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Global Political Ecology
The world is caught in the mesh of a series of environmental crises. So far attempts at resolving the deep basis of these have been superficial and disorganized. Global Political Ecology links the political economy of global capitalism with the political ecology of a series of environmental disasters and failed attempts at environmental policies.
This critical volume draws together contributions from twenty-five leading intellectuals in the field. It begins with an introductory chapter that introduces the readers to political ecology and summarizes the books main findings. The following seven sections cover topics on the political ecology of war and the disaster state; fuelling capitalism: energy scarcity and abundance; global governance of health, bodies, and genomics; the contradictions of global food; capital's marginal product: effluents, waste, and garbage; water as a commodity, a human right, and power; the functions and dysfunctions of the global green economy; political ecology of the global climate, and carbon emissions.
This book contains accounts of the main currents of thought in each area that bring the topics completely up-to-date. The individual chapters contain a theoretical introduction linking in with the main themes of political ecology, as well as empirical information and case material. Global Political Ecology serves as a valuable reference for students interested in political ecology, environmental justice, and geography.
This critical volume draws together contributions from twenty-five leading intellectuals in the field. It begins with an introductory chapter that introduces the readers to political ecology and summarizes the books main findings. The following seven sections cover topics on the political ecology of war and the disaster state; fuelling capitalism: energy scarcity and abundance; global governance of health, bodies, and genomics; the contradictions of global food; capital's marginal product: effluents, waste, and garbage; water as a commodity, a human right, and power; the functions and dysfunctions of the global green economy; political ecology of the global climate, and carbon emissions.
This book contains accounts of the main currents of thought in each area that bring the topics completely up-to-date. The individual chapters contain a theoretical introduction linking in with the main themes of political ecology, as well as empirical information and case material. Global Political Ecology serves as a valuable reference for students interested in political ecology, environmental justice, and geography.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 22, 2023
I have read many edited books and often find them to be taxing, boring, and a chore. I know they aren't necessarily meant to be easy reading, but I think they should at least aim to be interesting. This, however, was a nice exception to the rule. Many of the chapters remain very relevant today. There was a diverse cross-section of issues dealt with in a range of ways and I found that the chapters were often fairly readable. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in getting their head around political ecology.
April 27, 2021
Fascinating themes for those who are interested in the relationship between politics, nature and the capitalist society. However, the book was very exhausting to read because of all the detailed information and difficult topics. Maybe a conclusing chapter would have added to the coherence of the book? All in all, not at all a pleasant reading experience even though the themes are interesting.
April 25, 2021
Interesting themes but very hard to read. Maybe one should get familiar with political ecology already before getting started with this one.
June 4, 2016
Enlightening read. Full of interesting nuggets of information about the corruption among those supposedly addressing environmental issues like climate change, water scarcity, public health, town planning, etc. It also sheds light on how discourse shapes cultural perceptions about the environment, and human rights, and how these discourses vary spatio-temporally. The authors treat these issues as an inevitable symptom of a much larger and institutionalized problem: capitalism.
This book has forever impacted my thinking. I learned about the futility of public health policies without adequate anthropological knowledge of the areas where they are implemented. In João Biehl's essay about public health, he describes how social factors need to be analyzed before sending people materials to prevent apparent diseases. For example, public health advocates in the U.S. wanted to prevent malaria in rural central Mexico. So they sent them mosquito nets and malaria medication. Six months later, when they went to evaluate the policy's effectiveness, they found the mosquito nets piled in a corner, and the medication untouched. Why? Because in this culture, it's common to sleep outside during the hot summer. Plus, there were way more important public health concerns in the community that needed to be addressed, such as access to water. The same futility exists in environmental policies, too. You can show a farmer how to not over-exploit their land. But this won't get rid of the farmer's pressures of competing in a global market. To compete with other farmers in order to make a living, they must over-exploit their land. In other words, farmers are forced to be profit-maximizing, because if they don't do it, another farmer will.
Many essays in this book shed light on how myths have become naturalized through discourse, like the myth of economic development as being inherently good for a developing society, a myth which is widely disseminated by economically imperialist nations looking to expand their sources of profit into new areas. Or the myth of the tragedy of the commons, which posits that resources in a given area are depleted due to selfishness on the part of individuals, which is mythical because, again, the individuals are pressured to exploit their resources in order to survive in the cutthroat global market.
There is so much more in this book. How insurance companies profit off of natural disasters and climate change. The politics of eco-labeling products like fair-trade coffee or organic foods. The ethnocentricism of the idea of human rights. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Marxism or the ever-fractaling ways that capitalism creates niches to perpetuate itself. And to those who like feeling angry. And to those with an interest in the many ways that humans and the environment have been screwed over because of parasitic finance capital.
This book has forever impacted my thinking. I learned about the futility of public health policies without adequate anthropological knowledge of the areas where they are implemented. In João Biehl's essay about public health, he describes how social factors need to be analyzed before sending people materials to prevent apparent diseases. For example, public health advocates in the U.S. wanted to prevent malaria in rural central Mexico. So they sent them mosquito nets and malaria medication. Six months later, when they went to evaluate the policy's effectiveness, they found the mosquito nets piled in a corner, and the medication untouched. Why? Because in this culture, it's common to sleep outside during the hot summer. Plus, there were way more important public health concerns in the community that needed to be addressed, such as access to water. The same futility exists in environmental policies, too. You can show a farmer how to not over-exploit their land. But this won't get rid of the farmer's pressures of competing in a global market. To compete with other farmers in order to make a living, they must over-exploit their land. In other words, farmers are forced to be profit-maximizing, because if they don't do it, another farmer will.
Many essays in this book shed light on how myths have become naturalized through discourse, like the myth of economic development as being inherently good for a developing society, a myth which is widely disseminated by economically imperialist nations looking to expand their sources of profit into new areas. Or the myth of the tragedy of the commons, which posits that resources in a given area are depleted due to selfishness on the part of individuals, which is mythical because, again, the individuals are pressured to exploit their resources in order to survive in the cutthroat global market.
There is so much more in this book. How insurance companies profit off of natural disasters and climate change. The politics of eco-labeling products like fair-trade coffee or organic foods. The ethnocentricism of the idea of human rights. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Marxism or the ever-fractaling ways that capitalism creates niches to perpetuate itself. And to those who like feeling angry. And to those with an interest in the many ways that humans and the environment have been screwed over because of parasitic finance capital.
May 18, 2014
Very interesting book!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews