Political Ecology

Political Ecology is a transdisciplinary approach to study how nature-society relations evolve over time and across space. Acknowledging the complex nature of nature-society relations, political ecology draws on a rich theoretical and methodological portfolio from human and social ecology, anthropology, history, political science, sociology, and human geography.

Our empirical entry points are material and discursive struggles over environmental resource access, management and control. These struggles and conflicts over the environment and its resources (such as agricultural land, water, wildlife, fisheries, mines, forests, trees, parks) are politically, economically, culturally, and socially mediated. Due to the social, cultural, and political economic embeddedness of such conflicts, assessments (scientific, policy-related) of the state of environment are not politically neutral. That is to say, there are no objective ecologies, but all ecologies are political.

We are thus interested in understanding what kind of ecologies are produced in these struggles and how they are represented through science, popular discourse, social movements, and policies. Moreover, we are interested in understanding how these ecologies and their representations lead to often uneven economic development across time and space.

Thematically, we study political ecologies of nature/forest/wildlife/biodiversity conservation, rural and agricultural development, rural livelihoods and economies, water and land tenure governance, and climate change. Geographically we work in Switzerland, New Zealand, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Pakistan, and Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia.

For BSc and MSc students we offer courses and excursions in qualitative methods, human geography, environmental geography, political ecology, water geography, urban geography, economic geography, social theory, global development and change.

_{[Caption: Tarangire National Park, Tanzania. Credit: Alex Wunsch]}

Our research projects in Political Ecology

Political Ecology of Climate Litigation: Juridification of Swiss Climate Politics

This project examines how Swiss climate activists mobilize the courts and engage in legal struggles with the state to transform climate politics. The project investigates what effects this juridification of climate politics has on Swiss climate governance and on civil liberties. The project is situated within the interdisciplinary fields of political ecology and legal anthropology.

Methodologically, the project builds on ethnographic research in the courts, participation in legal team meetings with climate activists, interviews with different actors (incl. lawyers, judges)

This research project was launched in Summer 2022. Jevgeniy received SNSF Ambizione Funding to continue conducting this research at the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern, beginning in 2023, for 4 years. A PhD student will be hired within the scope of this project.

Image credit:

watson.ch/fr/suisse/analyse/111036464-changement-climatique-3-points-pour-comprendre-l-etat-de-necessite

Contact: Dr. Jevgeniy Bluwstein

jevgeniy.bluwstein@unifr.ch

Climate Activists in front of court of law in Geneva
Traditional Authorities in Namibia’s land governance: Seeking legitimacy in a context of legal and practical transformations

This project establishes social and political implications of the Communal land reform policies in north-central Namibia. At the present, the Traditional Authorities are likely to be the most affected by the political negotiations of land. As the land governance field experiences a thorough turnover through the reshuffling of roles and connected rights and duties, they are required to re-stabilise their power position, not least with regards to land control. This context offers insight into the creation of new forms of legitimising practices and discourse, drawing on theories of Bourdieu, Turner, and Foucault. This thesis aims to establish a cross-scale image of interrelations between the national land reform narratives and socio-political dynamics on a local level.

2016 SNF Project : P1FRP1_168435

2012-2016 SNF Project : FN 140433 Communal land reform in Namibia - Implications of Individualisation of land tenure

2021 Working paper: Social meaning and material constraints of land scarcity in Northern Namibia. By Lena Bloemertz, Romie Nghitevelekwa, Brice Prudat, Laura Weidmann, Gregor Dobler, Olivier Graefe, Nikolaus J. Kuhn. Namibia University, Integrated Land Management Institute (ILMI)

Project members:

Laura Weidman

Prof. Olivier Graefe

Contact:

laura.weidmann(at)unifr.ch

Project area

Namibia
Political Ecology of Conservation in Tanzania: Nature, Wildlife, Landscapes, Biopolitics

This research is based on fieldwork in Tanzania during my PhD studies from 2015-2018. Empirically, I have been studying the evolution of the Tarangire-Manyara Ecosystem, which is managed by several NGOs, local communities and governmental institutions as a conservation landscape. My focus lies on understanding land and resource conflicts in a conservation context, how these conflicts are managed, and what we can learn about landscape conservation initiatives as a form of biopolitical government.

Drawing on this research, I continue writing about the intersections between nature, wildlife, landscape and biopolitics. All publications can be accessed on my UNIFR profile page or through ResearchGate

Some of the insights from this research have also been used for another research project on conservation in Tanzania that I have been part of since 2013: PIMA - Poverty and Ecosystem Impacts of Tanzania's Wildlife Management Areas, PIMA is led by Prof. Katherine Homewood, UCL)

Image: Tarangire National Park, Tanzania. Credit: Alex Wunsch

Dr. Jevgeniy Bluwstein

jevgeniy.bluwstein (at) unifr.ch

Tarangire National Park
Political Ecology of Wildlife Conservation in Namibia: Commercialization of Animals and Human-Animal Relationships.

This research is focused on processes of neoliberalization of wildlife conservation including the commodification, commercialization and privatization of animals and human-wildlife relationships. Of particular interest is the production of encounter value and the consequences of its commercialization on the relationships between humans and wildlife. A comparison approach is taken in order to identify the differences of encounter value linked to the different territorialities of wildlife conservation like national parks, private game farms and communal conservancies. The objective is to understand how market logics of game viewing impact Namibia's wildlife and shape human-wildlife relationships, today and in the future.

The project is conducted in cooperation with Prof. Dr. A. Schlottmann (University of Frankfurt) and the University of Namibia.

Image credits: Olivier Graefe

Prof. Olivier Graefe

olivier.graefe [at] unifr.ch

Namibia