Content

The course has twelve classes. Each class, except the first one that will have an introductory character, is normally based on two readings, which in most cases provide a theoretical and an empirical perspective. The empirical reading typically applies the concepts and ideas presented in the theoretical reading through a case study. We will discuss the readings as a group in class and we expect everyone to participate actively in the discussions and to have read the articles suggested in advance. The lectures will combine presentations by the instructors, discussion of readings, and breakout group work based on specific issues, videographic material, and other.

The course is divided into three parts of four classes each. Part I is taught by Esteve Corbera and Sergio Villamayor-Tomas and it will introduce political ecology, and some of the core thinkers and concepts of the field. It will also have examples of how political ecology has been applied to the study of community-based natural resource management. Part II is taught by Esteve Corbera and will introduce seminal themes within political ecology, mostly associated with rural contexts and conservation. Part III is taught by Panagiota Kotsila and it will focus on urban political ecology and feminist political ecology, exploring also issues of social and environmental justice in cities.  Part IV will consist of one session focused on the research methods used in political ecology.

All readings for the class will be made available through the UAB Campus Virtual / Moodle online platform before the course starts, and they will stay there up to three months after the end of the class, after which it will be deleted. You will have to visit the link regularly and check for changes in the platform, such as the document with the weekly assignments. The final exam will be also uploaded through the Moodle platform. Please check that you can and know how to use the online platform before the start of the course.

  

PART I – WHAT IS POLITICAL ECOLOGY?

Week 1 – What is political ecology? (Esteve Corbera)

 Robbins, P., 2004. Political versus Apolitical Ecologies. (Chapter 1) in Political Ecology, Blackwell.

LeBillon P., Duffy R., 2018. Conflict ecologies: Connecting political ecology and peace and conflict studies, Journal of Political Ecology, 25(1): 239-260. https://doi.org/10.2458/v25i1.22704 

Optional

Blaikie, P. (2008) Epilogue: Towards a future for political ecology that works. Geoforum, 39: 765-772.

Rocheleau, D.E. (2008) Political ecology in the key of policy: from chains of explanation to webs of relation. Geoforum, 39(2): 716-727. 

 

Week 2 – Political ecology in the making: The case of research on the commons 1.0? (Sergio Villamayor-Tomas)

 Ostrom, E. 1990. Governing The Commons. Cambridge University Press, New York.

 (pp. 58-82)

Cole, D. H., Epstein, G., & McGinnis, M. D. (2014). Digging deeper into Hardin's pasture: the complex institutional structure of ‘the tragedy of the commons’. Journal of Institutional Economics, 10(3), 353-369.

 

Week 3 – Political ecology in the making: The case of research on the commons 2.0 (Sergio Villamayor-Tomas)

 Agrawal, A. 1994. I don’t need it but you can’t have it: Politics on the commons. Pastoral Development Network 36:36–55.

Scholtens, Joeri. 2016. The elusive quest for access and collective action: North Sri Lankan fishers’ thwarted struggles against a foreign trawler fleet. International Journal of the Commons, 10(2).

 

PART II – SEMINAL THEMES WITHINPOLITICAL ECOLOGY

 Week 4 – Ecological distribution conflicts (Esteve Corbera)

 Martinez-Alier, J., 2009. Social metabolism, ecological distribution conflicts, and languages of valuation. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 20(1): 58-87.

Scheidel, A., Del Bene, D., Liu, J.,Navas, G., Mingorría, S., Demaria, F., Avila, S., Roy, B., Ertör, I., Temper, L., Martínez-Alier, J., 2020. Environmental conflicts and defenders: A global overview. Global Environmental Change, 63: 102104.

 Optional

Atkins E. & Hope J. C., 2021. Contemporary political ecologies of hydropower: insights from Bolivia and Brazil, Journal of Political Ecology, 28(1): 246-265.

Demaria, F., 2010. Shipbreaking at Alang–Sosiya (India): an ecological distribution conflict. Ecological Economics, 70(2): 250-260.

 

 Week 5 – The social construction of nature (Esteve Corbera)

 Robbins, P., 2004. Challenges in Social Construction (Chapter 6). In Political Ecology, Blackwell

Sleto B., 2008, The Knowledge that Counts: Institutional Identities, Policy Science, and the Conflict Over Fire Management in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela. World Development, 36(10): 1938-1955.

 Optional

Benjaminsen, T.A., Aune, J., Sidibé, D. (2010) A critical political ecology of cotton and soil fertility in Mali. Geoforum, 41: 647-656.

Davis, D.K., 2005. Indigenous knowledge and the desertification debate: problematising expert knowledge in North Africa. Geoforum, 36: 509–524.

