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Political Ecology in
Development Research

An Introductory Overview and Annotated

Bibliography

IP 7 Environmental Change and Conflict

Transformation

IP 7 Working Paper

Jon Schubert

2005
Contributors/Collaborators

Funding and research: National Centre for Competence in

Research, NCCR North-South, Research Partnerships for
Mitigating Syndromes of Global Change, Individual
Project 7, Environmental Change and Conflict
Transformation.
[Link]

Supervision and know-how support: swisspeace – Swiss

Peace Foundation, NCCR IP 7 programme
[Link]/research/environmental_conflicts.htm
Political Ecology in
Development Research

An Introductory Overview and Annotated

Bibliography

Jon Schubert

2005
Impressum

Author
Jon Schubert
MA student
Centre for African Studies Basel,
University of Basel
[Link]
jonschubert@[Link]

[Link]

Cite as:
Schubert, Jon (2005). Political Ecology in Development
Research. An Introductory Overview and Annotated
Bibliography. Bern, NCCR North-South.

Distribution
A downloadable .pdf version of this paper can be found on
the website
[Link]

Cover Photo:
Courtesy of Christine Bichsel: Bus on the Karakorum
Highway near Passu, Pakistan (2005)
Content

Tables 7

1 Introduction 9

2. Foundations of political ecology 11

2.1. Antecedents of Political Ecology 11
2.2. People and degradation - Neo-Malthusian narratives 12
2.3. Regional Political Ecology – a neo-Marxist approach 13
2.4. Case Studies in the 1990s – Whither Political Ecology? 15

3. Perspectives of political ecology 17

3.1. Deconstructing Nature: Discourse Analysis 17
3.2. Socially Constructed Stratifications: Gender 20
3.3. The Right to Land: Environmental Entitlements 23

4. Opposing poles in political ecology 26

4.1. Positivism & Post-Positivism – what is reality? 26
4.2. Eco-Centrism & Anthropocentrism – who makes reality? 27
4.3. The North & the South – who owns reality? 28

5. Conclusions 31

Abbreviations 33

Annotated Bibliography 34

Index of Authors by Theme and Region 64

Political Ecology in Development Research

6
Tables

Table 1. Tragedy of the Commons vs. Entitlements. 25

Table 2. Eco-centric vs Anthropocentric. 28

7
Political Ecology in Development Research

8
 Introduction

1 Introduction

Concerns about the environment have been rising steadily since the 1970s, when a
larger Western public became aware of the threats posed by environmental degradation
and pollution. The growing importance of environmental issues on political agendas
and in the media has been accompanied by a dramatic increase of research on the
environment in developing and Western countries. Scholars of development studies,
security studies or conflict studies have focused on the environment trying to
understand and conceptualise its effects on human life and vice versa. But how should
one assess environmental changes and their effects on society? This preoccupation with
human-nature interaction resulted in a variety of new approaches within different
disciplines, each producing very different research results and, ultimately, policy
recommendations. Even though environmental change has been discussed in academic
and policy circles for about thirty years now, it has not yet brought about anything
close to a theoretical consensus. The multitude of different and often contradictory
theories on human-environment interactions call for a critical review of the current
state of the art in order to facilitate future research on sustainable development, natural
resource management and resource conflicts. One of the approaches that has emerged
as most promising is political ecology, which stands at the centre of this review.

Political ecology is a relatively new field of research that has been widely discussed
and much used in recent analyses of interactions between humans and the environment.
However, despite its prominence key concepts of political ecology remain ambiguous.
It is an area of research where social scientists with ecological concerns and natural
scientists looking at the ‘human factor’ take into account ideas of social and political
economy. Among the questions that political ecology deals with are: (i) how both
nature and societal structures determine each other and shape access to natural
resources, (ii) how constructed concepts of society and nature determine human-
environment interactions, (iii) the connections between the access to, and control over,
resources and environmental change, and (iv) the social outcomes of environmental
change. 1

One of the characteristics of political ecology is that it is not a coherent ‘grand’ theory,
but rather a specific lens through which one can examine the interactions between the
environment and society. Scholars do so from different viewpoints and relying on very
different disciplinary backgrounds (geography, anthropology, sociology, political
science, economics, history and management). Very often diametrically opposed
paradigms and theories (for instance, neo-liberal vs. neo-Marxist) are brought forward
by researchers who deal with a similar field of scientific inquiry, i.e. human-nature
interactions and the mutual effects engendered. Political ecology seemingly provides
conceptual tools for analysis rather than an encompassing theory of human-
environment relations. Moreover, as most works in the field of political ecology are

I would like to thank Christine Bichsel, Eva Ludi , Nathalie Gasser and Tobias Hagmann of the NCCR
North-South’s IP7 for their encouragement, assistance and critical feedbacks on earlier drafts of this paper.
I would also like to thank swisspeace for making this research possible.

9
Political Ecology in Development Research

distinct case studies of different, local real-life problems, it is difficult to identify

specific and coherent theories of political ecology that scholars base their research
upon. Despite the growing importance of political ecology as an analytical and
practical approach to how environmental changes impact on the behaviour of people
affected by them, ‘the theoretical work has just begun’ (Peet and Watts 1996, 39).
There is still much work to be done to shape a comprehensive theory of political
ecology that will be able to serve as a solid foundation for scientific research.

The aim of this paper is thus to provide an overview of major theories, discussions and
contributions in the disparate field of political ecology. In so doing, it is hoped that this
critical review and the annotated bibliography will be useful for future research on
human-environment interactions. The first section of the paper will provide a short
introduction to the conceptual foundations of political ecology and the core ideas and
concepts that shaped it. In order to do so, I shall start with an overview of different
schools and disciplinary backgrounds that contributed to today’s field of political
ecology. A number of major perspectives of political ecology will be discussed in the
second section of the paper. I reiterate the main current debates and “opposing poles”
of political ecology in the subsequent chapter. In the conclusion I attempt to briefly
summarise the the different intellectual orientations that prevail in current scientific
discourse. The second part of this working paper consists of an annotated bibliography
on political ecology in development research. The bibliography is supplemented by a
thematic and a regional index of authors and their works. The abstracts introduced with
‘abstract:’ in the annotated bibliography are liable to copyrights by the authors and/or
publishers of the respective works.

10
 2. Foundations of political ecology

2. Foundations of political ecology

Theoretical approaches of political ecology are marked by a plurality of disciplinary

backgrounds. Nonetheless, some generalisations can be drawn about a number of
approaches from which individual studies in political ecology have emerged. In this
section of the paper, I examine the precursors or what Paulson et al. (2003) call ‘the
intellectual genealogy’ of political ecology. Furthermore, the altercations that political
ecology scholars had with other research traditions shall be briefly resumed since these
discussions were hugely influential in shaping political ecology as a theoretical body.
By retracing the intellectual origins of political ecology, I intend to demonstrate how
and why political ecology has become what it is today.

2.1 Antecedents of Political Ecology

As conventional modernisation theories came to be increasingly regarded as outdated at

the end of the 1980s, political ecology started to emerge as a new approach to human-
environment interactions in development discourse in the 1990s. However, in actual
fact political ecology - without being defined and named as such - had its origins
already in the 1970s. On the one hand natural scientists such as agronomists,
geologists, etc., had begun to consider human actions as a factor when looking at
nature. On the other hand social scientists such as anthropologists, sociologists and
geographers started to look more closely at the political role of nature for societies. –
This interest was a reaction to what was perceived as a neglect of the political
dimensions in human-environment interaction. Historically, the role of nature itself had
been deemphasised in the constitution of the social sciences. When sociology emerged
as a scientific discipline at the beginning of the 20th century, nature was completely
blinded out, the focus being solely on society, i.e. human-human interactions. The
motivation for this was, of course, to distinguish the newly established social sciences
from the then dominant physical and natural sciences (Goldman and Schurman 2000,
564).

Prior to the 1970s the term “political ecology” had appeared in a number of studies on
land use and political economy, but had not thus far engendered a ‘new’ discipline or
approach (Peet and Watts, 1996, 4). In the 1970s, the focus of development studies lay
mostly on modernization and dependency theories (Greenberg and Park 1994, 6).
Another school of thought that emerged earlier and which drew on anthropology was
“cultural ecology”. Cultural ecology focused mostly on cultural adaptations to the
environment (Bryant and Bailey, 1997, 16f) including cultural practices (religious
rituals or similar), specific (subsistence) patterns of behaviour and social practises
either shaped by environmental circumstances or operating as regulators of
environmental stability (Forsyth 2003, 8). Furthermore, cultural ecology focussed on
so-called ‘ethnoscientific knowledge’, i.e. traditional, time-tested resource use
strategies of isolated, indigenous subsistence communities without agro-scientific
knowledge (Peet and Watts 1996, 4). This approach has encountered substantial
critique from social anthropologists who have dismissed cultural ecology as too
simplistic, technical, ahistorical and accused it of portraying societies as a product of
environmental circumstances rather than adopting a more sociological viewpoint.

11
Political Ecology in Development Research

However, in the wake of phenomena such as acid rains and famines and other man-
made environmental disasters perpetuated by the media, and the value change taking
place, the idea of sustainability resurged again. Preoccupation with environmental
issues could be found in many a discipline. There was the emergence of Green Politics
and the sustainable development discourse, perpetuated and popularised in the media
following the Brundtland Report in 1987 (Peet and Watts 1996, 3). On the other hand
an increasingly important body of work on environmental security dealing with
questions of conflict and resource scarcity appeared in the [Link] from the 1990s
onward, scholars started to frame environmental problems as a manifestation of broader
political and economic forces, positioning that the deep-rooted, complex sources of
these problems needed to be addressed by far-reaching changes in local, regional and
global political and economic processes (Bryant and Bailey 1997, 3).

In a first phase many scholars resorted to neo-Marxist theories to overcome the

perceived apoliticism of cultural ecology and its limitation to isolated rural
communities. To achieve this, they started to incorporate the impacts of international
markets, social inequalities, and larger-scale political conflicts into their analysis
(Paulson et al. 2003, 208). From the mid-1980s on, scholars started to broaden their
scope by allowing a wider range of theoretic influences to guide their observations of
specific environmental problems (Bryant and Bailey 1997, 13). This newly emerging
discipline of political ecology was marked off against cultural ecology, being less
functionalist and ahistorical and taking the existing, historically shaped social
structures as the starting point for analysis. It differed also from human behavioural
ecology (HBE), another then prevailing approach, insofar as HBE is strongly rooted in
economy and relied on simple formal models, game theory and a more qualitative
approach (Winterhalder 2002, 4). Most importantly, these new vague of research
dissociated itself from population pressure theories or neo-Malthusian approaches.

2.2. People and degradation - Neo-Malthusian narratives

By the end of the 1980s and even before, the conventional approach to looking at
environmental questions had its base in a neo-Malthusian framework. Therefore,
political ecology studies reflecting this research tradition are often coined as ‘neo-
Malthusian’. The original theorem of Malthus stated that while food production levels
grow at a linear rate, human population grows at geometric rate if unchecked.
Therefore, Malthus predicted a decrease of available food per capita with ensuing
famines and the eventual extinction of the human race. This general idea of ecologic
determinism was taken up and broadened to include other resources than food, namely
arable land. The assumption was made that population pressure on resources (PPR)
leads to resource scarcity. As Ostrom (1990) explains, in classical models of common
resource theories much emphasis is placed on individual actions and egoisms, such as
in the old, well-known and often-cited political-economic parables of the ‘tragedy of
the commons’ or the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ game model. Within the mainstream
environmental conflict and security studies published since the beginning of the 1990s,
a great number of scholars analyse conflict or war as a result of resource scarcity.

One of the best-known neo-Malthusian scholars who links resource scarcity to conflict
is Homer-Dixon (1994; 1996; 1998). In his writings he holds up the hypothesis that

12
 2. Foundations of political ecology

there are resource scarcity induced conflicts that are driven by political and economic
factors (Dalby, 2002a, 126). While scarcity of renewable resources does indeed lead to
violent conflicts, these are aid to be not inter-state wars, but take the form of ‘sub-
national, persistent and diffuse’ violence (Homer-Dixon, 1994, 6). To explain why
some people can cope with environmental scarcity and will not engage in armed
conflict, Homer-Dixon then brings up the term social and technical ‘ingenuity’ (16).
Even though environmental scarcity ‘by itself is neither a necessary nor a sufficient
cause’ for violence (Homer-Dixon, 1999, 7), many violent conflicts must be explained
by considering resource scarcity as a decisive factor. He acknowledges that for a good
number of situations scarcity need not necessarily result in violent conflict, when
societies are more ‘ingenuous’ but somehow fails to further elucidate this mystery. This
rather unconvincing conclusion, his neo-Malthusian mindset, methodological
shortcomings, the simplicity of the models employed and various findings that indicate
contrary outcomes have led to widespread criticism of his work by scholars, making
Homer-Dixon one of the most-cited, but most-criticised scholars in the field of
environmental conflict research and subsequently, in political ecology (Tiffen et al.
1994, Barnett 2000, Wisborg 2002, Leach et al. 1999, Hagmann 2005).

As we shall also see in this paper the criticism of neo-Malthusian theories appears as a
decisive element in the shaping of today’s political ecology. Works with telling titles
like ‘More People, Less Erosion’ (Tiffen et al. 1994) refuted the assumption that high
PPR will automatically lead to soil degradation and/or conflict. This disaccord with
Malthus’ theorem, combined with a localised and contextualised approach to
environmental problems, was taken up and used in further studies by political
ecologists. Such approaches have often been coined as ‘neo-Marxist’ because they
stress social stratification and often focus on class and social movements as a unit of
analysis for analysing resource conflicts (Peet and Watts, 1996, 30f). Furthermore,
some of these scholars are in a sense precursors of today’s critics of globalisation by
linking local and regional processes of environmental degradation and marginalisation
with global dynamics.

2.3 Regional Political Ecology – a neo-Marxist approach

One of the most influential studies and arguably one of the first to really work with,
and make use of, the term political ecology was the groundbreaking ‘Land Degradation
and Society’ by Blaikie and Brookfield (1987). The authors describe the intertwined
and reciprocal relations between land use and the environment in the case of soil
erosion not, as had often been the case previously, as just a result of human action, but
as caused by, and resulting in, very distinct forms of societal structure (Peet and Watts,
1996, 6).

Their theoretical approach to ‘regional political ecology’ is based on the concept of

‘marginality’ (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987). Their analysis of soil degradation
amalgamates the following concepts of marginality: The idea of the marginal unit used
in land rent theory, the ecological concept of marginal zones where population pressure
on flora or fauna is high, and the concept of marginality where the population of raw
material producing zones do not get their due share of the revenues (19ff). Blaikie and
Brookfield originally had set out to write their study from a Marxist and a behavioural

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Political Ecology in Development Research

perspective, but soon found out that their search for practical solutions required a
‘plurality of purpose and flexibility of explanation’ (25). Thus they developed a new
conceptual framework to analyse land degradation on the basis of causal chains
between the ‘land managers’ and their land, other land users, groups in the wider
society who affect them, the state and, ultimately, the global economy (27).

As mentioned before, the most widespread analytical frameworks examining

environmental change and its societal effects had their origins in evolutionist or
Malthusian conceptions. One of these – from the perspective of political ecologists -
simplifying, yet popular ‘environmental orthodoxies’ (Forsyth 2003, 36) known as the
IPAT equation became increasingly influential in development discourse: Impact
[human] = Population x Affluence x Technology (44). Political ecologists like Blaikie
and Brookfield (1987) questioned and refuted most of the neo-Malthusians
assumptions, asserting that there cannot be such a thing as a ‘critical population
density’ for a certain strip of land, if at the same time the carrying capacity of the land
changes whenever new technology is introduced or even within a year, for instance
when a especially rich harvest occurs (29). As Painter and Durham (1995) put it, the
IPAT concept suggests that:

‘[O]ne need not bother with the internal structure of human populations
(including ethnicity, gender, class, power relations, etc.), with internal cultural
differences in resource use and technology, or with the surrounding world
system of interpopulational relations. In effect, the message is that
anthropological concerns – not to mention those of other social sciences – can
be left out of the analysis. Not surprisingly, this is precisely what happens’.
(Painter and Durham 1995, 251)

Blaikie and Brookfield underpin their approach with an important body of research,
mainly analysing different forms of land use in various countries in a historical
perspective. They then illustrate their theories with an in-depth case study of land
degradation and soil erosion in Nepal.

The study of local environmental problems in their social context, often drawing on
participant observation, arguably represents the foundation of today’s political ecology.
Another early example of this kind of ‘local political ecology’ is Bassett’s (1988) case
study on farmer-herder conflicts in northern Ivory Coast He identifies the key factors
that determine a political ecology approach: the contextualisation of human-
environment interaction, a historical analysis, the examining of state interventions that
determine land-use at local rural level and the sensitivity to regional variability (454).
With an almost classical anthropological approach, Mortimore (1989) observes local
practices of land use in Nigeria’s Hausaland and questions the technology-focused
analyses of the causes of famine by experts that are often contemptuous of traditional
land use patterns. Subsequently, this local focus of analysis has been taken up by a
multitude of scholars as, for instance, Peters on Botswana (1987), Park on the Senegal
and Nile River basins (1992) or Sheridan on Arizona (1995).

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 2. Foundations of political ecology

2.4 Case Studies in the 1990s – Whither Political Ecology?

From the end of the 1980s to the mid-1990s, political ecology visibly gained popularity
as a new field of research. In most of the contributions political ecology served as an
analytical lens used to document and analyse specific case studies, where the look at
the broader social circumstances proved helpful and effective to analysing
environmental change and conflict situations. Bryant and Bailey (1997), firmly rooted
in the tradition of Blaikie and Brookfield (1987), focused on analysing the actors that
hold stakes in the environment. Their book is divided in chapters, which examine the
different actors involved in land use (state, business, multilateral institutions, NGOs,
grassroots actors) separately, as well as their motivations, agency and the limitations to
their actions. Case studies as the one by Ilahiane (1996) describe local land use patterns
in their historical and social context. In the case of Ziz Valley, Morocco, small-scale
irrigation functions through labour exploitation of the low-status ethnic Haratine by the
traditionally high-status Berbers and Arabs (89). Here tradition and religious beliefs are
instrumentalised to coerce Haratine into maintaining the dam system, while giving
them only secondary access to the water (102). Le Billon (2002) explains how the
tension between different parties in Cambodia leads to illegal logging. In this case
disorder and violence are instrumentalised to gain access to timber. Other case studies
of political ecology focus on the role of NGOs, such as Igoe (2000) or Vayda and
Walter’s ‘event analysis’ of mangrove forest use in the Philippines (1999).
Furthermore, a great number of scholars focus especially on the activities and struggles
of grassroots actors. Recent studies in this field include Escobar on concepts of
biodiversity and indigenous knowledge (1998), Igoe on pastoralists in Tanzania (2000)
and Obi on Nigeria and Kenya (2005).

