DOPE 2013 Panel - Political Ecology: Pasts, Presents, Futures

Political Ecology: Pasts, Presents, Futures

Dr. Tom Bassett (University of Illinois, Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science)

Dr. Rebecca Lave (Indiana University, Department of Geography)

Dr. Becky Mansfield (Ohio State University, Department of Geography)

Dr. Damian White (Rhode Island School of Design, Department of Sociology)

Since its emergence in the mid-1980s as a political project and intellectual endeavor, Political Ecology has been dedicated to creatively tracing the myriad social dimensions of environmental degradation and resource conflict. Strengthened by engagements with post-structural thought, feminism, critical race theory, and science studies, PE now encompasses a wide intellectual terrain. This growth has yielded considerable insights into our understanding of the intersections between the environment, politics, capital, and discourse.? Yet PE risks being broadening to such an extent that its critical capacity to analyze the politics of nature is blunted. Additionally, this expansion comes as we face the increasing social and environmental costs of global climate change, dramatic shifts in global food production, and increasingly violent responses to imposed austerity in much of the world.

In this panel we invite respondents to discuss their relationship to political ecology as a discipline and method, and to discuss the present and future of political ecological research. We do not expect all participants to self identify as ?political ecologists,? but are instead interested in how understandings of nature/society relationships have been articulated across disciplinary and geographic boundaries. We ask respondents to reflect on the foundational texts that helped shape and define their engagements with research into nature/society relationships and discuss their personal trajectories within a broad definition of PE. We ask participants to reflect on how these texts shaped and continue to shape their intellectual engagements with politicized nature, and discuss what is needed if PE is to remain a viable source of political and intellectual engagement in the face of our considerable economic and ecological challenges. This panel is designed to be an informal and personal engagement with the past, present, and future of nature/society research, designed to bring together different analytical strands in order to better engage with pressing contemporary challenges.

Source: http://www.politicalecology.org/2012/11/dope-2013-panel-political-ecology-pasts.html

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