What Kind of History for What Kind of Political Ecology

Abstract

In exploring how historical research might enrich political ecology (and, implicitly, how political ecology could inform historical geography), one might begin by asking the question: “What kind of history for what kind of political ecology?” Although Richard Peet and Michael Watts recognized that “environmental historians raise important theoretical and methodological questions for the study of long-term environmental change,” they neither offered practical guidance for this scholarly project, nor explored the implications. Piers Blaikie’s political-economic analysis of soil erosion, which quickly became the standard reference in political ecology, included only minor discussion of historical analysis. Yet few would disagree with his unsurprising later argument that “the search for social causes of [land] degradation must also extend backwards in time.” Michael Williams, while lamenting that some of the best environmental history has been done “on topics that historical geographers have either not perceived or ignored,” argued that the “tension” between environmental history and historical geography could “be a catalyst for new work.” Unfortunately, he neglected to elaborate his point. Similarly, Stanley Trimble considered “ironic” the fact that geography has “[relinquished] ground to a field like history with no physical underpinnings,” but also failed to offer specific advice. If we turn to environmental historians for insight to historical political ecology, we find a mixed message. The African, South Asian, and Southeast Asian literatures include numerous studies focusing on how colonial environmental policies altered traditional resource-access regimes; indeed, these literatures provide the best examples of scholarship that could be described as historical political ecology. Recent research in African environments, for example, has vigorously challenged the “received wisdoms” and “environmental crisis narratives” that often support public policies. Other environmental history literatures, however, are at least as widely read but show far less concern for the conceptual issues that would inter-

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