Critiques of Sustainable Development (continued)

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Critiques of Sustainable Development (continued)

• And Questions!

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Aims of lecture

• Introduce political ecology critiques of
  sustainable development (SD)
• Remind you of where we are in the course
• Give you an opportunity to ask questions

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Political Ecology

• Theory of the relationship between nature and
  society that emerged in 1980s
• Emphasizes social inequality within society, e.g.
  link between poverty and the environment
• Argues for spatial accounts of envt.al change
• Interested in the role of the state in
  environmental management and change
• Criticizes SD for focus on econ growth and lack
  of attention to intra-generational equity

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Piers Blaikie 1985 Political Economy of Soil
Erosion

• Argued that soil erosion not problem of
  overpopulation or mismanagement
• Need to understand soil erosion from the point of
  resource users (small farmers etc.) often
  marginalized within the society and by the state
• Peasants destroy their own environment in an
  attempt to delay their own destruction

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Blaikie and Brookfield (1987)

• Published Land Degradation and Society
• resources do not cease to exist but become
  degraded agricultural productivity declines
  and more labour or money is required
• degradation makes land users more vulnerable to
  adverse conditions such as drought

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Strengths/Weaknesses of Political Ecology

• Considers how political economy (class and the
  state) shape nature/society relations
• But not much on gender inequalities
• Like SD, political ecology quite vague
• Focuses more on people than ecology

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How does Sustainable Development relate to other
major development theories?

• Mainstream SD often quite close to neo-liberal
  ideas emphasizes economic growth
• Political Ecology links to dependency theory
• EMT more purely linked to the New Right (and
  therefore very influential - see Daniels post)
• Deep Ecology links to post-development

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Concluding Thoughts

• Dissatisfaction with sustainable development has
  generated a number of alternative ways of
  theorizing environment/development
• But are political ecology, EMT and deep ecology
  any better theoretical constructs?
• What do YOU think?

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