Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Ecology: Natural and Political
Matthew D. Turner
Introduction
The term 'ecology' has many meanings. It is often used loosely as a synonym for
'environment' or 'nature', the latter arguably one of the most complex, diffi cult,
and meaning-rich terms in the English language (Williams, 1980). As such, the
juxtaposition of 'natural' and 'political' ecology raises issues of the division (Latour,
1993; Castree, 2005), mutual construction (Ellen and Fukui, 1996; Demeritt, 1998;
Castree and Braun, 2001; Bakker and Bridge, 2006), and hybridity (Swyngedouw,
1999; Whatmore, 2002) of 'nature' and 'society'. Recent biophysical and social
research has questioned whether what we think of as 'natural' or 'wild' can be
rightly seen as such (Cronon, 1996; Neumann, 1998; Braun, 2002), while others
have argued that the gradations of naturalness ignored by some social commentators
are important (e.g., Vale, 1998).
More specifi cally, ecology is defi ned as the scientifi c study of the relationships
among biological organisms and with their physical environment. Often the term
is used as well to refer not only to a fi eld of study but to the actual interrelation-
ships being studied. This distinction is important in this chapter and to avoid confu-
sion, 'ecology' will refer to the science and 'ecological relations' will refer to
ecologists' foci of study. This chapter is concerned less with advances in ecology
but more with the implications of ecology and ecological relations for the study of
society-environment relations. 'Ecology' as a term connotes complex interrelated-
ness and as such, has proven a popular label for a suite of scholarly approaches,
primarily in anthropology and geography, for analysing society-environment rela-
tions (cultural ecology, human ecology, political ecology). I do not intend to survey
these approaches here - this has already been done admirably by others (Ellen, 1982;
Zimmerer, 1996; Turner, 1997; Robbins, 2004). In this chapter, I will focus on the
relationships between ecology and ecological relations (science and subject of study)
with the politics of the environment and particularly how they have been addressed
by the diverse interdisciplinary fi eld of political ecology. More specifi cally, I explore
two questions:
