The main premise of political ecology is that environmental change is not a neutral process amenable to technical management. Rather, it has political sources, conditions and ramifications that impinge on socio-economic inequalities and political process. The article seeks to provide an introduction to the rapidly growing research field of Third World political ecology and provides an overview of the historical development of the field since the 1970s. The theoretical tool has been employed to analyse the case study of kudremukh environment movement. The article raises certain questions like weren’t the priorities of workers considered upon the closure of mining? Why have the trade unions not been able to dictate the central content of bargaining policy for trade unions? Why do NGOs select a particular issue in terms of environmental degradation and play crucial roles as lobbyist and umpire through judicial activism and well as act as interpreters and mediators through the press?
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Arun, L.K. , Jayashankar, B. , and Abraham, Kurian Mathew (2001). Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood of Tribesfolk: A Case study of Periyar Tiger Reserve. Discussion paper No. 37, Centre for Development Studies
2.
Atkinson, Adrian (1991). Principles of political ecology, Belhaven Press .
3.
Balakrishnan, Rajagopal (2004). Limits of law in Counter-Hegemonic Globalization: The Indian Supreme Court and the Narmada Valley Struggle. Working paper series, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University .
4.
Baviskar, Amita (1997). Ecology and development in India: A Field and its Future . Sociological Bulletin, 46(2): 193–207 .
5.
Baviskar, Amita (2005). Red in tooth and claw? Looking for class in struggles over nature in social movements in India. In Raka Ray and Mary Fainsod Katzenstein (eds), Poverty, power and politics, (pp. 161–79). Rowman and Littlefield Publishers .
6.
Bebbington, Anthony (2007). Social movements and the politicization of chronic poverty . Development and Change, 38(5): 739–816 .
7.
Biersack, Aletta (2006). Reimagining political ecology: Culture/Power/History nature. In Aletta Biersack and James B Greeberg (eds), Reclaiming political ecology. London: Duke University Press .
8.
Blaikie, Piers (1987). The political ecology of soil erosion in developing countries, Longman, London .
9.
Blaikie, Piers , and Harold Brookfield (1987). Land degradation and society, London: Methun .
10.
Bryant, R.L (1992). Political ecology: An emerging research agenda in third World studies , Political Geography1: 14–36 .
11.
Bryant, L. Raymond , and Sinead Bailey (1997). Third World political ecology, London, Routledge .
12.
Damle, Y.B. (1988). Protest, dissent and social reform: A conceptual note in dissent protest and reform in Indian civilization, (Ed. S.C. Malik ). Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study .
13.
Daniels, R.J.R. (2003). Biodiversity of the Western Ghats: An overview . Wildlife and Protected areas, Conservation of rainforest in India, 4(1): 25–40 .
14.
Eckersley (1997). Environmentalism and Political Theory, London, UCL Press .
15.
Fernandes, Leena (2006). Liberalization, democracy and middle class politics, Oxford University Press, New Delhi .
16.
Gadgil, Madhav , and Ramachandra Guha (1994). Ecological conflicts and the environment movement in India , Development and Change, 25: 100–35 .
17.
Glyan , and Mawdsley, Emma (2006). India’s evolving political ecologies. In Raju, Saraswati , Kumar, Satish M. , and Corbridge, Stuart , Sage .
18.
Guha, Ramachandra (1989). The unquiet woods: Ecological change and peasant resistance in the Himalaya, Delhi .
19.
Guha, Ramachandra , and Juar Martinez Alien (1997). Varieties of environmental: Essays on North and South, Earth Scan Publications Ltd .
20.
Gusfiled, R. Joseph (1970). Protest, reform and revolt: A reader in social movements, John Wiley and Sons .
21.
Hardin, Garrett , and John Baden (1977). Managing the commons, (ed.), W.H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco .
22.
Harvey, David (1974). Population, resources and the ideology of science . Economic Geography, 50: 256–77 .
23.
Heynes, Nik , Perkins, Harold. A. , and Ray, Parama (2006). The political economy in race and ethnicity in producing environment inequality in Milwaukee . Urban Affairs Review, 42(1): 3–25 .
24.
Jogdand, P.G , and Michael, S.M. (2003). Globalization and social movements: Struggle for a humane society. Jaipur: Rawat publications .
25.
Kalland, Arne , and Person, Gerard (1998). An anthropological perspective on environmental movements in Asia. Environmental Movements in Asia, Curzon Press .
26.
Kalpavriksha. The forest encroachment issue. Pune: Kalpavriksha .