In contrast to neo-Malthusian theories of resource scarcity and conflict, a recent stream

of resource conflict analysis has emerged, mostly pursued by le Billon (2001), de Soysa
(2002) and Ross (2004a). Their resource-centred political economy approach argues
that it is the abundance of resources, rather than their scarcity that causes conflict and
that the characteristics of natural resources are intimately connected to characteristics
of conflicts. Their assumption is that resources are not automatically contested because
of their ubiquity, but that its contested use, and the social ‘institutions that shape the
rules and rights of resource use’ should be the focus of analysis (Hagmann 2005, 21).
Their point is that it is ‘greed, not grievance’ that will lead to conflicts over the control
over, or struggle for more equal distribution of, natural resource wealth (de Soysa
2002). Especially le Billon’s description of conflict patterns is captivating and very
fruitful. Depending on whether a resource is close or remote to central state authority,
and whether it is diffuse or concentrated in a certain point, conflict might appear in
differentiated forms such as, a coup d’état, warlordism or secession, respectively (le
Billon, 2001, 573). This hypothesis is illustrated by a listing of various conflicts all
over the world where the correlation between the form of the conflict and the resources
at stake are pointed out.

The predominant approach to analysing these ‘greed-motivated’ resource conflicts is

the concept of rational choice that has its roots in utilitarian individualism. Here the
assumption is made that individuals will respond rationally to resource availability and
act accordingly (e.g. Collier and Hoeffler 2000). Advocates of the rational choice

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Political Ecology in Development Research

approach explain conflict by a rent-seeking behaviour by social actors who weigh up

the risks and gains before taking action (Smith et al. 2000). However, people’s
decision to resort to violence in order to gain access to scarce resources can not always,
or only insufficiently, be explained by theories of rational choice. There are indeed
enough cases where the costs and risks of violent conflict outweigh the possible
benefits by far, but nonetheless violent conflict arises. More recent approaches to
natural resource conflicts include psychological explanations as for example brought
forward by Williams (2003b), who draws new insights from prospect theory.

But most political ecology scholars do not have this primary focus on violent conflict
only, as they tend to see conflicts and conflicting interests inherent to social relations as
well as human-nature interactions. Therefore, their focus is on the social structures and
constructions that shape access to, and control over, natural resources. In the next
section, selected political ecology perspectives that are crucial to understand current
political ecology scholarship are presented and discussed in more detail.

16
 3. Perspectives of political ecology

3. Perspectives of political ecology

Even though much research has been carried out under the heading of political ecology
throughout the 1990s, there are still very few works that summarise and integrate these
various contributions into one coherent body of political ecology. among the few recent
works that have tried to provide a coherent overview of the above mentioned different
streams and contributions of political ecology are Bryant and Bailey (1997), Peet and
Watts (1996), Scott and Sullivan (2000) and Forsyth (2003). I have chosen to focus on
three major current approaches of political ecology that are central to questions
concerning environmental change and its political implications. They concern

• a post-structuralist, mostly deconstructivist approach that questions

predominant discourses of environmental change and policies;

• the analysis of concepts of ‘people’ and ‘nature’, mainly the analysis of

gender as a constructed category defining human-environment
interactions and

• a more rights-based body of research concerned with questions of access,

rights, entitlements and environmental justice.

These three exemplary approaches of and to political ecology are chosen for different
reasons. The deconstructivist approach was selected because of its overall importance
in the research field, evident in the sheer number of papers and publications on the
subject as well as because of its theoretical contributions. For the analysis of
constructed social categories, gender was chosen because it has produced a distinct
academic discourse on the basis of a feminist background (compared to ‘class’ coming
from Marxism, for example). And lastly, the entitlements approach is a relatively new
approach that merits closer examination as it brings into play issues of human rights
and social justice.

Clearly, the different vantage points of these approaches and the diversity of
disciplinary background of the scholars in these various fields make it far too difficult
to elaborate a comprehensive new theory of political ecology that would give equal
consideration to each of these different schools of thought. Additionally, it is seldom
possible to clearly separate these different approaches from one another since they are
closely related and mutually beneficial, for example, when discourse analysis is used to
examine gender relations.

3.1 Deconstructing Nature: Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis of environmental concepts, hazards and conflicts, has become the
most influential branch within the recent political ecology literature. It is admittedly
difficult to separate discourse analysis from the analysis of different stakeholders and
their motivations, interests and agency, since discourses and agendas are often
inextricably linked together (Keeley and Scoones 2000). Indeed, the different (hidden)
agendas produce very distinct discourses or, as Paulson et al. have put it, ‘one person’s

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Political Ecology in Development Research

profit may be another’s toxic dump’ (2003, 271) – in their perception and in their
actions and statements.

Following Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) studies inspired by neo-Marxist conceptions

were considerably broadened by new methods and concepts. One groundbreaking
contribution in this field of environmental research and one of the first to examine
discourse is Peluso’s study of forest use conflicts in Java (1992). In her study she
describes the struggle between local inhabitants and the government over the use of the
rainforest. Not only does she analyse this local conflict in a broader historical
perspective, which includes the description of traditional patterns of access to, and use
of, forest resources; Peluso also recounts how the government’s methods of
criminalizing traditional forest-use practices through new property rights are subverted
by ‘illegal behaviour’ of the local population. Local communities redefined their
legitimate right to use the forest by producing a counter-discourse. Peluso’s work has
paved the ground for much of the following political ecology work based on discourse
analysis.

Yet deconstructivist approaches do not rely on discourse analysis only. Post-

structuralist analysis is the ‘analysis of the production of social reality which includes
the analysis of representations as social facts inseparable from what is commonly
thought of as “material reality”’ (Escobar 1996, 46). The idea that language is not a
reflection of reality, but constitutive of it (cf. Stott 1999) is the basis of the post-
structuralist approach. Hence, discourses about the environment occupy a prominent
role in post-structuralist political ecology. Escobar, maybe the most prominent
representative of this school of thought, questions the idea of ‘managing’ the earth
(Escobar 1996, 49f). He argues that that today’s sustainable development discourse -
that had its origins in the Club of Rome report and gained broader recognition after the
Brundtland Report - through the permanent stressing of the management of resources,
conceives the Earth as a ‘giant market /utility company’ (Escobar 1996, 53; Parajuli
1998). This ‘semiotic conquest of nature’ by the sustainable development movement is
seen as ‘an attempt at resignifying nature, resources, the Earth, human life itself on a
scale perhaps not witnessed since the rise of empirical sciences and their reconstruction
of nature’ (Escobar 1996, 59).

Another element stressed by post-structuralist political ecologists is the construction of

environmental realities by scientific discourse. Whether an area will be classified as
endangered or should be protected is often defined or at least influence by scientific
and institutional discourses. Whether the public will perceive environmental risks as
imminent and their own actions as having consequences on nature, mostly depends on
political agendas and media coverage when, for instance, nature is pictured as an
‘innocent victim of man’s greed’ (Harrison and Burgess 1994, 295f). Subsequently,
scholars also started to question popular discourses on globalisation and sustainable
development, stating that ‘since global discourses are often based on shared myths or
blueprints of the world, the political prescriptions flowing from them are often
inappropriate for local realities’ (Adger et al. 2001, 683). Furthermore, they criticise the
sustainable development discourse as being constituted in neo-liberalism. ‘Discursive
attempts to shroud SD [sustainable development] in science also imbue it with the
linguistic and ideological power of economics and ecology’ writes Logan (2004), while

18
 3. Perspectives of political ecology

arguing against the inherited ‘truisms’ in globalisation discourse. Often concepts of

land degradation or health issues and water safety are institutionalised in supranational
organisations and canonised in the scientific discourse concerned with what is viewed
as the most pressing problems.

According to post-structuralist political ecologists this resignifying of nature has

subsequently been taken up not only by the scientific community, but by the media and
the broader public as well (Leach and Mearns 1996, 2; Thomas and Middleton 1994).
Sustainability discourse in the mid-1990s foremost criticised local rural land users for
their ‘irrationality [of land use] and lack of environmental consciousness’, forsaking
that it were mostly the global development processes (such as structural adjustment
programmes, for example) that ‘displaced indigenous communities, disrupted people’s
habitats [… and] forced many rural societies to increase their pressures the
environment’ (Escobar 1996, 51). Furthermore, biodiversity was more and more
conceived of as a form of capital. Thus, even though indigenous communities in the
rainforests are now granted land rights, they are at the same time forced to become
responsible for the management of these resources and become forcibly more
integrated into the world economy (57).

In what has become one of the classical studies on the prevailing environmental
discourses, Thomas and Middleton (1994) thoroughly dismantle contemporary
perceptions and analyses of desertification and the measures adopted to counter it. They
argue that widely accepted statements about desertification and nightmarish perceptions
of a voracious, ever-advancing desert margin, as popularised by UNEP’s 1977
conference on desertification (UNCOD), are seldom backed by sound, unambiguous data
and ‘in fact little more than hollow political statements used to drum up concern; they are
guesstimates or, at best, estimates’ (59). Even more so, the very idea of desertification
remains a vague phrase that, to the broader public, immediately conjures images of
drought, famine and distress. In the fight against desertification, traditional land use
forms are vilified, pastoral nomads turned into scapegoats for desertification, which often
leads to socially disruptive, disastrous sedentarisation programmes (32). The chain of
evidence the authors lay down suggests that the UN have created ‘desertification, the
institutionalised myth’ (161). Nonetheless the authors acknowledge the positive role that
the UN played in raising awareness and setting it high on the environmental agenda. To
conclude, they argue that instead of focusing on biophysical change in drylands, that are
much more adaptive to climatic change than commonly assumed, analysis should aim at
understanding social processes and patterns of land use that jeopardise the food security
of local populations.
Another classical example for this kind of critical study is ‘the lie of the land’ (Leach
and Mearns 1996) where ‘received wisdoms’, i.e. the global discourses on, and the
western imagination of, buzzwords such as ‘land degradation’, ‘desertification’ and
‘woodfuel crisis’ are questioned. According to this critical perspective most prevailing
ideas in the sustainable development discourse have built upon conceptions of land use
such as IFAD’s ‘small farmer concept’ to analyse a situation and implement top-down
development strategies (Woodhouse, 2002, 3). The ‘orthodox’ view of land
degradation is one of a downward spiral (a perception notably propagated by the
Brundtland Report), where poverty and land degradation mutually reinforce each other.

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Political Ecology in Development Research

Often indeed these concepts do not correspond with local realities and predominant
discourses thus must be questioned and reviewed. Even more so overly simplistic
‘environmental orthodoxies’ often do not address the deeper causes of biophysical
changes and may thus unnecessarily interfere with livelihood strategies, sometimes
even aggravating environmental degradation and hardship (Forsyth 2003, 24). Forsyth
subsequently deconstructs these ‘environmental orthodoxies’ as Western ideals of
‘unspoiled paradises’ affected by unsustainable land use (36ff). Such thinking leads
some authors to adopt a perspective according to which rural land users are seen as
victims rather than agents of land degradation (Iftikhar 2003, ix). An example for such
a challenging of commonly held concepts of land degradation is Ribot’s (1999)
historical analysis and deconstruction of imaginations of deforestation and
desertification (‘the fear’) in West Africa. Fairhead and Leach (1998) also address such
‘orthodoxies’ by questioning the stigmatising of West African farmers as agents of
deforestation and highlighting their often neglected land-enriching practices. Other
works include Swift on the history of the concept of desertification (1996), Bassett and
Bì Zueli on policy-making in Côte d’Ivoire (2000) and Moseley and Logan on
livelihood activities and environmental issues (2004).

As political ecology still lacks a consistent overarching theoretical framework one

could base further research on, post-structuralism and its new insights into human-
environmental relations might provide an important contribution for theory-building.
This is an idea shared and elaborated in more detail by Peet and Watts (1996) as well as
the contributors to their edited volume. While this seems a worthy undertaking, it may
also – in the eyes of their critics - be the Achilles’ heel of their project. Vayda and
Walters (1999) criticise that by reconceptualising of literally everything,
deconstructivists tend to see reality as constructed only and thus neglect the physical
realities of nature1. Although discourse analysis provides highly critical and captivating
contributions to political ecology, to the more positivist critics of discourse analysis it
has its limitations when it comes to assessing and improving real-life situations and
environmental degradation.

3.2 Socially Constructed categories: Gender

Another way of looking at the environment and society is to examine power relations
within and between different social actors. Besides examining and describing historical
patterns and traditions of land use and ownership (Blaikie and Brookfield 1987; Peluso
1992), political ecology scholars have often resorted to analytical categories such as
class (Park 1992), ethnicity (Parajuli 1998; Hansis 1998) or gender in order to describe
unequal patterns of power and resource access. Especially gender has been a theme of
great importance to political ecology researchers. Gender and environment scholars
argue that gender foremost shapes society-nature relations and is therefore
‘fundamental to understanding resource access, use and degradation around the world’
(Goldman and Schurman 2000, 572).

1 On this point the reader is referred to the debate between positivists and post-positivists elaborated in
chapter 4.1.

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 3. Perspectives of political ecology

The gendered approach to the environment draws on two different streams of thought;
the ‘gender and environment’ concept and eco-feminism (Steinmann 1998, 84). The
first had its origins in practical development work and represented an approach that
aimed at integrating and promoting women as key actors within environmental
development programmes (called ‘women in development’, WID or, lately ‘women,
environment, development’, WED). The motivation was to reduce women’s specific
vulnerability in regard to degrading natural environments. However, this approach had
its limitations. While giving women an active role in conservation programmes, the
WED-approach neglected existing fundamental inequities between the sexes in the
local societies concerned. Ecofeminism on the other hand, was motivated by a much
more ideological agenda and saw women as a ‘transcultural and transhistorical
category of humanity’ (Jackson 1998, 314). Eco-feminists thought that the attitudes of
women towards preservation of Creation are inherent to their very nature, i.e. mothers
who protect life instinctively, gather food for survival rather than for economic gain,
while men tend towards domineering and exploiting nature, the same way men
dominate and exploit women. The WED-approach was characterised by the
ecofeminist belief in women’s ‘natural and spiritual closeness’ to nature, but it focused
on women’s productivity and service provision rather than their actual needs (Locke
1999, 268). A more recent approach variant is the gender and development (GAD)
concept that rejects primordialist notions of women’s specific relations to nature by
reason of biology. Rather the GAD concept conceptualises the role of women and men
within their environment as being ‘established and maintained through power and
authority, and therefore intrinsically contested and dynamic’ (269).

Feminist political ecology tries to overcome the rigidness and essentialism of the
aforementioned concepts of gender and ‘builds on analyses of identity and difference’
(Rocheleau et al. 1996, 288). A convincing argument for the importance and purpose of
feminist political ecology is provided by Reed and Mitchell (2003), while Leach (2003)
offers a comprehensive overview of the antecedents of feminist political ecology.
Feminist political ecologists look at environmental change through the lens of gender.
Their aim is to identify ‘the constraints and opportunities that shape gendered land-use
behaviour […to assure] a more accurate assessment of environmental change at the
scale where decisions are made’ (Steinmann 1998, 81). The emphasis is less on
generalisations about women and nature, but more on the level of local realities where
a precise ‘set of questions’ is developed to guide the analysis (Jackson 1998, 315).
Feminist political ecologists do not conceive of gender as just another dependent
variable like class and ethnicity, but try to disaggregate gender from class. Gender is
conceptualised and proved to be a critical factor in shaping access to, and control over,
resources, environmental decisions and technologies.

To examine this relation in greater detail Rocheleau et al. (1996) pursue three main
lines of inquiry (4f); (i) gendered knowledge, i.e. the ‘science of survival’ that is
ascribed to and used by women to maintain and protect healthy environments, (ii)
gendered environmental rights and responsibilities, i.e. property, resources, space, legal
and customary rights that are ‘gendered’ and (iii) gendered grassroots activism and
environmental politics. Especially the first point leads the authors to the conclusion that
scientific discourse is ‘gendered’ because gender inequities in science deny women the
knowledge necessary to address environmental problems. Rocheleau et al. thus

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deconstruct the ‘myth of value-free objectivity and universality in science’ (9). Their
book purposely contains case studies from third world and developed countries
demonstrating examples of successful environmental grassroots activism initiated by
women. Even though the importance of addressing women in mitigating environmental
problems is now widely recognised and ‘green’ issues are on the political agenda of
most parties, organisations and companies, pro environment rhetoric is often limited to
lip-service rather than concrete action (Wastl-Walter 1996, 100). Furthermore, as
Bradshaw correctly points out that the more commonplace involvement of women in
development projects does not necessarily mean that ‘their participation in this project,
or that their needs, both practical and strategic, are met’ (Bradshaw 2002, 875). Hence,
the scope for research on women and the environment as a well as gendered
approached to the environment remains grand.

Existing case studies analyse gender policies in environment management programmes

and the impact they have on women’s livelihoods (Locke 1999). Hodgson (2001)
analyses the impact of state development programmes on changing family structures
and gender roles of the Maasai in Tanzania. By combining a historical narrative and an
ethnographic approach she sets out to study both the ‘institutions’ and ‘the people’ –
i.e. the development discourse on ‘pastoralists’ such as ‘the Maasai’ (6) and the
‘interconstruction of gender and ethnicity’ among the Maasai (14). Carney (1993) looks
at the distribution of labour rather than land in her case study from The Gambia. She
describes the unintended (?) effects of a shift to year-round cultivation on women. Post-
colonial Gambia experienced a drastic economic downturn when the market price for
its main export product, groundnut, dropped. Subsequently, a shift from equally
distributed labour rights on common lands to unevenly distributed property rights took
place. This led to the economic marginalisation of women by heightening the burden of
labour imposed on them when at the same time the responsibility over household
income was placed under the control of men (329). To help, foreign donors advocated
year-round rice cropping by implementing ‘green revolution’ technologies. However,
this intervention only further aggravated the problem (334f). ‘By placing men in charge
of technologically improved rice production, the donors hoped to encourage male
participation; instead, they unwittingly legitimized male control over the surpluses
gained from double-cropping (337). Bradshaw (2002) draws similar conclusions in her
case study about post-hurricane reconstruction activities in Honduras, noting that the
reconstructing of houses farther away from the river made women feel safer, but at loss
for work or opportunities to grow their own food She concludes that ‘while physical
vulnerability may have declined, economic vulnerability may have been increased.
Policies designed to reduce the poor’s vulnerability to disasters therefore may not
necessarily be pro-poor in the long run’ (877). Other gendered political ecology studies
include Bezon on Madagascar (1997), Schroeder on the Gambia (1999) or Laurie on
Bolivia (2005).

Critics of the gender approach point out that other social categories such as class, age
or ethnicity are just as important as gender and should thus not be neglected. In
addition, the critique that the biophysical ecology is not taken appropriately into
account by authors like Schroeder has been voiced by Walker (2005, 76). Furthermore,
the ‘focus on particular groups may tend to reduce the representation of social diversity
to reified and stereotypical categories’ (Forsyth 2003, 84) and does not take in account

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 3. Perspectives of political ecology

the dynamic nature of these constructed categories, thus perpetuating their inherent
inequities.

