rather than simply ‘resources’, human ecology comes to be about the struggles, contests, and hardships that punctuate the attempts of willful actors in the world to lead purposeful lives in an environment shared by an enormous variety of life forms.
Ben Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198078524
- eISBN:
- 9780199082278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198078524.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
Cultural barriers in translating the notion of sustainability lead beyond scientific ideas of an environment as a domain detachable from human interactions, which is culturally alien to Himalayan ...
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Cultural barriers in translating the notion of sustainability lead beyond scientific ideas of an environment as a domain detachable from human interactions, which is culturally alien to Himalayan villagers affected by conservation. The cosmological mindset of ‘naturalism’ is contrasted with evidence for ‘animist’ kinds of human–environmental relationships in the world of the Tamang. Their movement between ecological zones of juniper and palm brings dialogue and diplomacy in line with the cultures of power of the valley (mandala cosmologies of ‘analogism’). Tamang encounter conservation within a historical relation of being outsiders to the political and cultural mainstream, but aspects of territory, livelihood, and cultural sovereignty make them comparable with other groups of upland ‘Zomia’ in Southeast Asia. At the margins of effective state control, conservation is more than a concern for biodiversity and sustainability must negotiate the many natures of animist, analogical, and naturalist modes of environmental relationship.Less
Cultural barriers in translating the notion of sustainability lead beyond scientific ideas of an environment as a domain detachable from human interactions, which is culturally alien to Himalayan villagers affected by conservation. The cosmological mindset of ‘naturalism’ is contrasted with evidence for ‘animist’ kinds of human–environmental relationships in the world of the Tamang. Their movement between ecological zones of juniper and palm brings dialogue and diplomacy in line with the cultures of power of the valley (mandala cosmologies of ‘analogism’). Tamang encounter conservation within a historical relation of being outsiders to the political and cultural mainstream, but aspects of territory, livelihood, and cultural sovereignty make them comparable with other groups of upland ‘Zomia’ in Southeast Asia. At the margins of effective state control, conservation is more than a concern for biodiversity and sustainability must negotiate the many natures of animist, analogical, and naturalist modes of environmental relationship.
