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 ...
More
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.
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 ...
More
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.
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 ...
More
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.
Charles S. Maier
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691169798
- eISBN:
- 9781400873708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691169798.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the attrition of the liberal regime in Italy. The inability to reestablish a stable centrist majority in Italy brought not only a shift to the right, but also destruction of the ...
More
This chapter examines the attrition of the liberal regime in Italy. The inability to reestablish a stable centrist majority in Italy brought not only a shift to the right, but also destruction of the parliamentary regime. Struggles for hegemony put an enormous strain on liberal institutions. The Fascists imposed an unofficial terrorism, followed by a legal but coercive regimentation upon the political arena, mass communications, and the labor market. These developments emerged from the inner decay of liberalism as much as from any conquest from outside. The chapter first considers the political ecology of fascism in Italy before discussing the liberals' search for order from the time of Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti to Benito Mussolini.Less
This chapter examines the attrition of the liberal regime in Italy. The inability to reestablish a stable centrist majority in Italy brought not only a shift to the right, but also destruction of the parliamentary regime. Struggles for hegemony put an enormous strain on liberal institutions. The Fascists imposed an unofficial terrorism, followed by a legal but coercive regimentation upon the political arena, mass communications, and the labor market. These developments emerged from the inner decay of liberalism as much as from any conquest from outside. The chapter first considers the political ecology of fascism in Italy before discussing the liberals' search for order from the time of Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti to Benito Mussolini.
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 ...
More
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.
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 ...
More
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.
Frédéric Neyrat
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282586
- eISBN:
- 9780823284931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282586.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
In the conclusion, Neyrat sets about re-iterating the political goals of an ecology of separation. While numerous actors continue with either the conceptions of continual growth through fossil fuels ...
More
In the conclusion, Neyrat sets about re-iterating the political goals of an ecology of separation. While numerous actors continue with either the conceptions of continual growth through fossil fuels or more extreme energy sources, and others believe technological advancements are to be adhered to in order to simply continue the management of the Earth and capitalism in the era of the Anthropocene, Neyrat describes all of these intentions and forces under the rubric of geo-power. The question for Neyrat and his ecology is not one of continual geo-construction, or production, but an attentive prudence to what can perhaps be unmade. Neyrat cites the dilemma that many minoritarian groups face, in the midst of losing their home territories when faced with powerful entities coming to extract resources from their lands, as having to decide between kneeling down or confronting them.Less
In the conclusion, Neyrat sets about re-iterating the political goals of an ecology of separation. While numerous actors continue with either the conceptions of continual growth through fossil fuels or more extreme energy sources, and others believe technological advancements are to be adhered to in order to simply continue the management of the Earth and capitalism in the era of the Anthropocene, Neyrat describes all of these intentions and forces under the rubric of geo-power. The question for Neyrat and his ecology is not one of continual geo-construction, or production, but an attentive prudence to what can perhaps be unmade. Neyrat cites the dilemma that many minoritarian groups face, in the midst of losing their home territories when faced with powerful entities coming to extract resources from their lands, as having to decide between kneeling down or confronting them.
Garth Myers
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781447322917
- eISBN:
- 9781447322931
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447322917.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This book develops an interactionist urban political ecology approach to urban environments across Africa. Individual chapters focus on: analyzing the findings of planners and scholars on Africa’s ...
More
This book develops an interactionist urban political ecology approach to urban environments across Africa. Individual chapters focus on: analyzing the findings of planners and scholars on Africa’s urban environmental problems; interrogating urban environmental histories; engaging with the physical-material settings and cultural beliefs surrounding them; recovering the political-environmental urban visions of African writers and artists; and building from everyday environmentalism and community activism. The book highlights alternative readings of Africa’s urban environments via case study segments on Nairobi, Lusaka, Zanzibar, Dakar and Cape Town, along with material on a variety of other cities. The primary practical, policy- and planning-oriented argument is that efforts to ‘improve’ urban environments in Africa will fail without engagement with and (re)building from the reality of diverse and complex perspectives on those environments. That leads to a more theoretical argument for radical incrementalism, following the South African urbanist Edgar Pieterse, within an interactionist urban political ecology framework. Despite the diversity of cities and environments, cities in Africa share the hot pot of environmental politics – and that demands a critical, comparative approach. The book argues for greater dialogue with ‘rural’ political ecology, a deeper historical backdrop and recognition that everyday environmentalism takes many forms in the city. In such a manner Africanized and pluralized interactionist urban political ecology could genuinely lead to broader ways for rethinking urban theory on what constitutes a city and a radical re-imagination of possibilities for producing cities around the world that are more just and genuinely socio-environmentally sustainable.Less
This book develops an interactionist urban political ecology approach to urban environments across Africa. Individual chapters focus on: analyzing the findings of planners and scholars on Africa’s urban environmental problems; interrogating urban environmental histories; engaging with the physical-material settings and cultural beliefs surrounding them; recovering the political-environmental urban visions of African writers and artists; and building from everyday environmentalism and community activism. The book highlights alternative readings of Africa’s urban environments via case study segments on Nairobi, Lusaka, Zanzibar, Dakar and Cape Town, along with material on a variety of other cities. The primary practical, policy- and planning-oriented argument is that efforts to ‘improve’ urban environments in Africa will fail without engagement with and (re)building from the reality of diverse and complex perspectives on those environments. That leads to a more theoretical argument for radical incrementalism, following the South African urbanist Edgar Pieterse, within an interactionist urban political ecology framework. Despite the diversity of cities and environments, cities in Africa share the hot pot of environmental politics – and that demands a critical, comparative approach. The book argues for greater dialogue with ‘rural’ political ecology, a deeper historical backdrop and recognition that everyday environmentalism takes many forms in the city. In such a manner Africanized and pluralized interactionist urban political ecology could genuinely lead to broader ways for rethinking urban theory on what constitutes a city and a radical re-imagination of possibilities for producing cities around the world that are more just and genuinely socio-environmentally sustainable.