3.3 The Right to Land: Environmental Entitlements

A last important perspective of political ecology is the entitlements approach adopted

by Leach, Mearns and Scoones (1997, 1999), or Wisborg (2002). Entitlements theories
calls into question the widespread orthodoxy of a downward spiral of poverty and land
degradation, which tends to see poor rural dwellers more as victims than as agents of
soil erosion. It equally refutes traditional (neo-Malthusian, ‘tragedy of the commons’)
assumptions of increasing aggregate population pressure on limited resources of
common property. Thereby, the entitlements approach sets out to examine ‘the role of
different institutions in mediating the relationships between different social actors, and
different components of local ecologies’ (Leach et al. 1999, 226). According to this
logic the ‘disaggregating’ of the environment into its different components is necessary
to fully understand the complexities of environmental dynamics. Indeed, there are
enough examples where, even when there is plenty of an aggregate resource (food,
land, e.g.), people in a particular social situation might not have access to, or control
over it, thus facing deprivation and loss as in the case of famine (232). (cf. Table 1)

The entitlements approach draws on Amartya Sen’s (1981) seminal study that
highlighted that access to food rather than the lack of food production causes famine
(Iftikhar 2003, 6). To make his point Sen draws a comparison with civil rights in the
United States where every citizen has the constitutional right to vote. However, it is the
capability to make use of one’ right to vote that determines whether or not citizens
actually vote. Similarly, when it comes to land and other resource access, it is not the
availability of it, but the command over it that leads to sudden changes in inter-group
distribution patterns (Sen 1981, 433). Analysing three major famines (Bengal 1943,
Ethiopia 1978, Bangladesh 1979), Sen asks whether there (i) was a measurable
decrease of available food; (ii) what occupational and social status do famine victims
possess; and (iii) whether or not famine victims suffer a sharp decrease of their
entitlements to food – and if so, why (440f). Sen demonstrates that in all three famines
shortage of food was not the primary factor for the famine. Rather a marginalised
segment of the population had suffered a collapse of their means of command over
food, thus turning them into famine victims.

In the political ecology context, it is important to realise that natural resources are not
simply limited goods whose access is unrestricted and open to everyone, but that they
are ‘governed by rules of common property’ (Johnson 2004, 408). These
institutionalised property and user rights are called entitlements. People can gain them
through their ‘endowments’ (labour, land, capital, skills, etc.), which in turn can be
transformed into entitlements. Endowments are defined as socially ‘legitimate[ed]
effective command over alternative commodity bundles’, i.e. the use of the utilities,
services and goods that a certain resource can provide (Leach et al. 1999, 233). The
sources of this social legitimacy are various and they are often contested by the
different actors that compete over a certain resource. Therefore, rather than being fixed
by customary laws entitlements they are the result of a negotiation process among
social actors and institutions (235). Key to understanding the attribution of entitlements

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are institutions, ‘the rules of the game in society’ and intermediaries that legitimate
one’s claims over a certain resource (237f). Sheridan (2004) argues that traditional
entitlements have often been contested by both colonial and independent governments
in Africa, . Yet the breakdown of these traditional forms of resource management most
often resulted in ambiguous property rights (85).

In the empirical part of their contribution Leach et al. (1999) then question the various
assumptions held by advocates of community-based natural resource management
(CBNRM) such as the IUCN, the WWF or the UNEP. These organisations are
criticised of maintaining an ‘oversimplified’ concept based on both the ideas of a
homogenous indigenous population group and a relatively stable natural environment
(assumptions not only made in CBNRM concepts). Leach et al. (1999) demonstrate that
social stratification, unequal distribution of property and user rights make it impossible
to impose a single resource management strategy on a local community (Leach et al.
1999, 228). Rather political ecologists conceive the natural environment as a setting
for human action, which – at the same time – is modified by such action (239). Leach
et al. illustrate the theoretical part of their paper by a case study of the local use of
Maracanteae leaves in rural Ghana. This plant is used for various purposes and is sold
on the local market, thus improving women’s household income. Traditionally, women
had the right to and control over the collection of these leaves. With the introduction of
formal laws meant to protect woodlands on which the leaves were locates, women lost
the opportunity to collect leaves and thus a means of income (235ff). With this example
the authors provide a telling example of how both formal and informal institutions
determine the distribution of ever-changing entitlements that social actors possess.

Another exemplary use of the entitlement has been provided by Wisborg (2002) who
studie the distribution of entitlements, the diversity of stakeholders and related power
relations in Namaqualand, South Africa. In his analysis Wisborg includes the historic
dimension to analyse the different local perceptions of and discourses on the ‘rightful’
use of land (12). The entitlements approach takes into account the dynamic nature of
local communities’ user rights. It thus does not succumb to the danger of conceiving of
resource access as being static. Rather the approach acknowledges the shifting
identities of actors in a highly socialised negotiation process over entitlements. While
the entitlements approach has been lauded for its ability to improve our understanding
of how people gain access to and control over resources, critics argues that it is too
much concerned with the local level and fails to incorporate larger economic trends
into the analysis. The challenge is thus to provide an entitlements analysis above the
case study level or as Cramer (2000) puts it, which does not fail to ‘see the macro wood
for the micro trees’(4).

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 3. Perspectives of political ecology

Table 1. Tragedy of the Commons vs. Entitlements. (Adapted from Johnson 2004, 415f).

Common Property Theory Entitlement Theory

Efficiency and health of the commons as Socio-economic equality and poverty

main concern. reduction as major concern.

Rules restrict access to the commons. Rules enhance access to the commons.

History serves as background to general Structural-historical approach: property

and predictive propositions about social rights depend on contextually-specific
behaviour. forms of social change.

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3. Opposing poles in political ecology

As the previous section demonstrates, political ecology authors provide innovative

perspectives on human-environment interactions that take into account the discursive,
gendered and unequal processes shaping resource access, control and management. If
political ecology as a research field remains riddled with controversy, one of the
reasons for this are the contested foundations authors base their work on. These
opposing theoretical and epistemological poles are discussed in this section. A first and
major area of dissent in political ecology is between positivist and post-positivist
approaches to nature. Second, some scholars focus on, or start from, human agency,
whereas others, more eco-centric, take nature and its realities as the vantage point for
analysis. Lastly, the answer to the question how research and analysis are shaped by
different perspectives and agendas of ‘developed’ countries (the global north) versus
‘developing’ countries (the global south) is heavily contested.

3.1 Positivism & Post-Positivism – what is reality?

Debates between positivists and post-positivists are heavily polarised and it is doubtful
whether their positions will ever be reconciled. In general terms, positivists or
‘realists’, mainly – but not exclusively - coming from the natural sciences pursue a
materialist philosophy of science and view nature ‘as it is’. The post-positivists or
constructivists see reality as socially constructed (Forsyth 2003, 14). Fundamentally,
both differ on the question whether only the material biophysical and social reality or
whether discourse and symbolic representation should be taken into account. Positivists
often argue on the assumption that there is a ‘natural equilibrium’ within ecosystems
that is disrupted by human agency and that the (natural) sciences provide for a value-
free, neutral and objective assessment of environmental issues. In contrast, a more post-
positivist stance stresses issues of scale, social and environmental changes, non-
equilibrium in its historical context and upholds that different perspectives in science
reflect different values and are thus never completely unbiased (270).

A great deal of post-positivist scholars who are firmly rooted in discourse analysis
portray neo-Malthusian scarcity scenarios as discourses to promote agendas of specific
actor networks (Leach and Mearns 1996, 23; Keeley and Scoones 2000, 96). Their
critique to neo-Malthusian theories of environmental scarcity has been essential to the
development of political ecology. An example for this debate is found with Keeley and
Scoones (2000). In their article about environmental policy-making in Ethiopia, they
examine both the actor networks that shape the discourse about resource management
and environmental rehabilitation and the discourse itself. Describing the main streams
of the environmental debate in Ethiopia, they uncover a ‘generalized Malthusian
narrative’ of accelerating resource depletion leading to environmental decline and,
ultimately, to poverty and starvation (96). This discourse, so they argue, and the
resulting call for more soil productivity are backed by an actor network that is heavily
influenced by multinational agribusiness companies (101).

In a critical rejoinder to this article Nyssen et al. (2004) state that Keeley and Scoones
apparently underestimate soil degradation and reject the current conservation

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 3. Opposing poles in political ecology

techniques and policies (137, 139). To Nyssen et al. the very environmental
circumstances of Ethiopia – i.e. rainfalls, draughts, lack of agricultural intensification –
are responsible for the degradation of the land. ‘The environmental disaster in Ethiopia
is real’, they conclude (140). Throughout the rest of their paper, they make strong
arguments for SWC (Soil and Water Conservation) policies carried out in Ethiopia
today. At the core of their argument is the physical reality of environmental
degradation and the appropriate measures to counteract it.

In their reply Keeley and Scoones (2004) assert that Nyssen et al. misinterpreted their
key arguments. In their original paper they had criticised the widespread assumption
that overall increasing land degradation is basically due to farmer and pastoralist
mismanagement of the land, and the one-size fits all conservation techniques hailed as
a panacea (149). Keeley and Scoones maintain that policy-making processes are highly
contextualized and thus their aim is to analyse how ‘stories about policy-making are
made by different people and how, in turn, they often reflect institutionalized
assumptions and positioned interests’ (149). Their conclusion is that ‘not that all
scientific analyses of the urgent problem of land degradation are wrong, or the
technologies suggested as solutions inappropriate’, but that a ‘more circumspect,
critical and analytical stance may help us in the longer term’ to find solutions (152).
This kind of debate between positivist and post-positivist scholars can be found in
various discussions about the aims and methods of political ecology.

3.2 Eco-Centrism & Anthropocentrism – who makes reality?

The other antagonism in contemporary political ecology, closely linked to the debate
between positivists and post-postivists, is whether the starting point of analysis should
be humans and human agency or nature and biophysical dynamics. A few points
deserve mention here. Peterson (2000), for instance, argues that ‘rather than being
called political ecology, these [i.e. ‘neo-Marxist’] approaches should be called political
economy of natural resources, for they do not consider ecosystems to be active agents’
(324). Lately, scholars rooted in the ecological sciences criticised political ecology of
being too focused on the social and political dimensions of resource access and of
neglecting the biophysical and ecological realities of the natural environment. Even
though they focus on human-environment interactions as well, these scholars insist on
viewing the environment ‘not only simply as a stage or arena in which struggles over
resource access and control take place’ (Zimmerer and Bassett 2003, 3). They call into
question many political ecology studies, which deny environmental agency and
capability to influence human behaviour. This critique partly draws on the paradigmatic
concept of ‘deep ecology’ that deemphasises the dichotomy between humans and the
environment. Deep ecology views them both as a part of nature and attributes intrinsic
values and rights to non-human entities (de Haan 200, 360). Similarly, Vayda and
Walters (1999) argue that most of the political ecology today is ‘politics without
ecology’, that it should rather be labelled ‘political anthropology’ or plainly ‘political
science’ (168).

This point of criticism comes to no surprise since it is issued mostly by physical

geographers and environmental scientists. Indeed, often the environment’s flexibility,
adaptability, and non-human-induced changes are understated in anthropocentric

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studies. On the other hand the question remains what research should be aiming at.
When examining the impact humans and the environment have on each other and the
problems that marginalised societies face, a more anthropocentric view of the
environment seems adequate and justified. But again, as Paulson et al. (2003) rightly
point out studies in political ecology that analyse land erosion or land tenure policies
are ‘both political in nature, insofar as they use categories and questions grounded in
certain visions and interests, and […] both ecological, insofar as they seek to
understand the interrelationships between organisms and their environments’ (211).
Other recent works like Bassett and Crummey (2003) seem to confirm a trend towards
reconciliation between the ecocentric and the anthropocentric views. The following
comparison (Table 2.), which resumes the antagonistic tenets of ecocentric and
anthropocentric approaches to human-nature interactions might thus be over-
emphasising the differences between the two.

Table 2. Eco-centric vs Anthropocentric. (Schubert 2005)

Eco-centric approach Anthropocentric approach

Natural Sciences background Social Sciences background
Positivist: Biophysical reality of nature Post-Positivist: Discourse and power
determines human agency structures construct realities
Reality (nature) is analysed and Reality is socially constructed and must
represented as it is therefore always be interpreted
Environmental history shapes today’s Socio-cultural history shapes structures and
problems and forms of land use discourses of today’s land use
Policies (should) respond to Policies reflect institutionalised assumptions
environmental realities and are analysed held by different actor-groups and should be
accordingly examined critically
Authors include: Authors include:
Nyssen et al. 2004 Escobar 1996
Vadya and Walters 1999 Forsyth 2003
Peterson 2000 Moseley and Logan 2004
Zimmerer and Bassett 2003 Leach and Mearns 1996

3.3. The North & the South – who owns reality?

A last and very important aspect that needs to be taken into account concerns the
disparities and tensions between the perspectives of and on the global north and south.
As we have seen the bulk of political ecology studies have focused on development
issues and thus mostly concern the ‘underdeveloped’ countries of the southern
hemisphere. At the same time many political ecology scholars come from ‘western’,
‘developed’ countries or have at an academic background moulded by European or US-
American research institutions. This raises a number of questions such as who holds the
interpretive predominance over definitions and truths? What is the legitimacy of
foreign scientific expertise? Why the predominant focus on third world rural
communities? And what are the consequences of this kind of research for different
political agendas?

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 3. Opposing poles in political ecology

These problems are, of course, of great concern to analysts of development discourse.

But they equally deserve to be taken seriously in the context of Western countries. As
McCarthy (2002) argues, that political ecology approach should be applied with the
same rigour to the analysis of environmental conflicts in developed countries of the
north. He brings forward the example of small, local, agricultural communities facing a
deprivation of their land by governmental conservation agencies and other actors. In
such situations communities often resort to civil disobedience tactics such as breaching
the laws, or setting forests on fire in order to disrupt government strategies. They
justify such actions with their superior knowledge of their local surroundings and
traditional user rights. Very often indeed such movements in the third world are
portrayed sympathetically by a vast majority of ‘western’ scholars and NGOs as ‘good’
or ‘innocent’ people whose livelihoods are threatened by evil, bureaucratic regulations
(1281). A similar movement in the American West, the ‘Wise Use’ movement, is,
according to McCarthy, persistently described as hostile to progress or, even more so,
as a ‘corporate front’ (1282). Apparently, comparable situations of competition over
natural resources are conceptualised and analysed differently, depending on where they
are located.

While the argument for consistency in research perspectives is certainly justified, the
example of the ‘Wise Use’ movement is rather problematic due to its ambiguous nature
(on the Wise Use movement, cf. Sanchez 1996, Helvarg 2004), a point to which
McCarthy unfortunately makes very few references. Nonetheless, McCarthy makes his
point clear when he adds that very often studies in the third world are sympathetic
towards local movements while being extremely sceptical of international or
governmental actors. To counter this appreciation he points out that ‘local agendas are
not inherently more legitimate than state or environmentalist agendas and that
centralised state resource management is not always a bad thing’ (1298). Consequently,
he calls for a more sceptical approach to the motives and backgrounds of local actors
and for a similar degree of scrutiny of grassroots movements independently of their
location. Furthermore, he rightly calls for an expansion of political ecology research to
other areas of investigation. ‘[T]he transformation of nature by, or in the service of,
multinational corporations, rapid urban growth, and affluent consumption in capitalist
countries would seem to have at least as much causal power in contemporary
ecological and political economic dynamics as the struggles of agrarian peasant
societies’ (McCarthy 2002, 1297). Indeed, contributions in works like Rocheleau et al.
(1996) or Zimmerer and Bassett (2003) extend their focus to environmental hazards,
the distribution of risks and environmental justice, thereby bridging the mental gap
between rural third world and urban first world activism in their analysis.

However, this is only one side of the coin. More importantly is the fact that scientific
discourse itself reflects a certain north-south bias. While discourse analyses usually
carefully examine which agendas are promoted through specific discourses, other areas
of the field of research may be (un-)intentionally reinforcing these. In his harsh critique
of the environmental security and conflict literature Barnett (2000) argues that authors
focus on violent conflicts resulting from environmental degradation and that since
much of this research informs (US) security policy discourse, it must be viewed
critically. He agues that, ‘the environment-conflict thesis is theoretically rather than
empirically driven, and is both a product and a legitimation of the North’s security

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agenda’ (271). The ethnocentric and deterministic assumption that ‘people in the South
will resort to violence in times of resource scarcity’ (274) is misleading and to him a
clear case of 'civilised’ Europeans constructing ‘a barbaric Other’ (277). Environmental
challenges such as water-sharing are framed in a language of conflict and war rather
than being discussed by reference of successful examples of transboundary water
cooperation. Barnett criticises the literature for conceptualising environmental
problems as a threat to international security, but in truth security of the first world.. He
concludes that the environment-conflict literature ‘reflects the intermingling of
neorealist and liberal theories in North American security discourse, a confluence
which excludes alternative critical perspectives and which […] serves to marginalize
the insights of a Green theory’ (284). Escobar’s (1998) criticism points to the same
direction as he questions the predominant biodiversity discourse. Through the
‘biodiversity network’ of ‘international institutions, Northern NGOs, botanical gardens,
universities and research institutes in the first and third worlds, pharmaceutical
companies and the great variety of experts located in each of these fields’ truths are
‘transformed and re-inscribed into other knowledge-power constellations’ (56).
Furthermore, these mostly northern discourses engender a counter-discourse of
‘bioimperialism’ and biodemocracy originated by local social movements (60).

More recent works have also started to examine transnational, North-South

environmental histories, to analyse flows of trade and knowledge and to question
discourses and myths of a pristine, edenic nature, the indeed culturally very different
conceptions of nature and conservation. Stott’s (1999) harsh critique of northern
concerns about the ‘fragile, million-year old tropical rainforest’ deconstructs the
uncritical, neo-colonialist ‘hegemonic myths’ of western, ‘green’ conservationists (3).
These discourses shaped by mythological ‘metawords’ ‘load’ texts about the rainforest
with the deep contrast of ‘pure, unsullied, forest’, whose equilibrium is threatened by
‘human folly, greed and sin’ (26). But, as he points out ‘there is not one single shred of
scientific evidence to support the powerful historic and mythic language employed
here. Its roots lie entirely in the European and North American construction of the
“tropical rain forest” as a linguistic entity in the late-19th and early-20th Century’ (26).
Other studies scrutinise the role of science from colonial times on and the changing
values and norms of the North that often impose massive changes on societies in the
South. Amongst the themes raised are the symbolic production of nature such as
European colonial imaginations of Africa that inform the conceptions of natural parks
(Zimmerer and Bassett 2003). Another example is the concept of ‘alternative’
consumption (Bryant and Greenberg 2004). Lupu (2004) demonstrates how US-
backed, forced coca eradication programmes in Peru are fuelled by a hegemonic
security discourse that creates disastrous effects on the livelihoods of rural land users

30
 4. Conclusions

4. Conclusions

Political ecology is an interdisciplinary approach that is still in its formative phase. The
concepts of scholars vary greatly and their respective perspectives on political ecology
are often subject to harsh criticism by their peers. To this day the majority of political
ecology research consists of analyses of local environmental changes, which are related
to broader social and political structures. For policy-orientated political ecologists the
challenge is to circumvent the ‘ideographic trap’ – i.e. to avoid research findings valid
only for a specific and spatially limited area. There is a need to elevate research results
from their original unit of analysis onto a more general level if one seeks to contribute
to the mitigation of syndromes of global environmental change. But more often, and
arguably rightly so, the goal of regional political ecology is to explicitly avoid
generalisations and to do justice to local realities.

