Political ecology is among the most vibrant sub-fields in the discipline of geography. Since the field first developed in the 1980s, political ecologists have pioneered new approaches to studying relations between society and the environment.
The Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology (Routledge, 2015), co-edited by
Tom Perreault,
Gavin Bridge, and
James McCarthy, is a compendium of over fifty essays by leading scholars in the field on different aspects of political ecology. In the field's early years, political ecologists mostly addressed resource conflicts and rural livelihoods in the global South. Most recently, political ecologists have begun studying environmental questions in the global North and tackled topics such as mining and industrialization, the metabolism of cities, and energy production and consumption.
This podcast is less an overview of the handbook and more a conversation about the state of political ecology: where it has been, where it is now, and where it might be headed in the future.