Christine Folch
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691186603
- eISBN:
- 9780691197524
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691186603.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter gives a background on politics via water. It talks about Hydropolitics, the political economy that comes from an industrialization and electrification powered by water. It uncovers how ...
More
This chapter gives a background on politics via water. It talks about Hydropolitics, the political economy that comes from an industrialization and electrification powered by water. It uncovers how it comes to matter to politics within Paraguay that the electricity that powers homes and factories comes from hydro, not fossil fuels. To untangle how energy can be simultaneously technological and sociopolitical, this chapter explains that people's relationship to the environment is a form of cultural production, which, in turn, inflects political, economic, and social structures. Understanding the dam requires the dual intervention of political ecology, which analyzes both how human interventions shape environment and how the shaping of nature in turn affects human communities. Itaipú has presented the Brazilian and Paraguayan governments the ability to achieve multiple political goals and has had far-reaching cascade effects. What Itaipú Dam has done is to turn the Paraná River under its influence into a political-electrical machine, an engineered complex of geological objects, atmospheric cycles, and cement intrusions.Less
This chapter gives a background on politics via water. It talks about Hydropolitics, the political economy that comes from an industrialization and electrification powered by water. It uncovers how it comes to matter to politics within Paraguay that the electricity that powers homes and factories comes from hydro, not fossil fuels. To untangle how energy can be simultaneously technological and sociopolitical, this chapter explains that people's relationship to the environment is a form of cultural production, which, in turn, inflects political, economic, and social structures. Understanding the dam requires the dual intervention of political ecology, which analyzes both how human interventions shape environment and how the shaping of nature in turn affects human communities. Itaipú has presented the Brazilian and Paraguayan governments the ability to achieve multiple political goals and has had far-reaching cascade effects. What Itaipú Dam has done is to turn the Paraná River under its influence into a political-electrical machine, an engineered complex of geological objects, atmospheric cycles, and cement intrusions.
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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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.
Garth Myers
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781447322917
- eISBN:
- 9781447322931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447322917.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
The Introduction lays out the geographical parameters and conceptual framework of the book. It contains an overview of the diversity and complexity of urban environments in Africa. It details what is ...
More
The Introduction lays out the geographical parameters and conceptual framework of the book. It contains an overview of the diversity and complexity of urban environments in Africa. It details what is meant by a situated, interactionist urban political ecology, reviewing the relevant literature. The review includes the work of political ecologists generally considered to work in ‘rural’ Africa as well, alongside an analysis of African environmental philosophy. It is argued that an interactionist, Africa-centered urban political ecology offers: an appreciation of the multi-vocality that surrounds urban-environmental conflicts; a valorization of the wide range of African voices in that multi-vocality; the vitality of an everyday environmentalism that foregrounds that multi-vocality; and a problematizing of the edges of the ‘urban’ in urban political ecology. The Introduction also summarizes the chapters which follow.Less
The Introduction lays out the geographical parameters and conceptual framework of the book. It contains an overview of the diversity and complexity of urban environments in Africa. It details what is meant by a situated, interactionist urban political ecology, reviewing the relevant literature. The review includes the work of political ecologists generally considered to work in ‘rural’ Africa as well, alongside an analysis of African environmental philosophy. It is argued that an interactionist, Africa-centered urban political ecology offers: an appreciation of the multi-vocality that surrounds urban-environmental conflicts; a valorization of the wide range of African voices in that multi-vocality; the vitality of an everyday environmentalism that foregrounds that multi-vocality; and a problematizing of the edges of the ‘urban’ in urban political ecology. The Introduction also summarizes the chapters which follow.
