Tracing narratives and perceptions in the political ecologies of health and disease

In a previous post on ‘Horses, bees and bodies: post-conference accounts from Lexington’, Panagiota Kotsila shared her reflections on the 2015 Dimensions of Political Ecology (DOPE) Conference, where together we organised a panel titled ‘Perceptions of Urban Environmental Health: Narrating Political Ecologies of Disease’. The post promised a forthcoming collection of papers on the topic, …

Co-producing political responses to ‘swiftlet farming’ in George Town, Malaysia

Through the analysis-using several ethnographic methods- of conflicts around 'swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia, Creighton Connolly encourages the formation of stronger linkages between academics, urban policy makers, and civil society organisations for better understanding environmental conflicts.* Edible-nest swiftlets are a small species of bird (Aerodramus fuciphagus), native to Southeast Asia, which make edible nests entirely …

Not Just Another Political Ecology Handbook (?)

Internationalizing and decolonizing political ecology is the focus of the recently published 'International Handbook of Political Ecology' and its primary raison d’etre. However, there is clearly much more to be done in the ongoing project to make political ecology a collective, cohesive community. If, as Diego Andreucci noted on this blog three months ago, the …

Landscape politics of ‘swiftlet farming’ in George Town, Malaysia

by Creighton Conolly --- This post originally appeared on Season 3 of the LSE Cities Blog 'Urban Vignettes' on October 27th, 2014. --- Since September last year I have been conducting fieldwork for my doctoral research on urban birds' nest harvesting (or ‘swiftlet farming’) in Malaysian cities – a fiercely debated topic in the country …

Encountering racial tensions and political antipathy on fieldwork in Malaysia

by Creighton Connolly I arrived in Malaysia to begin my initial 10 weeks of fieldwork on Sunday, the 15th of September 2013, after a busy few days in Singapore meeting with colleagues there in preparation for my field season. In retrospect, it was a poor choice of days to venture across the Causeway into Malaysia, …