apologies to those not going to san francisco
AAG 2007 Call for Papers: The Power of Political Ecology: Developing dialogues between Foucault
and Gramsci
Over the last few years, relational readings of political ecology have posed considerable challenges
to our understandings of the politics of the contemporary moment. Through nuanced empirical
and theoretical studies, researchers have turned instrumentalist conceptions of power and
dualistic understandings of the politics of the environment on their heads. Such work has engaged
with various theoretical traditions - post-structural accounts have drawn on Deleuze and Spinoza,
historical materialists have put Lefebvre and Smith to work, and a number of researchers have
drawn promiscuously on Haraway’s work, Actor Network Theory and science studies. More
recently, there has been a developing interest in using the work of Antonio Gramsci and Michel
Foucault to better understand the way power operates through lived environments. At the same
time, a separate debate has emerged within the geographical literature concerning the potentials
and pitfalls of bringing Gramsci and Foucault into proximity. Relational work on political ecologies
provides a fertile terrain over which this debate might be explored in more depth.
In the hope of energising debates around the power of socionatures and the relationships between
Gramsci and Foucault, this session will include a diverse range of papers. In particular, we are
interested in theoretical and empirical papers that might explore the following questions:
Of what relevance are Gramscian conceptions of hegemony and Foucauldian understandings of
biopower for pushing forward political ecological studies?
What are the most productive avenues for bringing together Gramsci and Foucault? Is it even
possible to navigate the epistemological, ontological and normative tensions involved in such
project?
How might the grounded work of political ecology feed back into re-interpreting relational
readings of power?
How can these understandings of power and political ecology serve to challenge the contemporary
socionatural order through revolutionary praxis?
We welcome papers that address these issues. If you are interested in participating, please contact
either Michael Ekers ([log in to unmask]) or Alex Loftus ([log in to unmask]) before
October 10th.
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