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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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 ...
More
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.
Andrew Newman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816689620
- eISBN:
- 9781452950686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816689620.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 1 examines how northeast Paris was historically produced as a distinct social, cultural, and even ecological zone in the city. As I show, even before becoming strongly identified as immigrant ...
More
Chapter 1 examines how northeast Paris was historically produced as a distinct social, cultural, and even ecological zone in the city. As I show, even before becoming strongly identified as immigrant area, it was always a marginal zone associated with the “soiled fog” of railroad yards, the noxious domain of slaughterhouses, and even the charnel ground as it was the location of one of the largest municipal funeral homes. When the area become predominately North African and West African, the discourse of cultural belonging took on an ecological tinge.Less
Chapter 1 examines how northeast Paris was historically produced as a distinct social, cultural, and even ecological zone in the city. As I show, even before becoming strongly identified as immigrant area, it was always a marginal zone associated with the “soiled fog” of railroad yards, the noxious domain of slaughterhouses, and even the charnel ground as it was the location of one of the largest municipal funeral homes. When the area become predominately North African and West African, the discourse of cultural belonging took on an ecological tinge.
Ian Douglas and Joe Ravetz
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- December 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199563562
- eISBN:
- 9780191774713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199563562.003.0031
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
This chapter sets out a systems approach to the ‘human dimensions’ of urban ecology. Firstly, the chapter looks at four perspectives on urban ecology: as habitats in the city: as flows through the ...
More
This chapter sets out a systems approach to the ‘human dimensions’ of urban ecology. Firstly, the chapter looks at four perspectives on urban ecology: as habitats in the city: as flows through the physical city: as human-nature interactions around the city: and as ecological patterns in the society and economy of the city. Underlying each of these are the changing roles of cities, from their former trading or industrial base, to an advanced service-based economy, and then some kind of post-industrial system: each with particular functions and forms for gardens, parks, forests, and other urban greenspace. For a wider view, the chapter looks at the global level and the contrast between wealth and poverty between nations and between cities. This raises some critical perspectives on globalization, liberalization, and the role of urban ecology in ‘urban political ecology’ and the structures of power and ideology. In response there is an emerging agenda on the ‘ecosystem services’ provided by urban habitats and ecological resources, defined by the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment as ‘provisioning, socio-cultural, regulating, and supporting’ functions. New thinking coming from ecological economics or behavioural psychology, points to new possibilities in policy and investment models, which can protect or enhance these services. Such models are then the basis for the practical issues of landscape design, planning guidance, funding models, and management of green (and blue) infrastructure, in complex urban systems and communities.Less
This chapter sets out a systems approach to the ‘human dimensions’ of urban ecology. Firstly, the chapter looks at four perspectives on urban ecology: as habitats in the city: as flows through the physical city: as human-nature interactions around the city: and as ecological patterns in the society and economy of the city. Underlying each of these are the changing roles of cities, from their former trading or industrial base, to an advanced service-based economy, and then some kind of post-industrial system: each with particular functions and forms for gardens, parks, forests, and other urban greenspace. For a wider view, the chapter looks at the global level and the contrast between wealth and poverty between nations and between cities. This raises some critical perspectives on globalization, liberalization, and the role of urban ecology in ‘urban political ecology’ and the structures of power and ideology. In response there is an emerging agenda on the ‘ecosystem services’ provided by urban habitats and ecological resources, defined by the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment as ‘provisioning, socio-cultural, regulating, and supporting’ functions. New thinking coming from ecological economics or behavioural psychology, points to new possibilities in policy and investment models, which can protect or enhance these services. Such models are then the basis for the practical issues of landscape design, planning guidance, funding models, and management of green (and blue) infrastructure, in complex urban systems and communities.
Bernadette P. Resurrección
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190886455
- eISBN:
- 9780190886486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190886455.003.0003
- Subject:
- Social Work, Communities and Organizations, Social Policy
This chapter applies a feminist political ecology lens to episodes of climate change-related water insecurity in three Southeast Asian peri-urban area sites affected by flooding, water shortages, and ...
