Political Ecologist

Although "green" approaches to politics have had some practical success in a range of different countries, the movement has lacked fully developed and coherent political theory. In this book, the authors' aim is to show that ecological understanding and environmental concern are not just consistent with notions of social equity and grass-roots democracy, but that a concern for these aims are the logical consequence of what might be called "political ecology". The book begins with a critique of existing styles of thinking. On this basis, an analysis and reinterpretation of Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" is developed through a consideration of Lockean notions of the "social contract". What emerges is a novel understanding of the tasks of politics: rather than focusing on "foreground" issues of individual choice, the central political challenge of our age is with the management and provision of the background conditions (the ecological conditions - understood in the broadest sense) which allows the possibility of a reasonable life. The analysis shows a concern with environmental commons engenders equal concerns for social, economic and cultural commons, develops an account of how such commons can be effectively managed, and relates this account to more traditional political themes of democracy, liberty and equity.