Whereas political ecology continues to be under-theorized, it has proven to provide a

conceptual lens for describing and analysing environmental change. One type of these
local level studies relate to protected areas such as national parks, world heritage sites,
etc. where restrictions of land use (‘coercive conservation’) and the conflicts of interest
of the various stakeholders produce specific pattern of resource management
(Zimmerer and Bassett 2003, 5; Twyman 2000, Kaltenborn et al. 2002). The sheer
number of case studies that have – or at least claim to have – a political ecology focus
on land degradation, resource use or resource conflict are proof of the fact that political
ecology thinking provides the necessary tools for thorough, differentiated and
comprehensive research.

Central to political ecology is the in-depth examination of social structures in their

global and historical contexts to explain environmental change and the analysis of the
various involved actors, their interests, actions and discourses. Two main branches of
research stand out in this regard. There is the more conflict-orientated approach that
looks at environmentally induced conflicts, political conflicts between stakeholders at
different levels of administration as well as violent conflicts. As previously alluded to
the environmental conflict literature focusing on inter-group violence has been
subjected to much criticism and has been denounced as deterministic, ethnocentric and
neither environmentalist nor open-minded enough (Barnett 2000). The other influential
line of argument concerns the reflection on resource access and use and power – mainly
viewed through the lens of gender. Many of these analyses continue to be influenced by
a neo-Marxist framework that has lastingly shaped political ecology. This critical
approach to widespread ‘orthodoxies’ (Forsyth 2003) and the sustainability policies
resulting from them is, in my opinion, one of the strongest arguments for a
deconstructivist political ecology. The different theoretical approaches, which can
never be clearly separated one from another need not necessarily be viewed as a
problem but rather make for a rich pool of ideas where further research can draw from.

Besides theory-building another task that remains is the reconciliation between the
more ecocentric and positivist with the more anthropocentric and post-positivist views.
Moreover, political ecology scholars now face the dilemma of defining the social
relevance and policy implications of their research. On the one hand there is, due to the

31
Political Ecology in Development Research

discipline’s concern with equality and social justice, a ‘call for action’, i.e. finding the
practical implications of political ecology research results. On the other hand political
ecology scholars need to situate themselves in the field of research by questioning their
own role in the production of specific scientific discourses (Paulson et al. 2003, 215).

Future analyses must take into account the North-South dimensions and disparities of
environmental discourse and problems and, ultimately, come up with a more
differentiated approach. Neither are local rural land users intrinsically good and
governmental (NGO/supranational) actors per se evil as the many case studies on local
struggles and resistance towards international and state sponsored environmental uses
and their rhetoric seem to suggest. Nor are local communities inherently non-
sustainable resources users and automatically a threat to global environmental security
and welfare- To conclude, in both cases the motivations, agendas and legitimacy of
different actors – as well as of scholars and thus oneself – must be scrutinised.

The theoretical base of political ecology remains facetted and multi-angular. The most
important stream of scholarly theorising in this field stems from constructivists’
discourse analysis. They provide a fruitful way of analysing the construction of conflict
objectives, relations between conflict parties and environmental hazards. The most
important critique levelled against constructivism concerns the fact that environmental
realities and the role of nature are neglected or at least understated. This is apoint that
can not completely be dismissed. Nonetheless, a few promising attempts to shape a
theory of political ecology have been made lately (Peet and Watts 1996, Bryant and
Bailey 1997, Forsyth 2003). Nonetheless, scholars obviously and in accordance with
their disciplinary background and theoretical orientation favour one approach over the
other. The formulation of an overarching theory of political ecology remains an
outstanding and ambitious challenge to be tackled by future scholars.

At the same time the apparent ‘diversity of approach’ (as postulated by Blaikie and
Brookfield 1987) of different theoretical backgrounds need not necessarily be seen as a
problem. Far from it, this flexibility makes the strength of political ecology. The
combination of the more ecological, eco-centric, positivist ideas, with the risk/costs
assessments of political economists and the permanent questioning of generally
accepted truths by post-positivist discourse analysts improves our understanding of the
interaction of natural and social realities. To conclude, one might argue that the lack of
a coherent theoretical base of political ecology is its major weakness, the diversity of
theoretical backgrounds, though, its greatest strength. As the editors of the ‘Journal of
Political Ecology’ have put it in their foreword to the first edition: ‘…we feel it would
be ill-advised to define ‘political ecology’ and maintain rather that all forms of political
ecology will have some family resemblances but need not share a common core’
(Greenberg and Park 1994, 8).

32
 Abbreviations

Abbreviations

CBNRM Community-Based Natural Resource Management

GAD Gender and Development

HBE Human Behavioural Ecology

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

IPAT Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology

IUCN The World Conservation Union

PPR Population Pressure on Resources

SAP Structural Adjustment Programme

SWC Soil and Water Conservation

UNEP United Nations Environmental Programme

UNCOD United Nations Conference on Desertification

WID Women in Development

WED Women, Environment, Development

WWF World Wildlife Fund

33
Political Ecology in Development Research

Annotated Bibliography

Adams, William M. (2001). Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the

Third World. 2nd ed. London, Routledge.
Abstract: Green Development analyzes the evolution of the concept of ‘sustainable
development’, and assesses how this can be applied in the real world. William Adams
questions the established understanding of the problems of environment and
development, stressing the inadequacy of a narrow view of environmental impacts and a
limited response based on traditional conservation measures. He bridges the gap between
environmentalism and development studies and argues that the central focus of ‘green
development’ should be on the needs of the poor, and their capacity for control, power,
and self-determination.

Adams, William M (1997). Rationalization and conservation: ecology and the

management of nature in the United Kingdom, Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers, NS 22, pp. 277-291.
[Link]
Abstract: Nature conservation in the UK comprises not only a response to the perceived
impacts of rationalization on nature but is itself a dimension of that process of
rationalization. The paper describes the development of conservation institutions and
ideologies in the UK and considers the ways in which ecology (and particularly ideas of
nature as equilibrium) have provided the intellectual framework for conservation. Ecology
underpinned the establishment of government conservation institutions, provided
intellectual strategies for classifying and objectifying nature, and provided the knowledge
base for the control and management of nature. The paper discusses the implications of
non-equilibrial ideas in ecology for ideas and practice in conservation and the
implications of responses to them in the form of re-rationalization.

Adams, William, Elizabeth Watson and Samuel Mutiso (1997). Water, Rules and Gender:
Water Rights in an Indigenous Irrigation System, Marakwet, Kenya, Development and
Change, Vol. 28 No. 4, pp. 707-730.
[Link]
Abstract: The management of indigenous irrigation systems has received increasing
attention both from social science researchers and from those development agents who
seek to change them, or to find in them a model for organizing newly developed irrigation
schemes. This article discusses how water is allocated within one such irrigation system,
the hill furrow irrigation of the Marakwet escarpment in Kenya. It describes the 'formal
rules' of water rights, giving particular attention to the issue of gender with respect to
water rights. It then discusses the 'working rules' relevant to water allocation, involving
various informal practices of sharing, buying and stealing. The implications of this
complexity for understanding the operation of indigenous farmer-managed irrigation
systems are examined.

Adger, W. Neil et al. (2001). Advancing a Political Ecology of Global Environmental

Discourses, Development and Change, Vol. 32, pp. 681-715.
Abstract: In this article, we identify the major discourses associated with four global
environmental issues: deforestation, desertification, biodiversity and climate change.
These discourses are analysed in terms of their messages, narrative structures and policy
prescriptions. We find striking parallels in the nature and structure of the discourses and
their illegibility at the local scale. […] The research shows that policy-making institutions
are distanced from the resource users and that local scale environmental management

34
 Annotated Bibliography

moves with a distinct dynamic and experiences alternative manifestations of

environmental change and livelihood imperatives.

Affeltranger, Bastien and Frédéric Lasserre (2003). La gestion par bassin versant: du
principe écologique à la contrainte politique - le cas du Mékong, VertigO, Vol. 4, No. 3,
[Link]
Abstract: Basin-wide management for water-related projects and land-use planning is a
principle or sustainable development. On the Mekong basin, governments, aid agencies
and non-governmental organisations rely on this principle to justify their claims. Yet,
most stakeholders see basin-scale institutional development as a constraint, and are not
willing to support it. This paper analyses the reasons for this reluctance.

Agarwal, Bina (1995). A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Abstract: In this comprehensive analysis of gender and property throughout South Asia,
Bina Agarwal argues that the most important economic factor affecting women is the
gender gap in command over property. In rural South Asia, few women own land and even
fewer control it. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including field research, the author
addresses the reason for this imbalance, and asks how the barriers to ownership can be
overcome. The book offers original insights into the current theoretical and policy
debates on land reform and women's status.

Barnett, Jon (2000). Destabilizing the Environment-Conflict Thesis, Review of

International Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 271-288.
Abstract: The argument that environmental degradation will lead to conflict is a well
established concern of international studies, and it dominates the literature on
environmental security. This article critically examines theories about wars fought over
scarce ‘environmental’ resources, ‘water wars’, and the argument that population growth
may induce conflict. One significant research programme—the Project on Environment,
Population and Security— is also discussed. The article ends with an evaluation of the
theoretical merits and practical effects of the environment–conflict thesis. It argues that
the environment–conflict thesis is theoretically rather than empirically driven, and is both
a product and legitimation of the Northern security agenda.

Bassett, Thomas J. (1988). The Political Ecology of Peasant-Herder Conflicts in the

Northern Ivory Coast, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 78, No.
3, pp. 453-472.
Abstract: Following the great Sahelian drought of the early 1970s, an unprecedented
number of Fulani pastoralists immigrated to the Ivory Coast with their cattle. Although
welcomed by the Ivorian government for their contribution to national beef production,
the Fulani's presence has been bitterly opposed by Senufo peasants in the savanna region
over the problem of uncompensated crop damage. I examine the nature of peasant-
herder conflicts in northern Ivory Coast from a ‘political ecology’ perspective and argue
that it is at the intersection of Ivorian political economy and the human ecology of
agricultural systems in the savanna region that one can begin to identify the key
processes and decision-making conditions behind the current conflict. The case study
seeks to contribute to the growing literature on peasant-herder interactions in sub-
Saharan Africa by viewing peasant-herder conflicts as ‘responses in context.’ The political
ecology approach provides a framework for human ecologists interested in examining the
interrelationships between local patterns of resource use and the larger political economy.

35
Political Ecology in Development Research

Bassett, Thomas J. and Koli Bì Zueli (2000) Environmental Discourses and the Ivoirian
Savanna, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 90, No. 1, pp. 67-95.
[Link]
Abstract: Taking the West African case study of Côte d'Ivoire, this paper argues that the
planning process, specifically the identification of environmental problems, is based on a
poor understanding of the nature and direction of environmental change. We confront
this data problem by contrasting the image of a deforested savanna landscape found in
the Côte d'Ivoire NEAP with the more wooded landscape experienced by farmers and
herders and confirmed by our analysis of aerial photographs. Our second objective is to
address the policy implications of two geographical issues rising from this paper: the
disjointed scale problem between local/regional environmental-change patterns and
global environmental discourses, and the human-environmental consequences of
ignoring actual versus imagined environmental problems. A third goal is to contribute to
the growing convergence in cultural and political ecology around the use of multiple
research methods to explain environmental-change dynamics. Our discussion of
environmental change is informed by intensive data collection in two rural communities in
the Korhogo region of northern Côte d'Ivoire.

Bassett, Thomas J. and Donald Crummey, eds. (2003). African Savannas. Gobal
Narratives & Local Knowledge of Environmental Change, Oxford, James Currey.
Abstract. Images of degradation and chaos predominate many scholarly and popular
conceptions of the African environment. This interdisciplinary collection uses
collaborative research from the major savanna regions that stretch across Africa to
challenge these notions. It argues that the interpretation of landscapes requires a
consideration of the unique political and ecological practices in Africa. The image of
environment and society in African savannas cultivated by this book is one of innovation,
resilience, and spatial and temporal variability. It is an image that stresses the vitality and
importance of local African knowledge for understanding environmental change.
Accessibly written, this collection will appeal to general readers concerned about
ecological issues in Africa.

Berkes, Fikret and Carl Folke, eds. (2000). Linking Social and Ecological Systems:
Management Practices and Social Mechanisms for Building Resilience. Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press.
Abstract: It is usually the case that scientists examine either ecological systems or social
systems, yet the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the problems of environmental
management and sustainable development is becoming increasingly obvious. Developed
under the auspices of the Beijer Institute in Stockholm, this new book analyses social and
ecological linkages in selected ecosystems using an international and interdisciplinary
case study approach. The chapters provide detailed information on a variety of
management practices for dealing with environmental change. Taken as a whole, the
book will contribute to the greater understanding of essential social responses to changes
in ecosystems, including the generation, accumulation and transmission of ecological
knowledge, structure and dynamics of institutions, and the cultural values underlying
these responses. A set of new (or rediscovered) principles for sustainable ecosystem
management is also presented. Linking Social and Ecological Systems will be of value to
natural and social scientists interested in sustainability.

Bezon, Lisa L. (1997). Political Ecology and Conflict in Ankarana, Madagascar,

Ethnology, Vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 85-100.
Abstract: Conflict over issues of land use in northern Madagascar reveals that political
control is situational & rights to resources are ambiguous. Here, two cases derived from
1991-1993 fieldwork reveal that local farmers, the regional royal indigenous leader, &

36
 Annotated Bibliography

international conservationists struggled to establish & maintain the ability to use &
manage the forested land to the west of the Ankarana massif. Political ecology provides a
theoretical framework for exploring the complex political negotiations that are an integral
part of all ecological interactions, focusing on disparate sources of rights & authority for
involved parties. In recognizing the complexity of such interactions, applied attempts to
address issues of environmental degradation & disenfranchisement may also become
more effective.

Blakie, Piers and Harold Brookfield (1987). Land Degradation and Society. London,
Methuen & Co.
One of the key works that helped to shape the field of research political ecology, this
groundbreaking book was one of the first studies to describe land degradation and soil
erosion not only as human-induced natural process, but as a social process affecting, and
caused by, the prevailing social circumstances.

Bradshaw, Sarah (2002). Exploring the gender dimensions of reconstruction processes

post-hurricane Mitch, Journal of International Development, Vol. 14, No. 6 , pp. 871 –
879.
Abstract: The paper will consider the reconstruction process in Nicaragua post hurricane
Mitch. First, the success of civil society co-ordinations at promoting common people-
centred agendas will be highlighted and contrasted with the difficulties they have faced in
becoming gender inclusive spaces. Second, the extent to which the official rhetoric they
helped to promote has been translated into reality is examined, suggesting that on the
ground projects remain at best women-centred .

Bryant, Raymond L. (1991). Putting Politics First: The Political Ecology of Sustainable
Development, Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters, Vol. 1, No. 6. pp. 164-166.
[Link]
This article argues against the – then predominant – depoliticising of ecology in the
sustainable development debates. It depicts various consequences of this depoliticisation
and promotes a political ecology approach that analyses the politics of ecological change.

Bryant, Raymond L. and Sinéad Bailey (1997). Third World Political Ecology. London,
Routledge.
Abstract: An effective response to contemporary environmental problems demands an
approach that integrates political, economic and ecological issues. Third World Political
Ecology provides an introduction to an exciting new research field that aims to develop an
integrated understanding of the political economy of environmental change in the Third
World. The authors review the historical development of the field, explain what is
distinctive about Third World political ecology, and suggest areas for future development.
Exploring the role of various actors - states, multilateral institutions, businesses, non-
governmental organisations, poverty-stricken farmers and other "grassroots" actors,
Third World Political Ecology is the first major attempt to explain the development and
characteristics of environmental problems that plague parts of Asia, Africa and Latin
America.

Bryant, Raymond L. and Michael K. Goodman (2004). Consuming narratives: the political
ecology of 'alternative' consumption, Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers, Volume 29 Issue 3 Page 344-366.
Abstract: This paper examines how political ecology themes of tropical conservation and
social justice become representational practices underpinning 'alternative' consumption in
the North. The notion of commodity culture is adopted to understand the ambiguous

37
Political Ecology in Development Research

rationalities and ethical assumptions of two sets of consumption practices. The first case
considers Edenic myth-making used to assimilate concerns over tropical deforestation in
the South to consumption-intensive if conservation-minded lifestyles in the North. The
second case looks at fair trade and how concern about social injustice and unfair labour
practices in the South is harnessed to solidarity-seeking consumption constitutive of
'radical' lifestyles. The paper suggests these contrasting commodity cultures broadly
conform to divergent positions in red green debates. It argues that both are weakened
as a form of social and political 'caring at a distance' due to an uncritical acceptance of
consumption as the primary basis of action.

Carney, Judith (1993). Converting the Wetlands, Engendering the Environment: The
Intersection of Gender with Agrarian Change in the Gambia, Economic Geography, Vol.
69, No. 4, Environment and Development, Part 2. pp. 329-348.
[Link]
Abstract: In this paper, I examine how agricultural diversification and food security are
transforming wetland environments in The Gambia. With irrigation schemes being
implemented in lowland swamps to encourage year-round cultivation, agrarian relations
are rife with conflict between men and women over the distribution of work and benefits
of increased household earnings. Economic change gives rise to new claims over the
communal tenure systems prevalent in lowland environments and allows male household
heads to enclose wetlands and thereby control female family labor for consolidating their
strategies of accumulation. The forms of female resistance are detailed in this paper.

Collier, Paul and Anke Hoeffler (2000). Greed and Grievance in Civil War. Washington
D.C., the World Bank.
Abstract: We investigate the causes of civil war, using a new data set of wars during
1960-99. Rebellion may be explained by atypically severe grievances, such as high
inequality, a lack of political rights, or ethnic and religious divisions in society.
Alternatively, it might be explained by atypical opportunities for building a rebel
organization. Opportunity may be determined by access to finance, such as the scope for
extortion of natural resources, and for donations from a diaspora population. Opportunity
may also depend upon factors such as geography: mountains and forests may be needed
to incubate rebellion. We test these explanations and find that opportunity provides
considerably more explanatory power than grievance. Economic viability appears to be the
predominant systematic explanation of rebellion. The results are robust to correction for
outliers, alternative variable definition, and variations in estimation method.

