Political Theory
This is a book of Canadian provenance which emerged from a ‘Global Political Ecology’ conference organized by the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Toronto, in 1994 to celebrate the birth centenary of the prominent Canadian political economist, Harold Innis. The editors explain that Innis’ work was devoted to ‘understanding the link between culture and nature. Specifically, his work focused on the impact of the human presence on the natural environment’ (p. 2). This in itself is enough to make him a rara avis among this century’s economists, and explains why it appeared appropriate to use the conference to focus on ‘political ecology’. This, the editors explain, is to be conceived of as ‘...rooted in political economy and cultural studies and critically branching out to understand relationships between society and the natural world’ (p.1).
The development of this theme in the contributions to the book involves some ingredients which are becoming very familiar features of contemporary environmental debates. Roughly speaking, these encompass the claim that economic development is having increasingly serious ecological impacts; that to understand why this is happening we must reconceptualize economic activity as embedded within ecological systems; that an understanding of economic structures and processes requires social and cultural critique, especially of forms of domination within societies; that the move to an ecologically-sustainable society requires strategies for the reduction or elimination of such forms of domination; that the processes involved encompass forms of radical democracy, decentralization, localism, formation of counter-hegemonic discourses and the creation of alliances across diverse groups of social actors.
The book is divided into six parts. First comes an examination of the ‘Fordist’ (growth which ignores ecological limits) and ‘post-Fordist’ (in which such limits are belatedly recognized) phases of capitalism, their nature, causes, and environmental impacts.
Then some more specific issues in political economy are examined, such as food production and fisheries, focusing on the idea of a sustainable economy. Here Innis’ work receives its most direct consideration.
The third section turns to consider global environmental issues in the most straightforward sense: Carbon dioxide emissions, climate change and human population increase. Such issues as the justice of carbon credit schemes, the misuse of ‘global’ in discussions of climate change and the mutual incomprehension of ecologists and economists in discussions of population increase are interestingly explored.
Part four introduces the more directly ‘cultural’ part of the endeavour, via discussion of ecofeminist and environmental feminist debates, in which some common ecofeminist positions are subjected to scrutiny, with ‘difference’ feminism coming in for some particularly searching criticism.
The fifth section groups together discussions of consumptionism, work and free time in a sustainable society.
The final section is devoted to the politics of environmental radicalism, its problems as a practical activity (an illuminating account of the trials and tribulations of the Canadian Green Party) and as theoretical endeavour. It provides an exploration of a version of social ecology and an examination of the possible place within liberal democracies for rights discourse in the defence of the environment.
Some of the earlier chapters are turgid in places, although the material they contain is of interest for any student of environmental political economy. However, the chapters by Peffer (justice and carbon credit schemes), Lutes (climate change), Keyfitz (population), Agarwal (feminist environmentalism), Wachtel (overconsumption), Paehlke (work), Timmerman (green party politics) and, above all, Eckersley (environmental rights and democracy) are very clearly written and often illuminating discussions of important issues in this field.
Overall, this is a very worthwhile collection containing much to interest both newcomers and established researchers in the area of political ecology.
