{"title":"Emancipatory Political Ecology Pedagogy In and Out of the Classroom","authors":"S. Batterbury, D. Rodríguez","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1011","url":null,"abstract":"In this brief commentary, we reflect on two aspects of contemporary political ecology scholarship: The first is a reflexive assessment of socio-political relational positionalities as a necessary condition, not only to challenge but also to act upon socio-ecological injustices. Second, we examine the effective delivery of cross-cultural pedagogies of care that inform the development of self-reliant political ecology (PE) scholars and/or activists within the constraints of neoliberal education. We argue that both issues are relevant to position PE as an emancipatory pedagogy and praxis in a decolonizing world.","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77704387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Our People Can’t Hold the Line!”","authors":"Minati Dash","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1061","url":null,"abstract":"A protracted movement emerged in Kashipur in Southern Odisha in 1993 that stalled a bauxite mining project for over 18 years. It went through fragmentations and eventually petered out by the early 2010s. This paper aims to understand how and why the processes of capital accumulation through dispossession cause fragmentation of social movements and their eventual petering out. I analyse the collective strikes that the villagers engaged in during 2008–2010, paralyzing the company’s incipient construction work over a tumultuous nine months. Critically engaging with David Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” (ABD) and Kalyan Sanyal’s concept of “jobless growth”, I argue that ABD processes entail protracted interaction of extractive capital, bureaucratic structures, ecology, and the movements of subaltern communities with existing divisions. Dispossession processes generate new fissures in which ownership of land or lack of it due to land acquisition becomes the central axis of cleavage, shaping the politics and outcomes of dispossession. I further reveal that ‘jobless growth’ is unachievable for a company that can push ahead only through the provision of precarious employment and such promises...","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87926230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Political Ecology of an Environmental Crisis in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam","authors":"Mitul Baruah","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1054","url":null,"abstract":"Political ecology as a framework for studying nature–society relations has come a long way since the 1980s, both in terms of its thematic canvas as well as theoretical robustness. Research in political ecology on hazards on the other hand has not grown as impressively, even though humanity is witnessing increased risks and disasters in the Anthropocene. Indeed, disasters are no longer “extreme events” and have come to be regarded as normal occurrences. This paper delves deeper into the question of the political ecology of hazards and vulnerability by focusing on a case study from Majuli river island in India’s northeast. It critically investigates the twin disasters of flooding and riverbank erosion in Majuli by paying attention to the role of the biophysical features of the Brahmaputra river system as well as the political economic forces at play, with a special focus on the role of the state. The paper draws on fieldwork conducted in Majuli over several years. It foregrounds the role of the state in the reproduction of the Majuli hazardscape and calls for a nuanced, disaggregated analysis of the postcolonial disastrous state.","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87750827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bringing and Being a ‘Kaim-bride’","authors":"Sampurna Das","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1035","url":null,"abstract":"Not applicable","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"156 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76890601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reflecting on the Past and Welcoming the Future","authors":"Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Pranab Mukhopadhyay","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1138","url":null,"abstract":"Ecology, Economy and Society (EES) began its humble but hopeful journey with its inaugural issue in April 2018. The founding editors were renowned professors Jayanta Bandopadhyay, Kamal Bawa, and Kanchan Chopra, each of them a doyen in their domain. They brought their years of experience of building the Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE) to an aspiring journal that aimed “to highlight and provide examples of...diverse approaches to the study the links between ecology, economy, and society” (Chopra 2018, page 3). As it happens in the journey of every institution, the founding editors have now handed over the baton to a team comprising Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Jagdish Krishnaswamy, and Pranab Mukhopadhyay. These editors represent the next generation of INSEE members.","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72504102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Socio-spatial Infrastructures","authors":"Amit Kumar Srivastwa, Asmita Kabra","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.990","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.990","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the social and spatial implications of drinking water infrastructures in rural southern Bihar. Hardiya, a multi-caste and multi-religion village, has a complex social arrangement. This village consists of original households, households resettled due to dam construction, and households resettled due to excessive fluoride contamination in groundwater. Excessive fluoride produces incidences of fluorosis among households, and historically, households have low access to clean drinking water. In response to the drinking water and public health crisis, multiple state, non-state, and transnational institutions intervened in Hardiya to provide safe technologies and infrastructures for clean drinking water. These twenty years of interventions have brought different technologies, institutions, and actors together to supply drinking water. However, these schemes are functioning inadequately on the ground, and access to clean water remains a big question amidst the development of drinking water infrastructures in Hardiya. This paper explores the dialectical relationship between drinking water infrastructures and social spaces, how both shape each other, through which assemblages, and what it renders. It explores the uneven outcomes of this technological intervention across different socio-spatial groups in Hardiya...","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89335799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Wetlands and Ecosystem Services","authors":"M. Menon, Girigan Gopi, V. P","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.985","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.985","url":null,"abstract":"Wetland paddy agro-ecosystems are recognized as important human-made wetland systems. Realizing that paddy lands are important ecological systems, the state of Kerala in southern India passed an act in 2008 preventing their conversion to other uses. The state provides subsidies and production bonuses to encourage paddy farmers and imposes penalties for non-compliance. However, the economic benefits associated with the conversion of paddy lands are considerably higher than the current subsidies and bonuses. As such, the conversion of paddy lands continues unabated despite the incentives and disincentives provided in the act. This study examines the ecological rationale for preventing paddy land conversion through a comparative assessment of the ecological health of paddy lands against that of lands with competing uses. Ecological health is assessed in terms of the amphibian population—specifically, frog abundance and diversity across different land uses, as frogs are considered bio-indicators of ecological health. The results reveal that the conversion of paddy lands adversely affects the survival of amphibians, especially frogs, thus emphasizing the role of paddy lands in maintaining the ecological health of a region. The study also provides empirical evidence for creating “Pigouvian subsidies” or ecological incentives for paddy farmers.","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88543049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Buddhist Wisdom for a Sustainable World","authors":"V. Narain","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1087","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83933861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Uncertainty and Climate Change Policymaking in India","authors":"Sadaf Javed","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.1039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1039","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"136 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73470686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring the “Green”","authors":"Anurag Borah","doi":"10.37773/ees.v6i2.722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.722","url":null,"abstract":"“Green history” in general refers to environmental history that traces the development of human–nature relationships and patterns of natural resource extraction and mobilization in our past. Needless to say, a concern for the “green” is becoming a fast-developing field of enquiry given the growing incidence of environmental hazards across the world. However, comparatively, in India, environmental history is yet to make much headway. That is why David Arnold and Ramchandra Guha, the pioneers of environmental history in India, have remarked that environmental history in India, and South Asia in general, is under-developed as a discipline. Assam, situated in the north-eastern part of India, has always been known for its rich flora and fauna and diverse biodiversity hot spots. This region shows a great diversity of climate, topography, and geology, which explains the rich biological diversity of this part of the country. But, interestingly enough, very few studies have been undertaken to examine the environmental history of Assam, and most of them are on the colonial period. This paper aims to review particular references to the ecology and environment of pre-colonial Assam that are embedded in the available historical literature.","PeriodicalId":34130,"journal":{"name":"Ecology Economy and Society - The INSEE Journal","volume":"132 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78650736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}