Political ecology

The Political Ecology deals with the impact of human activities on ecosystems, in terms of its political and social context. The interactions between abiotic, biotic and human-shaped factors are also examined. Political ecology is a relatively young branch of the social sciences .

The concept of political ecology also became relevant early on in the development debate, for example through Kurt Egger and Bernhard Glaeser . According to Thomas Krings , the geographer Helmut Geist presented it in 1992 as a "new perspective on human-environmental relationships [...] for the first time in the German development debate". It deals with the effects of ecological changes on human communities and their interactions.

The focus is on the practical implementation of scientific and ecological findings in political action. In particular in political science , but also within geography and ethnology , the concept has received a wide reception. Open-minded areas of environmental sciences, landscape ecology , geoecology and biology also see political ecology as a necessary area of action for evidence-based nature, environmental and climate protection.

Definitions

A fundamental definition of political ecology comes from the geographers Piers Blaikie and Harold Brookfield (1987): "The expression 'political ecology' combines the concerns of ecology and a well-defined political economy ".

According to a narrow definition, environmental problems are not seen as the result of inadequate technology , incorrect management or overpopulation, as a view from a human-ecological perspective would suggest, but have social causes. Therefore, environmental problems must always be seen in their historical, political and economic context. Central to an analysis is the uncovering of the interests and power relations of the actors involved and their discourses . Some of the PÖ of the respective actors also questions on how "natural" or "environment" designed , since this greatly affect normative perspectives which has to be what and how protected. Unlike some physiocentric currents in the ecological movement , political ecology is anthropocentric.

Political ecology is sometimes used as an umbrella term for approaches to “de-naturalization” and “re-construction” of nature. Schools of thought of ecofeminism and gender studies also claim to make statements in the field of political ecology.

background

The political ecology arose from the challenges that the industrialization of the western states brought with it. Its effects could no longer be overlooked at the beginning of the 1960s and led, for example, to the establishment of the UN environmental program UNEP in 1972 . Cross-border air and water pollution could no longer be solved in the sovereign nation state alone, but required international efforts. At the global level, global warming in particular , but also progressive desertification and unchecked deforestation, pose a major threat to human coexistence today.

Political ecologists criticized the fact that international relations theories often remained blind to the specific effects of ecological changes on, for example, human security . This gap is to be closed with the help of political ecology.

In political ecology, attempts are made to locate the causes of the consequences of environmental changes in political systems, to identify alternatives and to grasp the human systematics of environmental destruction in a theoretically well-founded as well as practically oriented manner. It can be understood as a cross-sectional discipline that moves in various classical areas of political science at the same time.

criticism

Criticism of political ecology comes in part from biologists and political ecologists themselves. The images of nature on which political ecology bases its positions are viewed critically . Sometimes they are considered conservative to romanticized.

Political ecology was initially criticized from the classical left spectrum . For example, Hans Magnus Enzensberger denounced it in his essay On the Critique of Political Ecology (1973) as an ideological instrument of ruling elites. According to him, by making scientifically only vaguely founded prognoses about an approaching environmental catastrophe, she tries to justify state coercive measures that serve to maintain the existing power relations. At its core, however, according to Enzensberger, Political Ecology aims solely at attenuating the devastation to man and nature caused by the capitalist mode of production to such an extent that they themselves cannot endanger the continued existence of these conditions. Enzensberger identified the leading voices of the eco-movement at the time (such as the Club of Rome ) as carriers of economic interest groups.

At the beginning of the 1970s, this position, based on the tradition of criticism of ideology , was definitely compatible with the political left. From the late 1970s onwards, the originally rather conservative political ecology was increasingly appropriated from the environment of the New Left , so that today it is "mainly occupied by left parties". Politically left criticism of it can therefore only be found sporadically today, for example in the anti-German spectrum.

literature

Trade journals

Journal of Political Ecology , oldest specialist journal on PÖ (publisher University of Arizona)
Political Ecology , magazine of the oekom publishing house
Ecology and Society , Stockholm University magazine
Moins , Swiss, French-language magazine of the Decrasion movement