27.
Karanth, Ullas (1985). The primate conservation: The newsletter and journal of the IUCN/SSC . Primate Specialist Group, 6: 73–84 .
28.
Lele, Sharachchandra (2002). A defining moment for forests . Economic and Political Weekly, June 23: 2380 .
29.
Lewis, Michael (2002). Inventing global ecology: Tracking the biodiversity ideal in India, 1945–97. Orient Longman .
30.
Mario, Diani (1992). The concept of social movement . Sociological Review, 40: 1–25 .
31.
Martinez-Alier, Juar (2004). The environmentalism of the poor: A study of ecological conflicts and valuation. Oxford University Press .
32.
Mathur, Kuldeep (2004). Battling for clean environment: Supreme Court, technocrats and populist politics in Delhi, Centre for the Study for Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University , Working paper series.
33.
Mawdsley, E.E. (2004). India’s middle class and the environment . Development and Change, 35(1): 79–103 .
34.
Moore, D.S. (1993). Contesting terrain in Zimbabwe’s eastern highlands: Political ecology, ethnography and peasant resources struggles . Economic Geography, 69(4): 380–401 .
35.
Mukerji, Partha Nath (1977). Social movements and social change: Towards a conceptual clarification and theoretical framework . Sociological Bulletin, pp. 38–59 .
36.
Mukul (1997). Tribal areas: Transition to self-governance . Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXII, No. 18, May 3rd, pp. 928–29 .
37.
Meyers, Garath. A (1999). Political ecology and urbanization: Zanzibar’s construction materials industry . The Journal of Modern African Studies, 37, 1: 85–108 .
38.
Muir, Richard (1997). Political geography: A new introduction. Macmillan Press .
39.
Omvedt, Gail (1994). Reinventing revolution: New social movements and socialist tradition in India, New York .
40.
Patterson, Thomas (1999). Change and development in the twentieth century. Oxford International publishers .
41.
Pellicani, Luciano (1981). Gramsci: An alternative communism. Stanford, california: Hoover Institute Press .
42.
Peluso, Nancy Lee (1992). Rich forests, poor people: Resource control and resistance in Java. Berkeley .
43.
Peluso, Nancy , and Michael Watts (2001). Violent environments, (ed.) Cornell University Press, and Ithaca .
44.
Philip Stott , and Sian Sullivan (Ed.) Political ecology: Science, myth and power, Arnold, London .
45.
Prabhu, Pradip (2002). Land alienation, land reforms and tribals in maharahsta. In Praveen K. Jha (ed.), Land reforms in India: Issues of equity in Madhya Pradesh, Vol. VII. New Delhi, Sage .
46.
Radhakrishnan, B.P. (1996). Mineral resources of Karnataka. Bangalore: Geological Society of India .
47.
Routledge, Paul (1995). Terrains of resistance: Nonviolent social movements and the contestation of place in India. Praeger Publishers .
48.
Roy, A.K. (1997). Can courts run the country . Economic and Political Weekly, October 11, pp. 2579–81 .
49.
Scott (1985). Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of resistance. New Haven: Yale University press .
50.
Sethi, Harsh (2001). Movements and mediators . Economic and Political Weekly, January 27, XXXVI(4): 269–70 .
51.
Sutton, Philip. W (2004). Nature, environment and society. Palgrave McMillan .
52.
Taylor, Peter J. (1999). Mapping complex social-natural relationships: Cases from Mexico and Africa. In Frank Fischer and Marten, A. Hajer (eds), Living with nature: Environmental politics as cultural discourse. Oxford University Press .
53.
Veltmeyer, Henry (1997). New social movements in Latin America . The Journal of Peasant Studies, 24(4): 139–69 .
54.
Walker, Peter. A. (2005). Political ecology: Where is the ecology?Progress in Human Geography, 29(1): 73–82 .
55.
Walker, Peter. A. (2006). Political ecology: Where is the policy . Progress in Human Geography, 30(3): 382–395 .
56.
Watts, M. , and Peet, R. (eds) (1996). Liberation ecologies: Environment, development, social movements. London: Routledge .
57.
Zimmerer, K.S. (2006). Cultural ecology: At the interface with political ecology – The new geographies of environmental conservation and globalization . Progress in Human Geography, 30(1): 63–78 .
58.
Zimmerer, K.S. (2007). Cultural ecology (and political ecology) in the environmental borderlands: Exploring the expanded connectivities within geography . Progress in Human Geography, 31(2): 227–44 .