 

Week 6 – Conservation and control (Esteve Corbera)

 Neumann R.P., 2015. ‘Nature conservation’. In: The Routledge handbook of political ecology, Routledge.

Bocarejo, D., Ojeda, D., 2016. Violence and conservation: Beyond unintended consequences and unfortunate coincidences. Geoforum, 69: 176-183.

 Optional

Bluwstein J., 2018. From colonial fortresses to neoliberal landscapes in Northern Tanzania: a biopolitical ecology of wildlife conservation. Journal of Political Ecology 25(1): 144-168.

Corbera, E., 2012. Problematizing REDD+ as an experiment in payments for ecosystem services. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 4: 612–619.

 

PART III – URBAN POLITICAL ECOLOGY

 Week 7 – Urban political ecology and urban nature’s neoliberalisation (Panagiota Kotsila)

 Heynen, N., Kaika, M., Swyngedouw, E. (2006) Urban Political Ecology: Politicizing the production of urban natures. In In the Nature of Cities (pp. 16-35). Routledge.

Kotsila, P., Anguelovski, I., Baró, F., Langemeyer, J., Sekulova, F. and JT Connolly, J., (2021). Nature-based solutions as discursive tools and contested practices in urban nature’s neoliberalisation processes. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 4(2), pp.252-274.

 Optional

AbdouMaliq Simone on Cities, Neoliberalism and the Commons, Theory, Culture & Society: https://www.theoryculturesociety.org/abdoumaliq-simone-on-cities-neoliberalism-and-the-commons/ 

 

Week 8 – Green gentrification and environmental justice struggles (Panagiota Kotsila)

 Gould, K., & Lewis, T. (2016) Green Gentrification: Urban Sustainability and the Struggle for Environmental Justice. Routledge. Chapter 1 and 2.

Anguelovski I. (2013) Beyond a livable and green neighborhood: Asserting control, sovereignty, and transgression in the Casc Antic of Barcelona.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 37: 1012-1034.

 Optional

Giovanna Di Chiro, 2018. "Canaries in the Anthropocene: storytelling as degentrification in urban community sustainability," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(4), pages 526-538.

 

Week 9 – Biopolitics and public health in the city (Panagiota Kotsila)

 Foucault, M. (2003) ‘17th March 1976’ (chapter 11). In: Society Must Be Defended”: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976. Macmillan.

Ortega, A. A. C. (2020). Exposing Necroburbia: Suburban Relocation, Necropolitics, and Violent Geographies in Manila. Antipode.

 Optional

Zeiderman, Austin (2013). "Living dangerously: Biopolitics and urban citizenship in Bogotá, Colombia." American ethnologist 40, no. 1: 71-87.

Cole HVS, Anguelovski I, Baró  F, Garcia Lamarca M, Kotsila P, Pérez-del-Pulgar, Shokry G, Triguero-Mas M. (2020). The Future of Cities: What the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us about power and privilege, gentrification, and urban environmental justice. Cities & Health. 

 

PART III – FEMINIST POLITICAL ECOLOGY

 Week 10 – Feminist Political Ecology in urbancontexts (Panagiota Kotsila)

 Doshi, S. (2017). Embodied urban political ecology: Five propositions. Area, 49(1), 125-128.

Truelove, Y. (2011). (Re-)Conceptualizing water inequality in Delhi, India through a feminist political ecology framework. Geoforum, 42(2), 143–152. 

 Optional

 Mollett, S. (2017). Feminist political ecology, postcolonial intersectionality, and the coupling of race and gender. (Chapter 9). In Routledge handbook of gender and environment, London and New York: Routledge, 146-158.

HeynenN. Urban political ecology III: The feminist and queer century. Progress in Human Geography. 2018;42(3):446-452.

 

Week 11 – Feminist Political Ecology in rural contexts (Sergio Villamayor-Tomas)

 Agarwal, B. (1992). The gender and environment debate: Lessons from India. Feminist studies, 18(1), 119-158.

Nightingale, A. J. (2011). Bounding difference: Intersectionality and the material production of gender, caste, class and environment in Nepal. Geoforum, 42(2), 153-162.

 

 PART IV – POLITICAL ECOLOGY METHODS

 Week 12 – Can you sum up a poem? A critical survey of political ecology methods (Sergio Villamayor-Tomas)

 Rocheleau, D. (1995). Maps, numbers, text, and context: Mixing methods in feminist political ecology. The Professional Geographer, 47(4), 458-466.

Zimmerer, K. S. (2015). Methods and environmental science in political ecology. In The Routledge handbook of political ecology (pp. 172-190). Routledge.

 

Exam - 30th of January 2022