Political ecology: Nature, power and state-society relations
The field of political ecology enables us to examine how power and knowledge influence the way that natural resources and the environment are used, managed, contested and transformed. Political ecology uses qualitative social science methods, primarily drawn from geography and anthropology, to examine how environmental struggles play out in a wide range of settings.
With increasing tensions in our region over water, land, forests and fisheries, political ecology enables critical examination of the role of the state in resource control, policy-making and regulation. Political ecology also accounts for the role of market processes and civil society in this realm, alongside vital consideration of the rights of local resource-users and Indigenous peoples - sometimes in an activist-scholar mode.
Our academics teach subjects within the Master of Environmental Management and Development degree program and the Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development (MAAPD).
Relevant courses
- EMDV8101 State, Society and Natural Resources
- ANTH8047 Land Rights and Resource Development
- EMDV8009 Asia Pacific Environmental Conflicts: Causes and Solutions
- EMDV807 Water Justice, Management and Governance
- EMDV8124 Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
- EMDV8017 Toxic - Environmental Pollution and Waste
- EMDV8013 Development and Environment in the Anthropocene
