| • introduce and define the concepts of coproduction and hybridization that describe how environmental knowledge and politics co-evolve dynamically; |
| • demonstrate how environmentalism, as a “new” social movement, helped shape many general beliefs and discourses about environment that have since been used to explain the causes of environmental degradation; and |
| • illustrate how such general beliefs-when used uncritically in new contexts-may fail to acknowledge complex biophysical causes of environmental changes, or alternative framings of environmental change by people not included in the formation of the explanations. |
In particular, this chapter focuses upon general beliefs such as linkages between environmental degradation and capitalism; or the association of degradation with political oppression and the “domination of nature.” The chapter does not suggest that criticisms of capitalism or social oppression are misplaced, but argues it is necessary to see how political activism linked to the criticism of capitalism or oppression has shaped beliefs about the causes of environmental degradation.
This chapter therefore helps to build a “critical” political ecology by showing how science and politics co-evolve, and by arguing that many common assumptions about environmental degradation need to be reconsidered in order to acknowledge such political influences. Chapters 6 and 7
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science.
Contributors: Tim Forsyth - Author.
Publisher: Routledge.
Place of publication: London.
Publication year: 2002.
Page number: 103.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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