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Abstract
Abstract Political ecology is a powerful framework for analyzing the underlying causes of environmental change, yet underutilized for guiding an ethical response to the Anthropocene. In this article, I introduce Public Political Ecology as an approach for practicing engaged scholarship in this moment of ecological crisis. A political, ethical and educational project, public political ecology is influenced by Antonio Gramsci's work on the philosophy of praxis. It therefore operates from the understanding that ideas are a material force capable of transforming society in revolutionary ways, and through a community of praxis within which academics can play important roles by engaging more actively with broader publics. Innovations from public geographies such as participatory action research and mapping, service learning, and social media offer important methodologies and tools for this approach. Public political ecology, then, is a means by which political ecologists can serve as earth stewards and thus finally make good on the field's emancipatory claims. Keywords: Political ecology, engaged scholarship, earth stewardship, public geography, praxis
Highlights
The potential power of a popularized political ecology is so great... [and] might make way for a very new world, emerging from these dark times when progressive politics in both human and non-human realms seem so painfully paralyzed. (Robbins 2012: 4)We live in an unprecedented time—the Age of the Anthropocene—that demands new and innovative forms of engaged scholarship (Sayre et al 2013)
I discuss why this moment of ecological crisis requires a Public Political Ecology (PPE), by which I mean theoretically-informed engaged scholarship from a political ecology perspective that operates through a community of praxis and that is guided by an integrated and ethical view of Earth Stewardship
Political ecology has been described as a community of practice, composed of scholars as well as nonacademics in NGOs, state agencies, international institutions and the media, who to varying degrees engage in critique, analysis and action around a range of environmental issues and socio-natural processes (Robbins 2012)
Summary
The potential power of a popularized political ecology is so great... [and] might make way for a very new world, emerging from these dark times when progressive politics in both human and non-human realms seem so painfully paralyzed. (Robbins 2012: 4). The Earth Stewardship initiative is important for its orientation towards explicit action, attention to ethics and the value of local and Indigenous ways of knowing, it privileges ecological knowledge and sustainability science while largely ignoring political economy and the power relations so central for understanding the root causes of our current socio-ecological state (Ogden et al 2013; Sayre et al 2013) Such apolitical responses to the Anthropocene will always prove inadequate. I adopt a political ecological understanding of both the Anthropocene and Earth Stewardship, placing them within a framework of social and environmental justice that insists on the intimate integration of science and socio-natural systems This framework provides the theoretical foundation for pursuing ethical action in this moment of crisis, a project that requires the development of interdisciplinary research methodologies and partnerships with diverse stakeholders as research subjects but as co-producers of knowledge
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