Table of Contents

Preface vi

Acknowledgments viii

Introduction 1

1 Political versus Apolitical Ecologies 8

2 A Tree with Deep Roots 22

3 The Critical Tools 45

4 Political Ecology Emerges 82

5 Challenges in Ecology 99

6 Challenges in Social Construction 118

7 Challenges in Explanation 137

8 Degradation and Marginalization 149

9 Conservation and Control 168

10 Environmental Conflict 190

11 Environmental Subjects and Identities 206

12 Political Objects and Actors 223

13 Political Ecologies of the Future? 236

Bibliography 245

Index 280

About the Author

Paul Robbins is the dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, where he guides the institute in serving as a world leader in addressing rapid global environmental change. With writing focused on diverse interdisciplinary audiences and the broader public, he is author of the award-winning book Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are (2007), widely recognized as one of the most accessible books on the environmental politics of daily life.