Political Ecology (Co-sponsored by Environmental Sociology Section)

Session Submission Type: Paper Session (90 minute)

Description

The framework of “political ecology,” in which Marxist analyses of political economy meet environmental studies, has become increasingly relevant across the social sciences as the alarming effects of climate devastation become an ever-present lived reality. This timely session co-sponsored by the Marxist Sociology and Environmental Sociology Sections explores the multiple dynamics of political ecology, including but not limited to the significance of imperial and colonial histories, accumulative logics based on racial and gendered inequalities, the double exploitation and dispossessions of land and people, the relationship between production and social reproduction, subsistence and the commodification of needs, questions of indigenous sovereignty, the role of democratic processes in advocating for change, and authoritarian politics in maintaining the climate status quo.

Sub Unit

• Marxist Sociology Section / Political Ecology (Co-sponsored by Environmental Sociology Section)

Cosponsor

• Environmental Sociology Section

Presider

• Joshua Lew McDermott, Southeastern Louisiana University

Individual Presentations

• From Disrespect to Desalination: Fighting for Elite Sovereignty in Colonial Curaçao - Archana Ramanujam, Brown University

• Logistics as Fix: Examining the Ecological Foundations of Urban Circulation - Aman Banerji, Cornell University

• Quiet Social Movements for Agroecology and Food Sovereignty: Gender, Ethnicity, and Environmental Health in China - Li Zhang, Amherst College

• The Extraction Platform: Big Tech’s Raw Material-Fueled Future - Luc McKenzie, University of California-Irvine; David A. Smith, University of California-Irvine

• The Politics of Nuclear Energy and the Limits of Exceptionalism - Olga Alexandrovna Feldberg, University of Virginia

Discussant

• Kerry Ard, Ohio State University

Session Organizers

• Jordanna Chris Matlon, American University

• Kerry Ard, Ohio State University