Conklin, Beth A. and Laura R. Graham (1995). The Shifting Middle Ground: Amazonian
Indians and Eco-Politics, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 97, No. 4. (Dec.,
1995), pp. 695-710.
[Link]
Abstract: Over the past decade in Brazil, the convergence between international
environmentalism and indigenous cultural survival concerns led to an unprecedented
internationalization of local native struggles. The Indian-environmentalist alliance has
benefited both parties, but recent events suggest that it may be unstable and may pose
political risks for native people. The limitations of transnational symbolic politics as a
vehicle for indigenous activism reflect tensions and contradictions in outsiders' symbolic
constructions of Indian identity.

38
 Annotated Bibliography

Cramer, Cristopher (2000). War, Famine and the Limits of Economics, Paper
presented at the Conference on Local and Global Dimensions of Food Security:
Threats, Challenges and Responses, University College, Cork, April 13-15
2000.
Abstract: Economists have sought to identify the mechanisms by which war affects
people’s well-being, including their command over food, and to assess the scale of this
economic impact of war. Analyses of the origins of conflict have also identified causal
factors closely related to food insecurity, including rural poverty, land inequality, and
population pressure on land (André and Platteau, 1996; Luckham et al, 1999). However,
another kind of link concerns the analytical issues that studies of food insecurity or
famine and conflict have in common, particularly from the perspective of economics. This
paper focuses on this last link, progressing from a brief discussion of the economics of
famine to a critical discussion of the mainstream economics of conflict. In particular, I
show what can be done with neo-classical economic concepts to analyse the causes of
war. However, there is a range of criticisms of economic analyses of the causes of conflict
that merit more debate. Some of these relate to a charge of “economism”: that these
analyses of violence and war reduce causal explanations exclusively to “laws” of economic
behaviour. Others concern the argument that, while economics is central to the origins of
conflict, an economic analysis that explains such phenomena from the starting point of
microeconomics and methodological individualism is questionable.

Dalby, Simon (2002a). Conflict, Ecology and the Politics of Environmental Security. Book
Review Essay, Global Environment Politics, Vol. 2. No. 4, pp 125-130.
In this article, Dalby reiterates the current debate about the relationships between
environment and conflict. By juxtaposing recent works by Homer-Dixon (1999) Diehl and
Gleditsch (2001) and Hastings (2000), the article contrast the diverging views and
addresses the methodological (and ideological) controversies.

Dalby, Simon (2002b). Environmental Security. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota

Press.
Abstract: Since the end of the Cold War, environmental matters - especially the
international implications of environmental degradation - have figured prominently in
debates about rethinking security. But do the assumptions underlying such discussions
hold up under close scrutiny? In this first treatment of environmental security from a truly
critical perspective, Simon Dalby shows how attempts to explain contemporary insecurity
falter over unexamined notions of both environment and security. Adding environmental
history, aboriginal perspectives, and geopolitics to the analysis explicitly suggests that
the growing disruptions caused by a carbon-fueled and expanding modernity are at the
root of contemporary difficulties. Environmental Security argues that rethinking security
means revisiting the question of how we conceive identities as endangered and how we
perceive threats to these identities. The book clearly demonstrates that the conceptual
basis for critical security studies requires an extended engagement with political theory
and with the assumptions of the modern subject as progressive political agent.

De Haan, Leo J. (2000). The question of development and environment in geography in

the era of globalisation, GeoJournal, Vol. 50, pp. 359-367.
Abstract: This paper focuses on how livelihood and the question of development and
environment in a globalising era should be examined. It discusses various views in
geography on the question of environment and development, and it explores the concept
of sustainable livelihood. It concludes that a geographical conceptualisation of
‘development and environment’ may profit from the discussion on sustainable livelihood,
provided that it does not become entangled in an actor-cum-local bias. Moreover, the

39
Political Ecology in Development Research

diffusion of non-equilibrium concepts may broaden the analysis of man-land relations

and open the way to an analysis of globalisation effects.

De Soysa, Indra (2002). Paradise is a Bazaar? Greed, Creed and Governance in Civil War
1989-99, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 395-416.
[Link]
ysa&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1109340471917_2&store
d_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&journalcode=spjpr
Abstract: Some prominent recent studies of civil war argue that greed, not grievance, is
the primary motivating factor behind violence, basing their conclusions on a strong
empirical association between primary commodity exports and civil war. This study
contrasts alternative propositions that see need-, creed-, and governance-based
explanations that are intimately related to the question of primary commodity
dependence and conflict. Maximum likelihood analysis on approximately 138 countries
over the entire post-Cold War period shows little support for neo-Malthusian claims.
Abundant mineral wealth makes countries highly unstable, whereas scarcity of renewable
resources is largely unrelated to civil conflict. A positive effect of population density on
conflict does not seem to be conditioned by renewable resource scarcity. Ethnicity is
related to conflict when society is moderately homogenous; a highly plural society faces
less risk. Very slight political liberalization leads to conflict, but larger increases reduce
the danger considerably, supporting the view that conflict is driven by opportunistic
behaviour rather than by grievance.

Diehl, Paul F. and Nils Petter Gleditsch, eds. (2001). Environmental Conflict, Boulder,
CO, Westview Press.
Abstract: This book is a collection of articles that deal with different aspects of the role of
environmental factors in interstate and intrastate conflict. Specifically, the book considers
the role of environmental change and degradation in promotion violent conflict, but also
how cooperative efforts might forestall such undesirable consequences. In doing so, the
chapters encompass much of the cutting-edge research in the area of the environmental
security. All chapters have a strong empirical base and build upon the most recent
research in the field of international conflict. Although there is heterogeneity in approach
and scope, all the chapters are broadly concerned with theoretical issues and generally
form a coherent whole around the theme that environmental factors may influence group
and state decisions to employ violence.

Escobar, Arturo (1996). Constructing Nature. Elements for a poststructural political

ecology, in: Richard Peets and Michael Watts, eds. Liberation Ecologies – environment,
development, social movements. London, Routledge.

Escobar, Arturo (1998). Whose Knowledge, Whose Nature? Biodiversity, Conservation

and the Political Ecology of Social Movements, Journal of Political Ecology, Vol. 5, pp.
53-82.
Abstract: This paper lays down the rudiments of a framework for rethinking the
appropriation and conservation of biological diversity from the perspective of social
movements, particularly those that have emerged recently in biodiversity-rich regions
such as tropical rainforests. It is not the only, or even privileged, framework for
examining this biologically, culturally, and politically complex issue, but one that, it is
argued, is necessary if the claims on biodiversity by social movements are to be taken
seriously. Discussions of the economic, technological, and managerial mechanisms for
actualizing and distributing the benefits of biodiversity have occupied most of the
attention in national and international circles. At the same time, these discussions have
been accompanied by a parallel process, namely, the appearance of new social actors,

40
 Annotated Bibliography

including progressive NGOs in many countries and local social movements engaged in the
redefinition of cultural and ethnic identities. The political strategies of these actors
constitute an important intervention into what is already a highly transnationalized
nature/culture field.

Escobar, Arturo (1999). After Nature: Steps to an Antiessentialist Political Ecology,

Current Anthropology, Vol. 40, No. 1. pp. 1-30.
[Link]
Abstract: This paper presents the outline of an anthropological political ecology that fully
acknowledges the constructedness of nature while suggesting steps to weave together
the cultural and the biological on constructivist grounds. […] The paper proposes an
antiessentialist framework for investigating the manifold forms that the natural takes in
today’s world. This proposal builds on current trends in ecological anthropology, political
ecology and cultural studies of science and technology.

Fairhead, James and Melissa Leach (1996). Misreading the African Landscape: Society
and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Abstract: West African landscapes are generally considered as degraded, especially on the
forest edge. This unique study shows how wrong that view can be, by revealing how
inhabitants have enriched their land when scientists believe they have degraded it.
Historical and anthropological methods demonstrate how intelligent African farmers' own
land management can be, while scientists and policy makers have misunderstood the
African environment. The book provides a new framework for ecological anthropology,
and a challenge to old assumptions about the African landscape.

Fairhead, James and Melissa Leach (1998). Reframing Deforestation: Global Analysis and
Local Realities: Studies in West Africa. London, Routledge.
Abstract: Reframing Deforestation suggests that the scale of deforestation wrought by
West African farmers during the twentieth century has been vastly exaggerated and global
analyses have unfairly stigmatised them and obscured their more sustainable, even
landscape-enriching practices. The book begins by reviewing how West African
deforestation is represented and the types of evidence which inform deforestation
orthodoxy. On a country by country basis (covering Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D'Ivoire,
Ghana, Togo and Benin), and using historical and social anthropological evidence
subsequent chapters evaluate this orthodox critically. Together the cases build up a
variety of arguments which serve to reframe history and question how and why
deforestation has been exaggerated throughout West Africa, setting the analysis in its
institutional and social context. Stessing that dominant policy approaches in forestry and
conservation require major rethinking worldwide, Reframing Deforestation illustrates that
more realistic assessments of forest cover change, and more respectful attention to local
knowledge and practices, are necessary bases for effective and appropriate environmental
policies.

Forsyth, Tim (2003). Critical political ecology: the politics of environmental science.
London and New York: Routledge.
Abstract: Critical Political Ecology brings political debate to the science of ecology. As
political controversies multiply over the science underlying environmental debates, there
is an increasing need to understand the relationship between environmental science and
politics. In this timely and wide-ranging volume, Tim Forsyth provides innovative
approaches to applying political analysis to ecology, and shows how more politicised
approaches to science can be used in environmental decision making.

41
Political Ecology in Development Research

Goldman, Michael and Rachel A. Schurman (2000). Closing the ‘Great Divide’: New
Social Theory on Society and Nature, Annual Reviews of Sociology, Vol. 26, pp. 563-
584.
Abstract: Twenty years ago, two environmental sociologists made a bold call for a
paradigmatic shift in the discipline of sociology - namely, one that would bring nature
into the center of sociological inquiry and recognize the inseparability of nature and
society. In this essay, we review recent scholarship that seeks to meet this challenge. The
respective strands of this literature come from the margins of environmental sociology
and border on other arenas of social theory production, including neo-Marxism, political
ecology, materialist feminism, and social studies of science. Bringing together scholars
from sociology, anthropology, geography, and history, each of these strands offers what
we consider the most innovative new work trying to move sociology beyond the
nature/society divide.

Greenberg, James B. and Thomas K. Park (1994). Political Ecology, Journal of Political
Ecology, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-12.
[Link]
In the foreword to the first issue of the new founded journal of political ecology the
editors give a brief overview over the field and formulate the hopes that they have in
bringing researchers from a multitude of disciplines together in this journal.

Grossmann, Lawrence S. (1997). Soil Conservation, Political Ecology, and Technological

Change on Saint Vincent, Geographical Review , Vol. 87, No. 3, pp. 353-374
[Link]
Abstract: A political-ecological perspective is used to analyse soil erosion, conservation,
and the peasantry on Saint Vincent in the Eastern Caribbean. Peasants farm areas most
susceptible to erosion because of the historical development of property relationships. A
soil-conservation effort begun in the late 1930s was part of a broader, British Empire-
wide program. Local political-economic conditions and the environmental and technical
characteristics of the cropping systems influenced the nature of soil conservation on Saint
Vincent. Official colonial discourse about erosion reflected a complex mixture of blaming
peasants and recognizing their political-economic constraints.

Hagmann, Tobias (2005). Confronting the Concept of Environmentally Induced Conflict,

Peace, Conflict and Development, Issue 6, pp. 1-22.
[Link]
Abstract: The article takes stock of the contradictory body of literature on the
environmental causes of violent inter-group conflict in developing countries. It reviews
key scholarly works of the environmental conflict field and points out their main
shortcomings in the realms of research design, theory, and normative foundation. I argue
that the concept of environmental conflict is fundamentally flawed, as it relies on
preconceived causalities, intermingles eco-centric with anthropocentric philosophies, and
neglects the motivations and subjective perceptions of local actors. In addition, a number
of theoretical and heuristic questions are raised in order to challenge core assumptions
on the ecological causes of violent conflict. The article concludes with a plea for peace
and conflict researchers to call into question the concept of environmental conflict, as it
represents an inappropriate research strategy in our quest to understand human-nature
interactions.

Hansis, Richard (1998). A Political Ecology of Picking: Non-Timber Forest Products in

the Pacific Northwest, Human Ecology, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 67-86.
Abstract: Using a political ecology framework, this research analyzes the recent entry of
recent Latino and Southeast Asian immigrants into the harvesting of non-timber forest

42
 Annotated Bibliography

products in the Pacific Northwest. Using both permit data and interviewing, it suggests
that a world market for these products, government policy, and environmental conditions
have the potential for driving harvests to unsustainable levels and exacerbating incipient
conflicts.

Harrison, Carolyn M. and Jacquelin Burgess (1994). Social constructions of nature: a

case study of conflicts over the development of the Rainham Marshes, Transactions of
the Institute of British Geographers, Vol.19, No. 3, pp. 291-310.
Abstract: This paper analyses social constructions of nature in different discursive
contexts and the ways in which particular representations of nature are used to legitimate
specific institutional policies and practices. The proposal to create a commercial and
entertainment development on the Rainham Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI) in east London provides the case study. Drawing on arguments from media
sociology and the sociology of risk, the paper explores the identification of distinctive
myths of nature associated with particular sociopolitical formations within the discourses
of developers, conservationists, the media and the public. Detailed ethnographic research
reveals how the developers and conservationists employed different constructions of
nature to justify their respective positions and how different local audiences made sense
of competing claims about the relative worth of the 'nature' on their doorsteps.

Helvarg, David (2004). The War Against the Greens: The “Wise-Use” Movement, the New
Right, and the Browning of America. Revised edition, Boulder, CO, Johnson Books.
Abstract: A reign of violence and intimidation, including arson, bombings, rape, assault
and even murder, was unleashed against environmental activists and government
employees by proponents of the so-called “Wise Use” movement. David Helvarg, in The
War Against the Greens, ripped the veneer of legitimacy off this right-wing backlash that
stretched from armed militias to the halls of Congress, exposing the public lands
corporations, political operatives and fringe groups who set out to destroy America’s
environmental protections by any means necessary. First published by Sierra Club Books
in 1994, the book had an immediate impact on public policy and law enforcement,
helping to curb the extremists and their allies. But ten years later, Helvarg finds that
George W. Bush has opened wide the doors of his administration to these same
individuals and industries who are now getting rich off the looting of our public lands. In
a wide-ranging, hard-hitting new chapter, Helvarg exposes the Wise Use veterans,
lawyers, and lobbyists who have been put in charge of our public resources, and the
public-be-damned policies they’re pursuing.

Hodgson, Dorothy L. (2001). Once Intrepid Warriors: Gender, Ethnicity and the Cultural
Politics of Maasai Development. Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press.
Abstract: Hodgson presents us with a complex, interactive picture of change over time,
one dominated neither by the Maasai nor the state and development apparatus. . . . The
Maasai emerge not simply as the 'intrepid warriors' envisioned by government and
development officials, or even sometimes by themselves, but as active agents in the
construction of their own history. This history, however, is often contradictory, contested,
and varied.

Homer-Dixon, Thomas (1994). Environment Scarcities and Violent Conflict:

Evidence from Cases, International Security, Vol.19, No. 1, pp. 5-40.
[Link]
Abstract: Within the next fifty years, the planet's human population will probably pass
nine billion, and global economic output may quintuple. Largely as a result, scarcities of
renewable resources will increase sharply. The total area of high-quality agricultural land
will drop, as will the extent of forests and the number of species they sustain. Coming

43
Political Ecology in Development Research

generations will also see the widespread depletion and degradation of aquifers, rivers,
and other water resources; the decline of many fisheries; and perhaps significant climate
change. If such "environmental scarcities" become severe, could they precipitate violent
civil or international conflict? I have previously surveyed the issues and evidence
surrounding this question and proposed an agenda for further research.1 Here I report the
results of an international research project guided by this agenda.2 Following a brief
review of my original hypotheses and the project's research design, I present several
general findings of this research that led me to revise the original hypotheses. The article
continues with an account of empirical evidence for and against the revised hypotheses,
and it concludes with an assessment of the implications of environmentally induced
conflict for international security.

Homer-Dixon, Thomas (1999). Environment Scarcity and Violence. Princeton, NJ,

Princeton University Press.
Abstract: Homer-Dixon synthesizes work from a wide range of international research
projects to develop a detailed model of the sources of environmental scarcity. He refers to
water shortages in China, population growth in sub-Saharan Africa, and land distribution
in Mexico, for example, to show that scarcities stem from the degradation and depletion
of renewable resources, the increased demand for these resources, and/or their unequal
distribution. He shows that these scarcities can lead to deepened poverty, large-scale
migrations, sharpened social cleavages, and weakened institutions. And he describes the
kinds of violence that can result from these social effects, arguing that conflicts in
Chiapas, Mexico and ongoing turmoil in many African and Asian countries, for instance,
are already partly a consequence of scarcity.

Iftikhar, Usman Ali (2003). NASSD Background Paper: Population, Poverty and
Environment. IUCN Pakistan, Northern Areas Programme, Gilgit.
In this paper, the entitlements approach is used to examine Pakistan’s Northern Areas
and the environmental change taking place there. After a review of the literature and the
theories of entitlements and environmental change, the author then outlays possible
guidelines for sustainable development policies in this specific area of research.

Igoe, Jim (2000). Ethnicity, Civil Society and the Tanzanian Pastoral NGO Movement: the
Continuities and Discontinuities of Liberalized Development, PhD Dissertation, Dep. Of
Anthropology, Boston University.

Ilahiane, Hsain (1996). Small-Scale Irrigation in a Multi-Ethnic Oasis Environment: the

Case of Zaouit Amelkis Village, Southeast Morocco, Journal of Political Ecology, Vol. 3.
89-106.
[Link]
Abstract: This paper describes a locally managed and maintained small scale irrigation
system in the middle Ziz Valley oasis with particular focus on the village of Zaouit
Amelkis. The village of Zaouit Amelkis is one of the sites where the author conducted
dissertation fieldwork on the relationship between ethnicity and agricultural
intensification in 1994 and 1995. This paper argues that the village of Zaouit Amelkis
provides a case study where small-scale irrigation maintenance has been based on labor
extortion from the low-status Haratine by the high- status Berbers and Arabs. This paper
describes: (1) the environment of the Ziz Valley, (2) the Ziz Valley's society of rank, (3)
the irrigation system of the village of Zaouit Amelkis, and (4) the social organization of
the Zaouit Amelkis' irrigation system.

44
 Annotated Bibliography

Jackson, Cecile (1998). Gender, irrigation, and environment: Arguing for agency,
Agriculture and Human Values, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 313-324.
[Link]
&backto=issue,4,12;journal,26,33;linkingpublicationresults,1:102841,1
Abstract: This paper is not a critique of water policies, or an advocacy of alternatives, but
rather suggests a shift of emphasis in the ways in which gender analysis is applied to
water, development, and environmental issues. It argues that feminist political ecology
provides a generally stronger framework for understanding these issues than
ecofeminism, but cautions against a reversion to materialist approaches in reactions to
ecofeminism that, like ecofeminism, can be static and ignore the agency of women and
men. The paper draws attention to the subjectivities of women and their embodied
livelihoods as a more useful approach to understanding the ways in which women relate
to water in both irrigated agriculture and domestic provisioning.

