Manuel Prieto, Gabriela Valdivia, Tom Perreault

Aporias of North/South political ecologies

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In this intervention, we explore the impacts of geopolitical bifurcation on the field of political ecology, specifically the divide between political ecology from the Global North and political ecology from the Global South. We argue that this divide perpetuates categorical essentialisms, flattens authors’ standpoints, and reproduces inequities in how scholarship is valued and circulated based on where it is written from. These issues are not limited to political ecology alone but can be relevant to environmental geography as well. Through our analysis of the perpetuation of aporia in political ecology, we challenge the normalcy of this North/South differentiation and advocate for recognizing the agency and capacity of political ecology practitioners, regardless of their geographic location, language, or nationality, to shape the field. Drawing from our experiences as Latin Americanist political ecologists, we argue that transhemispheric and polylingual projects that challenge power dynamics, create inclusive research processes, and recognize colonial legacies are crucial for more equitable and just approaches to addressing environmental and social justice issues. Furthermore, we examine the coloniality of institutions and technologies that move environmental knowledge as a commodity, such as universities, indexed journals, publishing houses, and research funding criteria.

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