Political ecology in political geography

Abstract

The environment remains a central concern for political geographers. Whether in macro-theorization of state conflict centering on resource demand, production, and scarcity, or in micro-case studies focusing on environmental disputes, political geographers have come to increasingly consider non-human actors in political process. Simultaneously, traditional areas of environmental research in Geography— Cultural Ecology, Hazards, Energy, Coastal and Marine Studies, and Medical Geography, among others—have increasingly taken the political elements of human/environment systems far more seriously. It would seem therefore, that there is an increasing convergence of political ecology and political geography. On closer inspection, however, it is clear that environmental researchers with an interest in politics and political geographers with an interest in the environment are on parallel, but distinctly separate tracks. The possibilities for cross-fertilization of concepts, theoretical tools, and methods remain strong, but under-realized therefore This brief essay seeks to summarize the use of “the environment” in political geography and “the political” in political ecology such that possible areas of overlap and mutual exchange are possible. It concludes that political geographers might benefit from the development of better accounts of the role of non-human agents in producing political outcomes and from a richer engagement with the political ecologies of everyday life, while political ecologists must work to better understand state institutions that are too often treated as “black boxes” in their accounts.