New Master’s in Degrowth

The activist-academic collective Research & Degrowth has announced a new master's in Political Ecology, with a specialization in Degrowth and Environmental Justice.

We need to talk about robots

By Paul Robbins. A political ecology of robots is due, one that is rigorously empirical, dedicated to justice and animal welfare, but unromantic in every regard.

Climate politics in the long run

By Romain Felli*.  Stephen Schneider’s 1976 book The Genesis Strategy offers a stunning preview of contemporary debates over climate policies.   According to philosopher of science Bruno Latour, the rise of climate scepticism in public debates reflects the lack of political engagement from climate scientists. He argues that, having restrained themselves to a discourse of …

“Namami Brahmaputra”: Worshipping a river, ignoring its materialities

By Mitul Baruah* The Brahmaputra river in Northeast India means many different things to the diverse communities in the region – their lifeline, recurrent and destructive flooding and erosion – but by most it is not considered holy. Mitul Baruah reflects on the anti-politics of recent attempts to Hinduize the river, which divorce it from …

The Banality of the Anthropocene

By Heather Anne Swanson* There are plenty of troubling things about the Anthropocene, but one of its most troubling dimensions is the sheer number of people it fails to trouble. In response, we need to trouble the Anthropocene's banality, argues Heather Ann Swanson. I want to propose an Anthropocene territorialization and a subject-making project in …

Mining, water appropriation and latent conflicts

What if environmental conflicts do not manifest themselves? The Cobre Las Cruces mining company has managed to access and control common water resources thanks to a top-down, technocratic version of science, which silences social conflict.* The empirical case of the use of water resources in the Cobre Las Cruces mining project (CLC) demonstrates the importance …

Using art to study and communicate socio-environmental change in areas of land grabbing

By Emma Li Johansson* Art in research is a powerful tool to evoke feelings and actions beyond academia. This researcher set out to see what is possible when mixing research with artistic ways of expression. A picture says more than a thousand words, they say. Which is why art is a good way to inform …

Why is Bolivian mining still irresponsible?

A recently published study explores the reasons why the socio-environmental implications of mining have not improved under Evo Morales. Mining activities entail serious social and environmental impacts, which are well known to local communities in Bolivia. That is why many of these communities were excited about the adoption of indigenous and community rights, environmental protection principles and …

The Sun Rises – TOMORROW

By Alevgul Sorman* and David Merlaut** A review of the documentary Demain (Tomorrow). An enchanting journey about confronting challenges for transforming the dominant narratives in our society. Amidst doomsday documentaries depicting irreversible ecological destruction and the collapse of our social fabric, the team behind the documentary Demain embarked on a different mission. Instead of a frustrating …

Nancy Peluso on Maids and other Mobile Subjects: Remaking Forests and Agrarian Environments in Indonesia

By Nancy Peluso* Reflections on the everyday dimensions of landscape production, agrarian transformation and the movement of capital that take place through the migrations and mobilities of landless women from the mountains of East Java. This text is an abridged version of the keynote lecture given by Nancy Peluso at the Undisciplined Environments conference, organised …