Books

Bruno Latour : The Parliament of Things. For a political ecology , 2001. ISBN 3-518-41282-5
Richard Peet, Paul Robbins , Michael Watts : Global Political Ecology , 2011, Google Books .
Timothy Forsyth: Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science . 2003.
Peter C. Mayer-Tasch: Political Ecology , 1999. ISBN 3-8100-2276-4
Bryant Raymond, Bailey Sinead: Third World Political Ecology , 1997. ISBN 0-415-12744-0
Richard Peet et al. Michael Watts: Liberation Ecologies. Environment, Development, Social Movements , 2nd ed., 2004. ISBN 0-415-31235-3
Paul Robbins: Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (Blackwell Critical Introductions to Geography) , 2004. ISBN 978-1-4051-0266-7
Friederike Gesing, Michi Knecht , Michael Flitner , Katrin Amelang (eds.): NaturenKulturen. Thinking spaces and tools for new political ecologies . transcript, Bielefeld 2019, ISBN 978-3-8376-4007-6 .

Essays

Sören Becker, Antje Otto: Nature, Society, Materiality - Current Challenges in Political Ecology (Editorial), Geographica Helvetica 71, 2016, pp. 221–227.
Helmut Geist : The orthodox and political-ecological view of environmental degradation . In: Die Erde 123 (4): 283-295.

Web links

political ecology - specialist journal, published by oekom Verlag since 1988

Political Ecology - Journal for Cultural Studies, at transcript

Individual evidence

↑ Kurt Egger, Bernhard Glaeser: Political ecology of the Usambara mountains in Tanzania. Kübel Foundation, Bensheim 1975.
↑ Thomas Krings: Human-Environment-Relationships in the Tropics with special consideration of political ecology as the subject of geographic development research. In: VGDH (Ed.): Rundbrief Geographie . No. 149 , 1998, pp. 22 .
^ Piers Blaikie, Harold Brookfield: Land Degradation and Society . Methuen, London / New York 1987, ISBN 0-416-40150-3 .
↑ Enrique Leff: Political Ecology: A Latin American Perspective , January 2012.
↑ Hans Magnus Enzensberger, On the Critique of Political Ecology, in: Kursbuch 33 (1973), pp. 1-42. A summary can be found on the website of the Hans Magnus Enzensberger project , URL: http://enzensberger.germlit.rwth-aachen.de/kursbuch.html#1973 .
↑ Peter Hersche, Environmental protection does not have its roots in the Greens, in: NZZ of May 8, 2019, URL: https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/umweltschutz-vor-den-gruenen-kaempften-konservative-fuer -die-natur-ld.1478871 . [Accessed July 16, 2019].
↑ See for example Jörg Huber / Uli Krug, Why political ecology in postmodern times is the objective form of thought for anti-social world savers, in: Bahamas 78 (2018).

[1] Kurt Egger, Bernhard Glaeser: Political ecology of the Usambara mountains in Tanzania. Kübel Foundation, Bensheim 1975.

[2] Thomas Krings: Human-Environment-Relationships in the Tropics with special consideration of political ecology as the subject of geographic development research. In: VGDH (Ed.): Rundbrief Geographie . No. 149 , 1998, pp. 22 .

[3] Piers Blaikie, Harold Brookfield: Land Degradation and Society . Methuen, London / New York 1987, ISBN 0-416-40150-3 .

[4] Enrique Leff: Political Ecology: A Latin American Perspective , January 2012.

[5] Hans Magnus Enzensberger, On the Critique of Political Ecology, in: Kursbuch 33 (1973), pp. 1-42. A summary can be found on the website of the Hans Magnus Enzensberger project , URL: http://enzensberger.germlit.rwth-aachen.de/kursbuch.html#1973 .

[6] Peter Hersche, Environmental protection does not have its roots in the Greens, in: NZZ of May 8, 2019, URL: https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/umweltschutz-vor-den-gruenen-kaempften-konservative-fuer -die-natur-ld.1478871 . [Accessed July 16, 2019].

[7] See for example Jörg Huber / Uli Krug, Why political ecology in postmodern times is the objective form of thought for anti-social world savers, in: Bahamas 78 (2018).