GEOG 468 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Social Stratification, Land Tenure, Political Ecology
10 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Readings pointed out limitations of existing political ecology. Political ecology emerged in mid-1980s: seeking to explain causes of environmental degradation. Sought theoretical & explanations: overpopulation, economic irrationality. Solutions: control # of farmers, educate farmers, new technologies. Explanations of environmental degradation had to be social and political. Political ecology combines human ecology & political ecology. Flows of energy materials, information between and within ecosystems: look at selection and adaptation. Strengths: complexity & sophistication of local land use, apolitical in countries where political analysis prohibited. Shortcomings: static & a-historical, ignores politics, weak explanatory power, short on social theory. Combining conservation & development nonsensical: long-term stability & short term capital accumulation don"t match, look at production relations, especially. Degradation as reduction in land capability for particular use. Multiple definitions of use & degradation: political ecology starts at one person and looks outward, upward, and backward. Political ecology distinction between human-environmental relations & human- human. History of resource use & political economy.