Johnson, Craig (2004). Uncommon Ground: The ‘Poverty of History’ in Common

Property Discourse. Development and Change, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 407-433.
Abstract: This article argues that the literature on common property has become divided
between a body of scholarship that uses deductive models of individual decision-making
and rational choice to explain the ways in which different types of property rights
arrangements emerge and change over time, and one whose questions, aims and
methods are more modest, and historically-specific. It then aims to understand this
evolution by situating the mainstream common property discourse in the wider
intellectual trend of positivism, methodological individualism and formal modelling that
has come to dominate social science in the United States. In so doing, it attempts to
unravel the political and ideological foundations of what has come to be a dominant
mode of understanding environmental problems, and solutions to these problems.

Kaltenborn, Bjørn P, Odd I. Vistad and Saulius Stanaitis (2002). National Parks in
Lithuania: old environment in a new democracy, Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift, Vol. 56,
No. 1, pp. 32-40.
Abstract: Despite a long tradition of nature and forestry management, conservation of
nature has a relatively short history in Lithuania. Most aspects of environmental
management are facing considerable challenges since Lithuania's recent freedom from the
50-year Soviet regime. New democracies tend to develop new and often unpredictable
ramifications for environmental management, and there is an urgent need for developing
national park concepts and planning models that are responsive to the local context. This
paper discusses some of the challenges encountered in developing and adjusting national
park concepts. Lithuanian parks, like protected areas in other parts of the world, are
characterised by the interaction of diverse natural and socio-cultural factors. This more or
less unique complexity is the essence of the national park identity. Sustainable
management of integrated protected area resources demands a change from the former
expert-based top-down Soviet management. New models of collaborative, adaptive
management will need to consider multiple values and goals and be able to function
within rapidly changing political and administrative contexts.

Keeley, James and Ian Scoones (2000). Knowledge, power and politics: the
environmental policy-making process in Ethiopia, The Journal of Modern African
Studies, Vol. 38, No.1, pp. 89-120.
In this much discussed article (see below and in the text), the authors analyse the actor-
networks that shape the discourse about resource management and environmental
rehabilitation in Ethiopia and the discourse itself. From the analysis of the actors and the
implemented top-down soil conservation strategies, they infer that the discourse about,

45
Political Ecology in Development Research

and the measures against, soil degradation are heavily backed by multinational
agrochemical industries.

Keeley, James and Ian Scoones (2004). Understanding policy processes in Ethiopia: a
response, The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 42, No.1, pp. 149-153.
The response to the cited critique of Nyssen et al. (2004) of their abovementioned 2000
article.

Kalipeni, Ezekiel and Joseph Oppong (1998). The refugee crisis in Africa and
implications for health and disease: a political ecology approach, Social Science &
Medecine, Vol. 46, No. 12, pp. 1637-1653.
[Link]
Abstract: Political violence in civil war and ethnic conflicts has generated millions of
refugees across the African continent with unbelievable pictures of suffering and
unnecessary death. Using a political ecology framework, this paper examines the
geographies of exile and refugee movements and the associated implications for re-
emerging and newly emerging infectious diseases in great detail. It examines how the
political ecologic circumstances underlying the refugee crisis influences health services
delivery and the problems of disease and health in refugee camps.

Laurie, Nina (2005). Establishing Development Orthodoxy: Negotiating Masculinities in

the Water Sector, Development and Change, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 527-549.
Abstract: Despite important work in development studies on the ‘male bias in the
development process’, it is generally recognized that gender and development analyses
have been slow to engage with masculinities. Focusing attention on the nexus between
identity and globalizing development discourses, this article explores the relationship
between masculinities and development through an analysis of the gendering of water
paradigms. By analysing the example of the recent Cochabamba water wars in Bolivia, and
placing them in historical context, the author explores how gendered representations and
language are used to downplay and upgrade particular understandings of modernity as
they relate to water management, and examines the mechanisms through which specific
gendered identities become associated with the most successful versions of ‘modern’
development.

Leach, Melissa and Robin Mearns, eds. (1996). The lie of the land: challenging received
wisdom on the African environment. Oxford, James Currey; Portsmouth, NH,
Heinemann.
Abstract: Images of children starving because of environmental destruction have become
an integral part of the way that Africa is perceived in the West, a typical signpost to "the
lie of the land." The driving force behind much environmental policy in Africa is a set of
similar images and powerful assumptions about environmental crises. We read about
overgrazing and the spread of deserts, the overuse of woodfuels and decline of forests,
soil erosion, and the over-mining of natural resources. Yet the newer research reported in
this book shows that many of the "crisis" images are deeply misleading. If the
assumptions behind these apparent crises are incorrect, then many of the policies created
to "solve" them are misguided. This book questions the reasoning behind such images
and brings us critical current information about environmental change

46
 Annotated Bibliography

Leach, Melissa, Robin Mearns and Ian Scoones (1997). Environmental entitlements: a
conceptual framework for understanding the institutional dynamics of environmental
change. IDS Discussion Paper, 369. Brighton, Institute of Development Studies.
Abstract: This overview paper seeks to complement and add to emerging critiques of
'community-based sustainable development' by focusing on the implications of intra-
community dynamics and ecological heterogeneity. It offers a conceptual framework
which highlights the central role of institutions in mediating the relationships between
environment and society, using an 'extended' form of entitlement analysis to explore how
different social actors command environmental goods and services. The theoretical
argument is illustrated with recent empirical research in India, South Africa and Ghana.

Leach, Melissa, Robin Mearns and Ian Scoones (1999). Environmental Entitlements:
Dynamics and Institutions in Community-Based Natural Resource Management, World
Development, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 225-247.
One of the cornerstones of the ‘environmental entitlements concept’, this paper adds new
perspectives to Amartya Sen’s entitlement studies of famine. A strong critique of the
widespread Community-Based Natural Resource Management strategies is underpinned
by a case study of local rights to use maracanteae leaves in rural Ghana.

Leach, Melissa (2003). Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: Repositioning Gender in
Development Policy and Practice. Paper prepared for the International Workshop
Feminist Fables and Gender Myths: Repositioning Gender in Development Policy and
Practice, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, 2-4 July 2003
Abstract: The notion that women are closer to nature, naturally caring for land, water,
forests and other aspects of the environment, has held powerful sway in certain
development circles since the 1980s. This has led to problematic programmes which gave
women responsibility to protect the environment without resources or power to do so.
Since the 1990s such “ecofeminist” fables and their effects have been thoroughly
critiqued by feminist scholars and activists. A review of current donor, NGO and other
policy documents shows that these myths are far less prominent than a decade ago. This
is not because they were successfully critiqued, but rather because the flawed arguments
served a time bound purpose which diminished as broader environment and development
concerns have altered. Older concerns with women and environment have now been
recast in terms of property rights, resource access and control. While welcome in some
respects, there is a danger that the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater.
Gender-blind environment and development work seems on the rise, and a more
politicised gender relations perspective on the environment remains rare in policy in
practice.

Le Billon, Nicolas (2001). The political ecology of war: natural resources and armed
conflicts, Political Geography, Vol. 20, No. 5, pp 561-584.
In this paper, the author describes how armed conflicts are fuelled and shaped by natural
resources. He sees resource conflicts rooted in the history of capitalist resources
extraction and thus draws a line from mercantilism, to colonial capitalism, to present-day
state kleptocracy. He then moves on to describe how scarcity of renewable resources
engenders need, but abundance of non-renewable resources makes a country’s economy
much more prone to clientelism and patronage and to market fluctuations. Furthermore,
he provides a very useful comparison between the nature of resources and the nature of
conflicts (573) and in the last section, mentions the difficulties external peace initiatives
face because of the stakes that international actors have in resource exploitation.

47
Political Ecology in Development Research

Le Billon, Philippe (2002). Logging in Muddy Waters: the Politics of Forest Exploitation
in Cambodia, Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 563-586.
Abstract: ‘Logging in Muddy Waters’ analyzes the boom in forest exploitation that
characterized the 1990s in Cambodia, focusing on the instrumentalization of disorder
and violence as a mode of control of forest access and timber-trading channels. The
article examines tensions existing between the aspirations of Cambodians for a better
life, the power politics of elites, and the hope of some in the international community for
a green and democratic peace. These tensions have produced both an interlocking
pattern of ‘illegal logging’ from the highest levels of the state to self-demobilized
soldiers and peasants and sustained criticism that was only temporarily resolved through
a legalization of the forest sector that benefited large-scale companies to the prejudice of
the poor.

Locke, Catherine (1999). Constructing a Gender Policy for Joint Forest Management in
India, Development and Change, Vol. 30, pp. 265-285.
[Link]
Abstract: Policy makers and advocates of joint forest management (JFM) agree that women
should be full participants and that their involvement is especially important because of
the nature of women's work. This article examines how JFM policy has addressed gender
in India. It argues that policy has been informed by instrumentalist positions in the debate
over women's relationship to the environment. Consequently, gender planning in JFM has
focused on two issues: formal representation for women in local institutions, and
identifying women's 'special' values, knowledge and uses of forest resources. The scant
evidence suggests that the impact of JFM on women has generally been negative. Finally,
the article suggests that gender policy in JFM needs to be based on a more sophisticated
understanding of gender relations and a wider examination of the gendered context of
JFM processes.

Logan, B. Ikubolajeh and William G. Moseley (2002). The political ecology of poverty
alleviation in Zimbabwe’s Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous
Resources (CAMPFIRE), Geoforum, Vol. 33, pp.1-14.
[Link]
Abstract: The CAMPFIRE program in Zimbabwe is one of a `new breed' of strategies
designed to tackle environmental management at the grassroots level. CAMPFIRE aims to
help rural communities to manage their resources, especially wildlife, for their own local
development. The program's central objective is to alleviate rural poverty by giving rural
communities autonomy over resource management and to demonstrate to them that
wildlife is not necessarily a hindrance to arable agriculture, ‘but a resource that could be
managed and ‘cultivated’ to provide income and food’. In this paper, we assess two
important elements of CAMPFIRE: poverty alleviation and local empowerment and
comment on the program's performance in achieving these highly interconnected
objectives. We analyze the program's achievements in poverty alleviation by exploring
tenurial patterns, resource ownership and the allocation of proceeds from resource
exploitation; and its progress in local empowerment by examining its administrative and
decision making structures. We conclude that the program cannot effectively achieve the
goal of poverty alleviation without first addressing the administrative and legal structures
that underlie the country's political ecology.

Logan, B. Ikubolajeh (2004). Ideology and Power in Resource Management, in: Moseley,
William and B. Ikubolajeh Logan, eds. (2004). African environment and development:
rhetoric, programs, realities. Aldershot, Burlington, VT, Ashgate.

48
 Annotated Bibliography

Lupu, Noam (2004). Towards a new articulation of Alternative Development: Lessons

from Coca Supply Reductions in Bolivia, Development Policy Review, Vol. 22, No. 4, pp.
405- 421.
Abstract: Once heralded as the success story of coca supply reduction, Bolivia is now
witnessing an increase in coca cultivation. Even as coca fields in Bolivia were forcibly
destroyed in the past decade, new fields were being planted elsewhere, leaving coca
production in the Andean region at a roughly constant level. This begs a rethinking of
alternative development programmes, the policies being rendered ineffectual by the
increasing use of force. This article seeks renewed momentum for alternative
development by gleaning lessons from its earlier failures. Moreover, it suggests a new
articulation of alternative development that emphasises the socio-economic cause of coca
cultivation the demand by the rural poor of Bolivia for income and food security.

Matthew, Richard and Ted Gaulin (2001). The social and political impact of resource
scarcity on small islands, Global Environmental Politics, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 48-70.
[Link]
00008
Abstract: This paper examines the social and political consequences of natural resource
scarcity on three Pacific island territories: Easter Island, Nauru and Solomon Islands. In
contrast to prominent theories in the environmental security literature, the case studies in
this paper indicate that resource scarcity does not perforce lead to violent conflict. The
authors explain differential outcomes on the basis of four variables: extent of scarcity;
level of democracy; degree of economic openness; and involvement in regional regimes.

McCarthy, James (2002). First World political ecology: lessons from the Wise Use
movement, Envvironment and Planning A, Vol. 34, pp. 1281-1302.
Abstract: The Author demonstrates, through a case study of the Wise Use movement, that
the insights and tools of political ecology have much to offer in the study of First World
resource conflicts. He uses theories and methods drawn from the literature concerning
political ecology and moral economies to argue that many assumptions regarding state
capacity, individual and collective identities and motivations, and economic and historical
relations in relation to advanced capitalist countries are mistaken or incomplete in ways
that have led to important dimensions of environmental conflcts in such locales being
overlooked.

Mortimore, Michael (1989). Adapting to Drought: Farmers, Famines and Desertification

in West Africa, New York, Cambridge University Press.
Abstract: The traditional image of contemporary Africa is of a continent dogged by
poverty, drought, degradation and famine. This study, drawing on the best work of the
past decade and based on researched case studies from East and West Africa, rejects the
notion of runaway desertification, driven by population growth and inappropriate land
use. It suggests a more optimistic model of sustainable land use and an appropriate set
of policy priorities to support dryland peoples in their efforts to sustain land and
livelihoods.

Morrow, Betty H., Walter G. Peacock and Hugh Gladwin, eds. (1997). Hurricane Andrew.
Ethnicity, Gender and the Sociology of Disasters. London, Routledge.
Abstract: Hurricane Andrew has proved to be the most costly natural disaster in US
history. This book documents how Miami prepared, coped and responded to the
hurricanes which slammed into one of the largest and most ethnically diverse
metropolitan areas of the US and explores how social, economic and political factors set
the stage for Hurricane Andrew by influencing who was prepared, who was hit the
hardest, and who was most likely to recover.

49
Political Ecology in Development Research

Moseley, William and B. Ikubolajeh Logan, eds. (2004). African Environment and
Development: Rhetoric, Programs, Realities. Aldershot, Burlington, VT, Ashgate.
Abstract: This edited volume explores the connections between African rural livelihoods,
environmental integrity and broader scale political economy. The book is organized
under three main themes relating to this goal: the influence of global environmental
narratives in the African context; the implications of regional political economy for rural
African livelihoods; and the empirical manifestations of contemporary conservation and
development principles through policy and programs at the community, national,
regional and global levels. Including case studies from Southern, West and East Africa,
the book examines a wide range of livelihood activities (pastoralism, farming, gardening
and hunting) and environmental issues (e.g., dam projects, cash cropping, burning
practices, civil war, pesticide use, oil exploitation, community-based natural resources
management and transnational parks). The studies demonstrate the necessity of
grounding environment and development policy discussions within a broader
understanding of the economy, history, politics and power.

Muldavin, Joshua S.S. (1997). Environmental Degradation in Heilongjiang: Policy Reform

and Agrarian Dynamics in China’s New Hybrid Economy, Annals of the American
Association of Geographers, Vol. 87, No. 4, pp. 579-613.
Abstract: This paper analyzes environmental degradation in rural China as structurally
embedded in China's rapid economic growth in the post-Mao era. The theoretical
discussion focuses on changes in the organization of production, resource use, and
regional development. A critical assessment of the Chinese hybrid economy challenges
standard views of the reforms. The overall environmental problems of state socialist
agriculture in China have been aggravated following the agrarian reforms of the current
regime. Rather than mitigating negative trends, marketization and privatization have
brought new, qualitatively different, environmental problems. Resource decline and its
attendant social problems are not limited to aspects of transitional economy but are a
fundamental part of the new hybrid system.

Myers, Garth A. (1999). Political Ecology and Urbanisation: Zanzibar's Construction

Materials Industry, The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 83-108.
[Link]
Abstract: In the 1990s, there has been a marked upsurge in scholarly and practical
interest in the relationships between urban development and environmental protection in
Africa. It is apparent that analyses which take simultaneous account of economic, political
and environmental aspects of urban development issues are an essential and yet under-
represented facet of this upsurge. This article argues for a regional political ecology
approach to African urban environmental issues, as a means of addressing the
intertwined impacts of neo-liberalism, democratisation and environmentalism in African
cities. The construction and materials supply industry in Zanzibar city serves as an
empirical referent.

Nygren, Anja (2000). Development Discourses and Peasant-Forest Relations: Natural

Resource Utilization as Social Process, Development and Change, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp.
11-34.
[Link]
Abstract: This article analyses the changing role of forests and the practices of peasants
toward them in a Costa Rican rural community, drawing on an analytical perspective of
political ecology, combined with cultural interpretations. The study underlines the
complex articulation of local processes and global forces in tropical forest struggles.
Deforestation is seen as a process of development and power involving multiple social

50
 Annotated Bibliography

actors, from politicians and development experts to a heterogeneous group of local

peasants. The local people are not passive victims of global challenges, but are instead
directly involved in the changes concerning their production systems and livelihood
strategies. In the light of historical changes in natural resource utilization, the article
underlines the multiplicity of the causes of tropical deforestation, and the intricate links
between global discourses on environment and development and local forest relations.

Nyssen, Jan et al. (2004). Environmental policy in Ethiopia: a rejoinder to Keeley and
Scoones, The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 38, No.1, pp. 137-147.
A critical reply to the abovementioned article of Keeley and Scoones (2000).

Obi, Cyril I. (2005). Environmental Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa. A Political Ecology

of Power and Conflict. Civil Society and Social Movements Programme Paper Number 15,
Geneva, UNRISD.
[Link]
a79c1256dd600575d33/$FILE/[Link]
Abstract: This paper critically examines environmental movements in sub-Saharan Africa
by drawing on two prominent cases: the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People of
Nigeria’s Niger Delta and the Green Belt Movement of Kenya. Its thesis is that
environmental movements in Africa operate within a transformative logic in which
struggles for power over environmental resources connect broader popular social
struggles for empowerment and democracy.

Ostrom, Elinor (1990). Governing the Commons. The Evolution of Institutions for
Collective Action. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Abstract: The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an
issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatisation of
resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly
successful in solving common pool resource problems. Offering a critique of the
foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here
provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool
resource problems have been satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily solved. In contrast to the
proposition of the tragedy of the commons argument, common pool problems sometimes
are solved by voluntary organisations rather than by a coercive state. Among the cases
considered are communal tenure in meadows and forests, irrigation communities and
other water rights, and fisheries.

Painter, Michael and William H. Durham, eds. (1995). The Social Causes of
Environmental Destruction in Latin America. Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan
Press.
As the editors put it, this volume compiles ‘a kaleidoscopic image of the social causes of
environmental destruction in Latin America [… ] [and brings] inequality in all its guises –
race, class, gender, ethnicity – into the picture (262f).

