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 Panagiota Kotsilla 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 Sara Maestre Andrés and will introduce seminal themes within political ecology, mostly associated with rural contexts and conservation. Part III is taught by Panagiota Kotsila and Sara Maestre Andrés and 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? (Panagiota Kotsilla) – 23 October 2023

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

Forsyth, T. (2008). Political ecology and the epistemology of social justice. Geoforum, 39(2), 756-764.

 Optional

 Sultana, Farhana. "Political ecology 1: From margins to center." Progress in Human Geography 45, no. 1 (2021): 156-165.

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) – 30 October 2023

 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) – 13 November

 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 foraccess 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 WITHIN POLITICAL ECOLOGY

 Week 4 – Ecological distribution conflicts (Esteve Corbera) – 20 November

 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)- 27 November

 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) – 4 December

 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.

 

Week 7 – Neoliberal conservation (Sara Maestre Andrés) - 11 December

 Apostolopoulou E., Chatzimentor A., Maestre-Andrés S., Requena M., Bormpoudakis D. 2021. Reviewing 15 years of research on neoliberal conservation. Geoforum 124, pp. 236–256.

Igoe J. and Brockington D. 2007. Neoliberal conservation: a brief introduction. Conservation and society 5(4), 432-449.

 Optional

 Maestre-Andrés S., Corbera E., Robertson M., Lave R. 2020. Habitat banking at a standstill: the case of Spain. Environmental Science and Policy 109, 54-63.  

 Apostolopoulou E. and Adams W.M. 2017. Biodiversity offsetting and conservation: reframing nature to save it. Oryx 51(1):23-31.

 

 Week 8 – Climate change vulnerability & adaptation (Esteve Corbera) - 18 December  

 Adger, W.N. (2006) Vulnerability. Global Environmental Change, 16 (3): 268-281.

Eriksen, S.H., Nightingale, A.J., Eakin, H. (2015) Reframing adaptation:The political nature of climate change adaptation. Global Environmental Change, 35: 523-533.

  

PART III – URBAN POLITICAL ECOLOGY

 Week 9 - Urban political ecology and urban environmental justice struggles (Panagiota Kotsila)  – 8 January

 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. 

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

 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 

 Urban political ecology for a climate emergency - Yannis Tzaninis, Tait Mandler, Maria Kaika, and Roger Keil,  in ‘Turning Up the Heat’ 

 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 10 – Feminist Political Ecology in urban contexts (Panagiota Kotsila) - 15 January

 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 – Urban commons and coproduction processes with the state (Sara Maestre Andrés) - 22 January

 Becker S., Naumann M., Moss T. 2017. Between coproduction and commons: understanding initiatives to reclaim urban energy provision in Berlin and Hamburg. Urban Research and Practice 10(1), 63-85. DOI: 10.1080/17535069.2016.1156735

 Bianchi, I., Pera, M., Calvet-Mir, L., Villamayor-Tomás S., Ferreri, M., Reguero, N., Maestre Andrés, S. 2022. Urban commons and the local state: co-production between enhancement and co-optation. Territory, Politics, Governance. 10.1080/21622671.2022.2108491

 

 PART IV– POLITICAL ECOLOGY METHODS

 Week 12 - Can you sum up a poem? A critical survey of political ecology methods (Sergio Villamayor-Tomas) – 29 January

 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 - 5th of February 2024