More
This chapter applies a feminist political ecology lens to episodes of climate change-related water insecurity in three Southeast Asian peri-urban area sites affected by flooding, water shortages, and pollution induced by long dry spells and heavy precipitation. It presents highlights from a 3-year research project that examined the everyday lives of women as they “deal with water” in the context of increasing water pollution, water scarcity, and flooding compounded by neoliberal socioeconomic conditions. These accounts illustrate how in water- and climate-change contexts, the neoliberal logics of privatization, commercialization, and reified separation between “the natural” and “the social” engage closely with emotions and intersectional gender subjectivities. The use of a feminist political ecology lens offers more holistic and grounded ways of probing into people’s experiences of climate-related water insecurity and stresses, aspects of which are often missed: gendered violence, hierarchies of place, affect, and insecurity in everyday life.Less
This chapter applies a feminist political ecology lens to episodes of climate change-related water insecurity in three Southeast Asian peri-urban area sites affected by flooding, water shortages, and pollution induced by long dry spells and heavy precipitation. It presents highlights from a 3-year research project that examined the everyday lives of women as they “deal with water” in the context of increasing water pollution, water scarcity, and flooding compounded by neoliberal socioeconomic conditions. These accounts illustrate how in water- and climate-change contexts, the neoliberal logics of privatization, commercialization, and reified separation between “the natural” and “the social” engage closely with emotions and intersectional gender subjectivities. The use of a feminist political ecology lens offers more holistic and grounded ways of probing into people’s experiences of climate-related water insecurity and stresses, aspects of which are often missed: gendered violence, hierarchies of place, affect, and insecurity in everyday life.
Ashley Carse
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262028110
- eISBN:
- 9780262320467
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028110.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Thisfinal chapter argues that infrastructures like the Panama Canal have given rise to highly demanding environments. Technological marvels have not universally freed humans from the environment, but ...
More
Thisfinal chapter argues that infrastructures like the Panama Canal have given rise to highly demanding environments. Technological marvels have not universally freed humans from the environment, but bound people more tightly and contentiously to landscapes and waterscapes of our own making. Without constant maintenance, infrastructures crack, rust, and crumble and the political projects, promises, and aspirations they carried dissipate. Places once connected can be disconnected and landscapes that once appeared developed can revert to nature and be redeployed in newprojects. The transformation of the environment through infrastructure construction, maintenance, and decay has uneven consequences—both winners and losers. Thus, depending on who, where, and when you are, global infrastructures may produce experiences of environmental control or vulnerability.Less
Thisfinal chapter argues that infrastructures like the Panama Canal have given rise to highly demanding environments. Technological marvels have not universally freed humans from the environment, but bound people more tightly and contentiously to landscapes and waterscapes of our own making. Without constant maintenance, infrastructures crack, rust, and crumble and the political projects, promises, and aspirations they carried dissipate. Places once connected can be disconnected and landscapes that once appeared developed can revert to nature and be redeployed in newprojects. The transformation of the environment through infrastructure construction, maintenance, and decay has uneven consequences—both winners and losers. Thus, depending on who, where, and when you are, global infrastructures may produce experiences of environmental control or vulnerability.
Peter C. Little
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814760697
- eISBN:
- 9780814764510
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814760697.003.0008
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This concluding chapter critically reflects on IBM's recent business goal of “Building a Smarter Planet.” It argues that the continuing contamination crisis at Endicott sets in bold relief the ...
More
This concluding chapter critically reflects on IBM's recent business goal of “Building a Smarter Planet.” It argues that the continuing contamination crisis at Endicott sets in bold relief the paradox of this ambitious planetary intelligence mission. Such a “global” corporate responsibility effort, one aimed at extending beyond the boundaries of the city and the nation-state, misses critical ecologies of concern and care that matter in the world IBM inhabits and wishes to transform and make “smarter.” If what is unfolding in Endicott is an example of a “Smarter Planet,” it only shows that the planet is shaped by an “ethos of technocapitalism” that harbors vibrant contradictions and uncertainties—a planet of many difficult landscapes and troubled spaces, even disaster landscapes of perturbed and precarious mitigation. In general, it could be argued that the political ecology that emerges in IBM's vision navigates the paradoxical play of economic “gains” and socio-environmental “losses”.Less
This concluding chapter critically reflects on IBM's recent business goal of “Building a Smarter Planet.” It argues that the continuing contamination crisis at Endicott sets in bold relief the paradox of this ambitious planetary intelligence mission. Such a “global” corporate responsibility effort, one aimed at extending beyond the boundaries of the city and the nation-state, misses critical ecologies of concern and care that matter in the world IBM inhabits and wishes to transform and make “smarter.” If what is unfolding in Endicott is an example of a “Smarter Planet,” it only shows that the planet is shaped by an “ethos of technocapitalism” that harbors vibrant contradictions and uncertainties—a planet of many difficult landscapes and troubled spaces, even disaster landscapes of perturbed and precarious mitigation. In general, it could be argued that the political ecology that emerges in IBM's vision navigates the paradoxical play of economic “gains” and socio-environmental “losses”.