Parajuli, Pramod (1998). Beyond capitalized nature: ecological ethnicity as an area of

conflict in the regime of globalization, Ecumene, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 186-217.
Abstract: With the globalization of the economy, the world has entered an ‘ecological
phase’ in which capital is naturalized, while simultaneously nature is capitalized. In this
phase, whatever was previously considered as ‘external’ or off-limits to the market is
included as ‘internal’. Put simply, if capital is nature, nature is capital too. Saving nature
becomes equivalent to ensuring the reproduction of capital. As expressed in the post-Rio
environmental discourse, ‘the planet as a whole is our capital which must be sustainably

51
Political Ecology in Development Research

managed’. Today, the relationship of capital to nature and humans has acquired a
qualitatively different dimension.

Park, Thomas K. (1992). Early Trends toward Class Stratification: Chaos, Common
Property and Flood Recession Agriculture, American Anthropologist, Vol. 94, No. 1, pp.
90-117.
[Link]/sici?sici=0002-7294%28199203%292%3A94%3A1%3C90%3AETTCSC%[Link]%3B2-0
Abstract: In societies based on flood recession agriculture in arid regions, economic
stratification, institutionalized ways of sloughing off population, and common property
are particularly valuable risk management options. Using ethnographic data from the
Senegal River Basin and historical data from the Nile Valley, I argue that tendencies
toward stratification were inherent in riverine societies practicing flood recession
agriculture. Thus, early stratification occurred long before population pressure reached
significant levels and well before regional trade, extensive storage capacity, or elaborate
water-management infrastructure became economically significant. The article is
intended to help explain why a number of civilizations developed in arid riverine contexts.

Paulson, Susan, Lisa L. Gezon and Michael Watts (2003). Introduction to special Issue:
Locating the Political in Political Ecology, Human Organisation, Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 205-
219.
Abstract: Recent debates within political ecology have motivated serious reflection about
key concepts and methods in this relatively new field. In the introduction to this special
issue, we briefly chart the intellectual genealogy of political ecology, identify vital
challenges faced today, and present a new set of studies that respond to these concerns.
We conceptualize power as a social relation built on the asymmetrical distribution of
resources and risks and locate power in the interactions among, and the processes that
constitute, people, places, and resources. Politics, then, are found in the practices and
mechanisms through which such power is circulated. The focus here is on politics related
to the environment, understood as biophysical phenomena, together with human
knowledge and practice.

Peet, Richard and Michael Watts, eds. (1996). Liberation Ecologies – environment,
development, social movements. London, Routledge.
Abstract: In Liberation Ecologies, some of the most exciting theorists in the field explore
the impact of political ecology in today's developing world, question what we understand
by development and raise questions about change on a global scale.

Peluso, Nancy Lee (1992). Rich Forests, Poor People. Resource Control and Resistance in
Java. Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, Oxford, University of California Press.
Abstract: Millions of Javanese peasants live alongside state-controlled forest lands in one
of the world's most densely populated agricultural regions. Because their legal access and
customary rights to the forest have been severely limited, these peasants have been
pushed toward illegal use of forest resources. Rich Forests, Poor People untangles the
complex of peasant and state politics that has developed in Java over three centuries.
Drawing on historical materials and intensive field research, including two contemporary
case studies, Peluso presents the story of the forest and its people. Without major
changes in forest policy, Peluso contends, the situation is portentous. Economic, social,
and political costs to the government will increase. Development efforts will by stymied
and forest destruction will continue. Mindful that a dramatic shift is unlikely, Peluso
suggests how tension between foresters and villagers can be alleviated while giving
peasants a greater stake in local forest management.

52
 Annotated Bibliography

Peluso, Nancy Lee, and Michael Watts, eds. (2001). Violent Environments. Ithaca, NY,
Cornell University Press.
Abstract: Do environmental problems and processes produce violence? Current U.S. policy
about environmental conflict and scholarly work on environmental security assume direct
causal links between population growth, resource scarcity, and violence. The conventional
understanding of environmental security, and its assumptions about the relation between
violence and the environment, are challenged and refuted in Violent Environments.
Chapters by geographers, historians, anthropologists, and sociologists include accounts
of ethnic war in Indonesia, petro-violence in Nigeria and Ecuador, wildlife conservation in
Tanzania, and "friendly fire" at Russia's nuclear weapons sites. Violent Environments
portrays violence as a site-specific phenomenon rooted in local histories and societies,
yet connected to larger processes of material transformation and power relations. The
authors argue that specific resource environments, including tropical forests and oil
reserves, and environmental processes (such as deforestation, conservation, or resource
abundance) are constituted by and in part constitute the political economy of access to
and control over resources.

Peters, Pauline (1987). Embedded Systems and Rooted Models: The Grazing Systems of
Botswana and the Commons Debate, in McKay B. and J. Acheson, eds. The Question of
the Commons, Tucson, the University of Arizona Press.

Peterson, Gary (2000). Political ecology and ecological resilience: An integration of

human and ecological dynamics, Ecological Economics, Vol. 35, pp. 323-336.
Abstract: The biosphere is increasingly dominated by human action. Consequently,
ecology must incorporate human behavior. Political ecology, as long as it includes
ecology, is a powerful framework for integrating natural and social dynamics. In this
paper I present a resilience-oriented approach to political ecology that integrates system
dynamics, scale, and cross-scale interactions in both human and natural systems. This
approach suggests that understanding the coupled dynamics of human-ecological
systems allows the assessment of when systems are most vulnerable and most open to
transformation. I use this framework to examine the political ecology of salmon in the
Columbia River Basin.

Reed, Mauren G. and Bruce Mitchell (2003). Gendering Environmental Geography, The
Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 318-337.
This article addresses the problems geographers face today when it comes to analysing
gender and environment. The authors argue that, instead of remaining entrenched in
their respective approaches, feminist and environmentalist geographers should draw new
insights from combining their fields of research. To this purpose, they suggest using the
methodological approaches of political ecology and environmental justice; thus, they
provide a good first overview of these ideas and make a strong argument for
interdisciplinary flexibility.

Reuveny, Rafael and John W. Maxwell (2001). Conflict and Renewable Resources, The
Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 45, No. 6, pp. 719-742.
[Link]
Abstract: The economic literature on conflict employs a static, game-theoretic framework
developed by Jack Hirshleifer. The authors introduce conflict dynamics into a model with
two rival groups, each dependent on a single contested renewable resource. The model is
based on two stylized facts: conflict often arises over scarce renewable resources, and
those resources often lack well-defined and/or enforceable property rights. In each
period, groups allocate their members between resource harvesting and resource
appropriation (or conflict) to maximize their income. This leads to a complex nonlinear

53
Political Ecology in Development Research

dynamic interaction between conflict, the two populations, and the resource. As
developed, the model relates most closely to conflict over renewable resources in
primitive societies. The system's global dynamics are investigated in simulations
calibrated for the historical society of Easter Island. The model's implications for
contemporary lesser developed societies are examined.

Ribot, Jesse C. (1999) A history of fear: imagining deforestation in the West African
dryland forests, Global Ecology & Biogeography, Vol. 8 No. 3-4, Page 291-300.
[Link]
Abstract: Urban demand for woodfuels in Sudanian and Sahelian West Africa has long
been assumed to contribute to permanent deforestation in dryland forests and wooded
savannas. Deforestation has also long been assumed to be progressing such that these
woodlands will no longer be able to provide the region's cities with fuel. Available studies
of regeneration do not support the first assumption. Further, woodfuel shortages
projected in the 1980s to arrive in the 1990s or early 2000s are nowhere near, while more
recent projections predict supply shortages another 25 years hence. While there is
deforestation from many causes, the data do not support crisis scenarios concerning
woodfuels. Nonetheless, crisis scenarios and policies persist. While there may yet be
deforestation due to urban woodfuel extraction, and shortages may be lurking on the
horizon, the article explores some possible alternative origins of these woodfuel related
deforestation and shortage fears.

Rocheleau, Dianne, Barbara Thomas-Slayter and Esther Wangari (1996). Feminist

Political Ecology – global issues and local experiences. London, Routledge.
Abstract: This book bridges the the gap between the academic and rural orientation of
political ecology and the largely activist and urban focus of environmental justice
movements. It aims to bring together the theoretical frameworks of feminist analysis with
the specifities of women’s activism and experiences around the world.

Rocheleau, Diane et al. (2001). Complex communities and emergent ecologies in the
regional agroforest of Zambrana-Chacuey, Dominican Republic, Ecumene, Vol. 8, No. 4,
pp. 465-492.
[Link]
Abstract: The paper illustrates how the social and ecological co-construction of forests in
the Zambrana-Chacuey region in the Dominican Republic has material consequences for
distinct groups of people and for other species in rural landscapes. The introduction of
the Acacia mangium – a fast growing tree – as a timber cash crop for smallholder farmers
in the region between 1984 and 1994 had major social, economic and ecological
consequences. A rural federation collaborated with ENDA-Caribe, an international non-
government organization, in a ten-year social forestry experiment to develop and
promote economically and environmentally viable timber cash cropping systems for
smallholder farmers. The experience of the federation members provides a window on the
workings of gender, class and popular organization in the making of forest ecologies, and
demonstrates the influence of transnational sustainable development models and
organizations in the social and biological transformation of rural life.

Ross, Michael L. (2004a). How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War? Evidence from
Thirteen Cases, International Organisation, Vol. 54, No.1, pp. 35-67
[Link]
Abstract: Recent studies have found that natural resources and civil war are highly
correlated. Yet the causal mechanisms behind the correlation are not well understood, in
part because data on civil wars is scarce and of poor quality. In this article I examine
thirteen recent civil wars to explore the mechanisms behind the resource-conflict

54
 Annotated Bibliography

correlation. I describe seven hypotheses about how resources may influence a conflict,
specify the observable implications of each, and report which mechanisms can be
observed in a sample of thirteen civil wars in which natural resources were ‘most likely’ to
have played a role. I find that two of the most widely cited causal mechanisms do not
appear to be valid; that oil, nonfuel minerals, and drugs are causally linked to conflict, but
legal agricultural commodities are not; and that resource wealth and civil war are linked
by a variety of mechanisms, including several that others had not identified.

Ross, Michael L. (2004b). What Do We Know About Natural Resources and Civil War?
Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 337-356.
[Link]
Abstract: Since the late 1990s, there has been a flood of research on natural resources
and civil war. This article reviews 14 recent cross-national econometric studies, and many
qualitative studies, that cast light on the relationship between natural resources and civil
war. It suggests that collectively they imply four underlying regularities: first, oil increases
the likelihood of conflict, particularly separatist conflict; second, ‘lootable’ commodities
like gemstones and drugs do not make conflict more likely to begin, but they tend to
lengthen existing conflicts; third, there is no apparent link between legal agricultural
commodities and civil war; and finally, the association between primary commodities - a
broad category that includes both oil and agricultural goods - and the onset of civil war is
not robust. The first section discusses the evidence for these four regularities and
examines some theoretical arguments that could explain them. The second section
suggests that some of the remaining inconsistencies among the econometric studies may
be caused by differences in the ways they code civil wars and cope with missing data. The
third section highlights some further aspects of the resource-civil war relationship that
remain poorly understood.

Ross, Michael L. (1999). The political economy of the resource curse, World Politics, Vol.
51, No 2, pp. 297-322.
Abstract: In this article I review efforts by both economists and political scientists to
explain how the export of minimally processed natural resources, including hard rock
minerals, petroleum, timber, and agricultural commodities, influences economic growth. I
[…] summarize the evidence for a resource curse and review new research on the four
most prominent economic explanations for the curse: a decline in the terms of trade for
primary commodities, the instability of international commodity markets, the poor
economic linkages between resource and nonresource sectors, and an ailment commonly
known as the "Dutch Disease".

Sanchez, Samantha (1996). How the West Is Won: Astroturf Lobbying and the ‘Wise Use’
movement, The American Prospect, Vol. 7, No. 25, pp. 37-42.
Abstract: the term "wise use" comes from Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the U.S. Forest
Service, who used it to describe the conservation movement. Pinchot chose words that
implied balance, not to mention a fundamental concern for the well-being of the
environment. Today Pinchot's term has been turned on its head, appropriated by a
corporate-sponsored campaign to roll back environmental protection in the West, where
billions of dollars ride on decisions about the use of government-regulated property. This
is the story of how the "wise use" movement--a coalition of timber, mining, oil, and
grazing interests--has skewed the debate over land use. It is a tale of political
contributions, well-connected lobbyists, and, most important, corporate-financed
grassroots organizing that has become a model for kindred political operatives around
the country. This is also the story of how environmentalists in the state of Washington
fended off development activists in one key battle, providing some hope that real
strength at the grass roots may still be better than "astroturf" substitutes.

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Schroeder, Richard A. (1999). Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politics in the
Gambia. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press.
Abstract: Shady Practices is a revealing analysis of the gendered political ecology brought
about by conflicting local interests and changing developmental initiatives in a West
African village. Between 1975 and 1985, while much of Africa suffered devastating
drought conditions, Gambian women farmers succeeded in establishing hundreds of
lucrative communal market gardens. In less than a decade, the women's incomes began
outstripping their husbands' in many areas, until a shift in development policy away from
gender equity and toward environmental concerns threatened to do away with the social
and economic gains of the garden boom. This carefully documented microhistory draws
on field experience spanning more than two decades and the insights of disciplines
ranging from critical human geography to development studies. Schroeder shows that
questions of power and social justice at the community level need to enter the debates of
policymakers and specialists in environment and development planning.

Schmidt, Matthias (2003). The Impact of the Transition Process on Human-

Environmental Interactions in Southern Kyrgyzstan, Presented at ‘The Commons in
Transition: Property on Natural Resources in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former
Soviet Union,’ a Regional Conference of the International Association for the Study of
Common Property, Prague, April 11-13 2003.
[Link]
Abstract: The project sets out to explore the effects of the transition process on human-
environmental interrelationships in the Jalal-Abad region in southern Kyrgyzstan. Using a
political ecology approach as a conceptual framework, the project aims at investigating
the nexus of socio-economic and environmental change, focusing on changing forest
utilization, its political, social and economic root causes and its ecological consequences.
Globally unique walnut-fruit forests in the region, characterized by remarkably high
biodiversity, are of considerable importance for sustaining the livelihoods of the local
population. These forests are now in a critical condition. The status as biodiversity-
hotspot of international significance and the maintenance of their manifold landscape-
ecological functions is seriously threatened. Forest utilization appears to reflect the
intensified pressure on natural resources under the conditions of the transition process.

Scoones, Ian (1999). New ecology and the social sciences : what prospects for a fruitful
engagement , Annual review of anthropology, Vol.28,S.479-507
[Link]
Abstract: This review asks the question: What new avenues of social science enquiry are
suggested by new ecological thinking, with its focus on nonequilibrium dynamics, spatial
and temporal variation, complexity, and uncertainty? Following a review of the emergence
of the ‘new ecology’ and the highlighting of contrasts with earlier ‘balance of nature’
perspectives, work emerging from ecological anthropology, political ecology,
environmental and ecological economics, and debates about nature and culture are
examined. This review turns to three areas where a more dynamic perspective has
emerged. Each has the potential to take central elements of new ecological thinking
seriously, sometimes with major practical consequences for planning, intervention design,
and management. First is the concern with spatial and temporal dynamics developed in
detailed and situated analyses of ‘people in places,’ using, in particular, historical analysis
as a way of explaining environmental change across time and space. Second is the
growing understanding of environment as both the product of and the setting for human
interactions, which link dynamic structural analyses of environmental processes with an
appreciation of human agency in environmental transformation, as part of a
‘structuration’ approach. Third is the appreciation of complexity and uncertainty in

56
 Annotated Bibliography

social-ecological systems and, with this, the recognition of that prediction, management,
and control are unlikely, if not impossible.

Sen, Amartya K. (1981) Ingredients of Famine Analysis: Availability and Entitlements, the
Economic Quarterly, 96(3), 433-464.
The first outline of Sen’s entitlements theory laid the ground for further research on
environmental entitlements. This study asks why people can starve amidst a plenty of
food and, drawing from three twentieth century famines, analyses the decline of
entitlements that the affected segments of the population had suffered.

Sheridan, Michael J. (2004). The Environmental Consequences of Independence and

Socialism in North Pare, Tanzania, 1961-88, Journal of African History, Vol. 45, pp. 81-
102.
[Link]
1853703008521
Abstract: This article draws on archival sources and oral histories to describe changing
post-colonial land management in the North Pare Mountains of Tanzania. The
independent state transformed colonial institutions but did not maintain colonial common
property regimes for water source, irrigation and forest management. Farmers responded
by encroaching upon and dividing the commons. After 1967, Tanzania's socialist policies
affected environmental conditions in North Pare indirectly by increasing the ambiguity
and negotiability of resource entitlements. The material, social and cultural legacies of
these processes include environmental change, declining management capacity and
persistent doubt about the value of ‘conservation’.

Sheridan, Thomas E. (1995). Arizona: The Political Ecology of a Desert State, Journal of
Political Ecology, Vol. 2, pp. 41-57.
[Link]
Abstract: In this paper, I argue that the emerging research strategy of political ecology
needs to incorporate an active nature into its analysis of the commodification of natural
resources and the politics of resource control. I make reference to earlier work among
small rancher-farmers in Cucurpe, Sonora, where the nature of the crucial resources
themselves – arable land, grazing land, and irrigation water – determined local agrarian
politics as much or more as transnational market demand and Mexican federal agrarian
policies. Then I examine water control in Arizona during the past century. I contend that
one of the best ways to pursue political ecology is to focus upon the historical dialectic
that determines how and why certain natural resources are converted into commodities at
particular places and times and how commodity production transforms, and is
transformed by, local ecosystems and local societies.

Smith, Kevin, Christopher B. Barrett and Paul W. Box (1999). Not Necessarily In The
Same Boat: Heterogeneous Risk Assessment Among East African Pastoralists, Social
Science Research Network Paper Collection.
[Link]
Abstract: This paper studies variation in risk assessment by pastoralists in the arid and
semi-arid lands of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. Despite superficial
homogeneity among east African pastoralists, we show that there exists considerable
within-group heterogeneity in their assessment of various risks. We conceptualize risk as
comprised of four distinct components: objective exposure, subjective perception, ex
ante mitigation capacity, and ex post coping capacity. This conceptualization provides an
effective framework for understanding the observed heterogeneity as the natural
consequence of (sometimes modest) structural differences in economic activity patterns,
agroclimatic conditions, proximity to towns, wealth, and gender roles. It therefore

57
Political Ecology in Development Research

provides a useful tool for drawing out the policy implications of subjects' expressed
concerns about prospective livelihood hazards.

