Political Ecology
Muammer Çakır, Osman Gümüşçü, Barış TaşPolitical ecology, which is a synthesis of the concepts of politics and ecology, utilizes the methods of these disciplines in their research and studies and has become quite popular. The need to politicize anthropogenic environmental problems has kept political ecology on the current agenda; political ecology is now studied in a wide range of areas such as geography, history, politics, sociology, anthropology, economy, and environment. It can be defined as the politicization of environmental problems arising from nature–human interaction. Geographical science, which examines the interactions between the natural environment and humans, should produce scientific knowledge on political ecology as a requirement of the era. This study evaluates the literature that forms the basis of scientific knowledge in terms of geography. Accordingly, conceptual, theoretical, and applied studies were researched; many national and international publications were assessed within this scope, and the database of the study was established. The literature reveals that the issue of political ecology is not adequately addressed by geographers. Therefore, this study attempts to discuss sensitivity and reaction against the environment around the world from the perspective of political geography.
Politik Ekoloji
Muammer Çakır, Osman Gümüşçü, Barış TaşPolitika ve ekoloji kavramlarının sentezinden oluşan politik ekoloji, araştırma ve incelenmelerinde bu iki bilim dalının yöntemlerinden yararlanmaktadır. Kuramsal geçmişi oldukça yeni olan politik ekoloji, giderek önemli bir kavram olmaya başlamıştır. Günümüzde fazlaca yaşanan antropojenik çevre sorunlarına siyasi zemin arama ihtiyacı, politik ekolojiyi yakın geçmişte sürekli olarak gündemde tutmaya yetmiştir. İnterdisipliner yapısı nedeniyle coğrafya, tarih, siyaset, sosyoloji, antropoloji, ekonomi ve çevre gibi geniş bir alanda çalışma imkânı bulmuştur. Politik ekoloji, kabaca doğal ortam-insan etkileşiminden doğan çevre sorunlarının siyasallaştırması olarak tanımlanabilir. Doğal ortam ile insan arasındaki etkileşimleri ele alan coğrafya bilimi, çağın gerekliliklerini karşılamak açısından politik ekoloji konusunda da bilimsel bilgi üretmek yükümlülüğündedir. Çalışmanın amacı, söz konusu bilimsel bilgiyi üretmeye yönelik temel oluşturacak literatürü coğrafya bilimi açısından değerlendirmektir. Bu amaçla mekânın kullanımı konusunda üretilen ve uygulanan politikaları ele alan; kavramsal, kuramsal ve uygulamalı çalışmalar taranmıştır. Ulusal ve uluslararası pek çok yayın, bu kapsamda ele alınmış ve çalışmanın veri tabanı oluşturulmuştur. İncelenen literatür, politik ekoloji konusunun coğrafyacılar tarafından yeterli düzeyde ele alınmadığı sonucunu ortaya koymuştur. Dünya çapında çevreye karşı ortaya konulan duyarlılık ve tepki, siyasi coğrafya bakış açısıyla bu çalışmada ele alınmaya çalışılmıştır.
Political ecology, which is a synthesis of the concepts of politics and ecology, utilizes the methods of these two disciplines; its theoretical background is quite novel, having become popular in the 1970s and 1980s. The need to politicize anthropogenic environmental problems has kept political ecology on the current agenda. Due to its interdisciplinary structure, it has been addressed in a wide range of fields such as geography, history, politics, sociology, anthropology, economy, and environment. Political ecology can be defined as the politicization of environmental problems arising from nature–human interaction, and its studies have a wide area of research—from environmental problems to socioeconomic issues, inequality in the distribution of natural resources, use of clean energy resources, and struggle for power and nature. Geography, which examines the spatial interactions between humans and the natural environment, acts from the same focal point as political ecology, enabling it to benefit from its methodology. Political geography, one of the sub-branches of geography, politicizes space in the geopolitical aspect, while political ecology politicizes spatial environmental problems socioeconomic terms. These two disciplines can be dealt with under the concept of “geosociopolitics” in a common way to combine both approaches as political geography uses the concept of geopolitics to deal with the advantages and disadvantages of spatial differences in the world. However, the fact that the concept of geopolitics refers to the location and space at a perceptual level has brought some deficiencies in terms of its processes. When using the “geosociopolitical” nomenclature or term, the word “socio” refers to human elements; thus, political geography and political ecology can have a common mechanism of action. The fact that environmental problems started to increase in the 1960s and 1970s pointed scientific studies in this direction. With the intensification of scientific studies in this field, significant changes have occurred with regard to environmental problems; the fact that these are ignored by the government, mistrust of the parliament, and reasoning of each ecological crisis seen as policy-based have led to the increase of civil initiatives. While environmentalists have formed parties to make their voices heard, environmental summits have been organized, and protocols and environmental agreements have been signed on the international arena. Today, it is possible to talk about two groups in the solution of environmental problems: reformists, who believe that environmental problems should be solved in accordance with the laws, and radicals, who argue that the system causing environmental problems should be completely eliminated. Political ecology constitutes the balance between these two approaches, and it is applied to decide whether the most rational method should be militarist, democratic, or deliberative. Geographical science, which examines the interactions between the natural environment and humans, should produce scientific knowledge on political ecology as a requirement of the era. This study evaluates the literature that forms the basis for producing scientific knowledge in terms of geography. For this purpose, conceptual, theoretical, and applied studies were researched. Many national and international publications were assessed within this scope, and the database of the study was established. The literature reveals that the issue of political ecology is not adequately addressed by geographers. Therefore, this study discusses sensitivity and reaction against the environment around the world from the perspective of political geography.