Steinberg, Michael K. (2002). The Globalization of a Ceremonial Tree: the Case of Cacao
(Theobroma Cacao) among the Mopan Maya, Economic Botany, Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 58-
65
[Link]
Abstract: The uses, perceptions, and economic significance of cacao have radically
changed in the past 25 years among the Mopan Maya in southern Belize. Cacao was once
perceived as a ceremonial crop with little cash value. Over the past 25 years though,
cacao has become the most important cash crop grown by the Mopan Maya. The Mopan
Maya grow organic cacao that has allowed them to tap into a specialized, high-end
chocolate market. However, the emergence of cacao as an important cash crop has
altered traditional uses and created conflicts in villages where increasing acreage of
reservation lands are planted with cacao, thereby assigning a commercial value to
previously communal lands.

Steinmann, Susanne H. (1998). Gender, Pastoralism and Intensification: Changing

Environmental Resource Use in Morocco, in: Albert, Jeff et al., eds. (1998).
Transformation of Middle Eastern Natural Environments: Legacies and Lessons, Yale
F&ES Bulletin No.103
[Link]
Abstract: Through a study of the sedentarization of the Beni Guil pastoral nomads of
eastern Morocco, this paper examines how gender interacts with environmental and
socio-economic change. Based on extensive fieldwork with the Beni Guil, this paper
demonstrates how gendered resource exploitation – in particular, the collection of
mushrooms, medicinal plants, and fuelwood – is recast through sedentarization,
urbanization, and commercialization. The case of the Beni Guil suggests that certain
accepted theories of the consequences of settlement for nomad women and their local
environments should be re-examined in order to understand better the past and present,
and to plan for the future.

Stott, Philip (1999). Tropical Rain Forest: A Political Ecology of Hegemonic myth making.
London, Institute of Economic Affairs.
Abstract: Our attachment to the tropical rain forest has grown over the past hundred
years from a minority colonial pursuit to mainstream environmental obsession. The
tropical rain forest has variously been assumed to be the world's most important
repository of biological diversity and 'the lungs of the planet'. As Philip Stott shows in this
magnificent monograph, neither claim has any basis in fact. The myth of the tropical rain
forest suits the purposes of Northern environmentalists, who are able to justify demands
for restrictions on the conversion of 'virgin forest' to other uses. Yet the history of the
world has been one of evolutionary change. If we attempt to maintain stasis, we risk
limiting our ability to adapt to change when it inevitably comes. Calls for the tropical rain
forest to be preserved are founded on the implied presumption that the people living in
tropical regions are merely there to protect a western construct. This denigrates their
rights and dehumanises them. Philip Stott provides an eloquent deconstruction of the
ideas that have led to the mythical western idea of the tropical rain forest, which has
constrained our ability to understand the environments of developing countries and has
enabled the eco-imperialist vision to flourish.

58
 Annotated Bibliography

Stott, Philip and Sian Sullivan, eds. (2000). Political Ecology: science, myth and power.
London, Arnold Publishers.
Abstract: Political ecology has developed as an academic discipline in reaction to the
increased concern of nations and individuals about humanity's adverse impact on the
environment and the ways international bodies have moved to counter this impact. This
new text draws together international experts at the cutting edge of this new field to
focus on real world examples of problems and the tension between developed and
developing states.

Swift, Jeremy (1996). Desertification: Narratives, Winners and Losers, in: Leach, M. and
R. Mearns, eds. The Lie of the Land, Oxford, James Currey

Thomas, David S.G. and Nicholas J. Middleton (1994). Desertification. Exploding the
Myth. Chichester, New York, Wiley.
Abstract: [the authors] examine the origin of the ‘desertification myth’, how it spawned
multi-million dollar research and became regarded as a leading environmental issue. With
the aid of recent research findings […] they demonstrate that this much vaunted problem
is very much smaller and less locally significant than previously accepted, and that the
‘global process of desertification’ is simply chimerical. The book explores the political
and institutional factors that created the myth, sustained it and now protect it against
scientific criticism.

Tiffen, Mary, Michael Mortimore and Francis Gichuki (1994). More People, Less Erosion:
Environmental recovery in Kenya. Chichester, John Wiley & Sons.
Based on a case study in the Machakos region of Kenya, this important study challenges
conventional theories about population growth and development. Indeed, the authors
show that in this case, colonial policies had caused land degradation, but that now, even
though the number of land tenants had increased a manifold, soil quality has been
enhanced through investments in terracing and better technologies. Although these
results might not be repeatable elsewhere, the authors can nonetheless draw important
insights and lessons from the Machakos case.

Trawick, Paul (2003). The Struggle for Water in Peru. Comedy and Tragedy in the
Andean Commons. Stanford, Stanford University Press.
Abstract: This ecological history of peasant society in the Peruvian Andes focuses on the
politics of irrigation and water management in three villages whose terraces and canal
systems date back to Inca times. Set in a remote valley, the book tells a story of
domination and resulting social decline, showing how basic changes in the use of land,
water, and labor have been pivotal in transforming the indigenous way of life. Strikingly
diverse patterns appear in local practice, which prove to be the key to unraveling the
area’s history. The book concludes by describing the recent intensification of a water
conflict. This struggle between peasants and former landlords ultimately led villagers to
rise up against the national government. The story culminates in the violent intrusion of
the revolutionary group known as Shining Path.

Twyman, Chasca (2000). Livelihood Opportunity and Diversity in Kalahari Wildlife

Management Areas, Botswana: Rethinking Community Resource Management, Journal of
Southern African Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4, Special Issue: African Environments: Past and
Present, pp. 783-806.
[Link]
Abstract: This paper draws on research conducted in western Botswana, which examined
community development and wildlife management in a Kalahari Wildlife Management

59
Political Ecology in Development Research

Area. It focuses on the livelihood dynamics of residents living in two remote settlements
in the Wildlife Management Area. These livelihood dynamics are closely linked with the
complex history of resource use and conflict in the area. Hunting and gathering, two key
livelihood activities, are examined in detail. The paper argues that, although the natural
resource base has changed, and use of natural resources has in many cases dwindled,
livelihoods based on these resources remain important in terms of cultural identity,
symbolic significance and as a real and perceived safety net in times of stress. The
dynamics of people's livelihoods are not always recognised by those implementing the
changes. Community-based natural resource management projects have the potential to
embrace social justice and ecological sustainability. However they also have the potential
to undermine rural populations' individual and collective actions to manage their
resources base and maintain viable livelihood strategies at a range of levels.

Unruh, Jon D., Nikolas C. Heynen and Peter Hossler (2003). The political ecology of
recovery from armed conflict: the case of landmines in Mozambique, Political
Geography, Vol. 20, pp. 841-861.
[Link]
7&_cdi=6026&_orig=browse&_coverDate=11%2F30%2F2003&_sk=999779991&view=c&wchp=dGLbVlb-
zSkWW&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_userid=10&md5=9820ac5aff8ae4342682a9278a2af706&ie=[Link]
Abstract: The devastation wrought by landmines on local populations is well known.
However, the broader effects of mine presence on postwar recovery, and the progress of a
‘peace process’, remain largely unexamined. Both the academic and the practitioner
literature regarding landmines lack a framework within which the mix of economic,
political, social, agricultural, and ecological repercussions of mine presence in a context
of postwar recovery can be investigated. Here, we consider the utility of political ecology
to examine the influence of landmine presence on the socioecological relations important
to postwar recovery in Mozambique. Landmines constitute the primary obstacle to the
reconstruction and development in Mozambique. Because mine presence influences
different aspects of recovery differently, we have selected three cases in the country
where mine presence has impacted important components of recovery: agriculture,
transportation corridors, and international investment. Peace process and recovery efforts
by the international community do not presently address the broader, non-medical
influences of landmine presence on recovery, and it is the intention of this article to
contribute to an initial examination of these issues

Vayda, Andrew P. and Bradley B. Walters (1999). Against Political Ecology, Human
Ecology, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 167-179.
Abstract: Starting with a priori judgements, theories, or biases about the importance or
even primacy of certain kinds of political factors in the explanation of environmental
changes, self-styled political ecologists have focused their research on environmental or
natural resource politics and have missed or scanted the complex and contingent
interactions of factors whereby actual environmental changes are often produced. As an
alternative to the present plethora of programmatic statements on behalf of political
ecology, a proposal is presented here for what may be called evenemental or event
ecology. Our own experience in applying an evenemental approach to research on
mangrove forests of the Philippines will be drawn on for the purpose of illustration.

Walker, Peter A. (2005). Political Ecology: Where is the Ecology? Progress in Human
Geography, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp.73-82.
Abstract: While political ecology has thrived, its coherence as a field of study and its
central intellectual contributions remain the subject of sometimes contentious debate.
One of the recurrent, and unresolved, questions has been ‘Where is the ecology in
political ecology?’. Indeed, controversy has emerged about whether, in fact, the field has

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become ‘politics without ecology’ (Bassett and ZImmerer 2004:103). This brief review
examines this question and argues that, despite the claims of critics, there is a great deal
of research in political ecology that engages biophysical ecology as a central concern.

Warren, Andrew, Simon Batterbury and Henny Osbahr (2001). Soil Erosion in the West
African Sahel: a review and application of a “local political ecology” in South West Niger,
Global Environmental Change, Vol. 11, pp. 79-95.
Abstract: A review of soil erosion research in the West African Sahel finds that there are
insufficient data on which to base policy. This is largely because of the difficulties of
measuring erosion and the other components of `soil life’, and because of the highly
spatially and temporarily variable natural and social environment of the Sahel. However, a
`local political ecology’ of soil erosion and new methodologies offer some hope of
overcoming these problems. Nonetheless, a major knowledge gap will remain, about how
rates of erosion are accommodated and appraised within very variable social and
economic conditions. An example from recent field work in Niger shows that erosion is
correlated with factors such as male migration, suggesting, in this case, that households
with access to non-farm income adopt a risk-avoidance strategy in which soil erosion is
accelerated incidentally. It is concluded that there needs to be more research into the
relations between erosion and socio-economic factors, and clearer thinking about the
meaning of sustainability as it refers to soil erosion in the Sahel.

Wastl-Walter, Doris (1996). Protecting the Environment Against State Policy in Austria.
From women’s participation in protest to new voices in parliament, in: Rocheleau,
Dianne et al. (1996). Feminist Political Ecologies. London, Routledge.

Williams, Paul A. (2003a). The Common and Uncommon Political Economies of Water
and Oil 'Wars', The Review of International Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 13-28.
Abstract: This article compares the political economies of water and oil conflicts. It
suggests that the 'common pool resource' (CPR) framework only partially explains the
prototypically 'upstream-downstream' disputes over flowing water and oil 'flows', as CPR
rivalry stems from users' inability to exclude each other, while water and oil conflicts stem
from certain users' ability to exclude others. Yet, it also argues that key differences,
related to the exclusivity of upstream sovereignty over resources, the ecological or
economic nature of 'downstream' flow benefits, the practicality of 'upstream' flow control,
and the size of the political benefits of gaining and exerting 'upstream' control relative to
its high economic costs, make 'water war' much less politically economic than oil conflict.

Williams, Paul A. (2003b). The Security Politics of Enclosing Transboundary River Water
Resources. Paper presented at the International Conference on Resource Politics and
Security in a Global Age, University of Sheffield, UK, June 2003.
[Link] .
Abstract: This paper first evaluates a trend towards using the ‘common pool resource’
(CPR) concept to frame explanations of international water-sharing conflicts. It holds that
the CPR literature’s dominant focus on rivalry being exacerbated, and the ‘tragedy of the
commons’ being hastened, by non-exclusivity of physical access to the relevant natural
resource is relevant to explicating the salient ‘upstream-downstream’ dimension of the
most notably contentious water-sharing issues, but only up to a point. […] The second
part [… incorporates] insights from deterrence theory (viz., the ‘security dilemma’) and
prospect theory (‘loss aversion’) within the conceptual ambit of a version of Polanyi’s
(1944) ‘double movement’ idea.

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Winterhalder, Bruce (2002). Behavioral and Other Human Ecologies: Critique, Response
and Progress through Criticism, Journal of Ecological Anthropology, Vol. 6, pp. 4-23.
[Link]
Abstract: This paper has three goals: (1) to define and characterize the anthropological
subfield of human behavioral ecology (HBE) and characterize recent progress in this field
research tradition; (2) to address Joseph’s (2000) critique of HBE from the perspective of
an advocate of that field; and (3) to suggest features that make for effective criticism of
research traditions.

Wisborg, Poul (2002). Re-Constructing Rights to Land. From Discourse to Entitlement.

Noragric Working Paper No. 25, Noragric, Agricultural University of Norway.
[Link]
Abstract: The social re-construction of land may be seen as a multilevel struggle over
meaning that affects how people gain and convert rights into entitlements. This essay
reviews selected literature and glimpses of field situations in Namaqualand, in order to i)
place the land reform – human rights issue in a policy and development studies context,
and ii) suggest two theoretical entry points: the ‘environmental entitlements framework’
and ‘discourse theory’ as framed within a political ecology of people-environment
relations.

Woo-Cummings, Meredith (2002). The Political Ecology of Famine: The North Korean
Catastrophe and its Lessons. ADB Institute Research Paper Series, No. 31.
[Link]
Abstract: This paper critically examines the influential argument by Amartya Sen on the
relationship between famine and political regime theory and exposes its limitations,
particularly in the case of the Great Leap Famine. Using the little studied but tragic North
Korea famine, the author explores its root causes in the context of food availability
decline and complex ecological disruptions and interactions, including the El Nino
Southern Oscillation in weather patterns.

Woodhouse, Phil (2002). Natural Resource Management and Chronic Poverty in Sub-
Saharan Africa: an overview. CRPC Working Paper 14.
[Link]
Abstract: This paper briefly identifies some underlying premises of the ‘small farmer’
model that inform much rural development policy designed to address poverty. The paper
then reviews recent work on processes governing the use of, and access to, natural
resources. It argues that the small farmer model does not correspond to many of the
processes of change that are observed in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
Differentiating between two scenarios, those of ‘boom’ and ‘stagnant’ rural economies,
the paper explores the relationship these may have with concepts of ‘remoteness’ in rural
areas and traces the different dynamics of agricultural production strategies and of
evolving access to land in the two scenarios. It emphasises the operation of markets in
influencing competition for land, and the importance of farmers’ investment in
productivity-enhancing technology in building their claims to land. The paper then
considers the implications of these patterns of land use and access for policy seeking to
improve conditions for the chronic poor.

Zimmerer, Karl S. and Thomas J. Bassett, eds. (2003). Political Ecology: An Integrative
Approach to Geography and Environment-Development Studies. New York, The Guilford
Press.
Abstract: This volume offers a unique, integrative perspective on the political and
ecological processes shaping landscapes and resource use across the global north and

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south. Twelve carefully selected case studies demonstrate how contemporary

geographical theories and methods can contribute to understanding key environment-
and-development issues and working toward effective policies. Topics addressed include
water and biodiversity resources, urban and national resource planning, scientific
concepts of resource management, and ideas of nature and conservation in the context of
globalization. Giving particular attention to evolving conceptions of nature-society
interaction and geographical scale, an introduction and conclusion by the editors provide
a clear analytical focus for the volume and summarize important developments and
debates in the field.

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Index of Authors by Theme and Region

Thematical Index of Authors: with local focus on:

Theories, overviews:

Adams 2001
Blaikie & Brookfield 1987 Nepal
Bryant & Bailey 1997
Forsyth 2003
Goldman & Schurman 2000
Greenberg & Park 1994
Moseley & Logan 2004
Painter & Durham 1995 Latin America
Paulson et al. 2003
Peet & Watts 1996
Ribot 1999 Sudan / Sahel
Scoones 1999
Stott & Sullivan 2000
Winterhalder 2002

Discourse analyses (general):

Adams 1997 UK
Adger et al. 2001
Bassett & Crummey 2003 African Savannas
Bryant & Goodman 2004
Escobar 1996, 1998, 1999
Harrison & Burgess (1994) UK
Johnson 2004
Keeley & Scoones 2000 Ethiopia
Leach et al. 1997, 1999 Ghana (Entitlements)
Mortimore 1989 East & West Africa
Parajuli 1998
Stott 1999

Land degradation, desertification, land use:

Adams 1997 UK
Bassett & Bì Zueli 2000 Côte d’Ivoire
Blaikie & Brookfield 1987 Nepal
Fairhead & Leach 1996, 1998 Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Togo, Bénin, et al.
Grossmann 1997 St. Vincent (Caribbean)
Iftikhar 2003 Pakistan
Igoe 2000 Tanzania
Keeley & Scoones 2000 Ethiopia
Leach & Mearns 1996 Africa
Matthew & Gaulin 2001 Easter Island, Nauru, Solomon Islands
Mortimore 1989 East & West Africa
Muldavin 1997 China, Heilongjian
Peters 1987 Botswana
Smith et al. 1999 Ethiopia, Kenya
Thomas & Middleton 1994

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Sheridan M 2004 Tanzania

Sheridan T 1995 USA, Arizona
Steinmann 1998 Morocco
Tiffen et al. 1994 Kenya
Unruh et al. 2003 Mozambique
Warren et al. 2001 Niger, South West
Wisborg 2002 South Africa, Namaqualand
Woo-Cummings 2002 North Korea,
Woodhouse 2002 Sub-Saharan Africa

Water management:

Adams et al. 1997 Kenya

Affeltranger & Lasserre 2001 Mekong Delta
Ilahiane 1996 Morocco
Jackson 1998
Park 1992 Senegal & Nile River basins
Peterson 2000 USA, Columbia River Basin
Trawick 2003 Peru
Williams 2003

Biodiversity, forest management, commodities:

Conklin & Graham 1995 Brazil

Escobar 1998
Hansis 1998 USA, Northwest
Le Billon 2002 Cambodia
Locke 1999 India
Logan & Moseley 2002 Zimbabwe
Lupu 2004 Bolivia
McCarthy 2002 USA
Myers 1999 Zanzibar
Nygren 2000 Costa Rica
Obi 2005 Nigeria, Kenya
Peluso 1992 Indonesia, Java
Rocheleau et al. 2001 Dominican Republic
Schmidt 2003 Kyrgyzstan
Steinberg 2002 Belize
Vayda & Walters 1999 Philippines

Protected areas, natural parks:

Harrison & Burgess 1994 UK

Kaltenborn et al. 2002 Lithuania
Twyman 2000 Botswana

Conflict:

Barnett 2000
Bassett 1988 Nigeria
Bezon 1999 Madagascar
Collier & Hoeffler 2000
Dalby 2002
De Soysa 2002

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Diehl & Gleditsch 2001

Hagmann 2005
Homer-Dixon 1994, 1999 Africa
Kalipeni & Oppong 1998 Cambodia
Le Billon 2001, 2002
Reuveny & Maxwell 2001 Easter Island
Ross 1999, 2004
Williams 2003

Gender:

Adams et al. 1997 Kenya

Agarwal 1995 South Asia
Bradshaw 2002 Nicaragua
Carney 1993 The Gambia
Hodgson 2001 Kenya
Jackson 1998 India
Laurie 2005 Bolivia
Locke 1999 USA, Miami
Morrow et al. 1997
Reed & Mitchell 2003
Rocheleau et al. 1996 Various
Schroeder 1999 The Gambia
Steinmann 1998 Morocco

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