Readings for Wed. 2/28

I've posted two readings in the "files" section of the google groups page. The first is a very short (4-pg) piece from a recent theme issue of American Anthropologist on Hurricane Katrina. I think it will be a nice follow-up to our discussion of vulnerability last week. Perhaps we can tackle the question of how to decrease vulnerability as New Orleans rebuilds. Is it possible considering the current political-economic situation in the city?

The second piece is a chapter scanned from a recent volume on Urban Political Ecology that explores food justice issues. In addition to being an interesting piece intellectually, I think it can spur further discussion on political ecology as an activist tool. Maybe we can talk about Heynen's "activist scholarship".

Hope to see many of you at 3 Roots - 9:00 am, Wed. 2/28!

Colten, C. E. (2006). Vulnerability and place: Flat land and uneven risk in new orleans. American Anthropologist, 108(4), 731-734.

Heynen, N. C. (2006). Justice of eating in the city: The political ecology of urban hunger. In N. C. Heynen, M. Kaika & E. Swyngedouw (Eds.), In the nature of cities: Urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism (pp. 129-142)Routledge.

Another reading for Tuesday

Dont' worry Nels, I can't figure out how to post on the blog either! So I posted another article for Tuesday's meeting in the google website. So we will be discussing the article on "Power" that Nels posted, and the Pelling (1999) articles " The Political Ecology of Flood Hazard in Urban Guyana”, Geoforum 30(3).

Allen on Power

I scanned a book chapter, an article titled "Power" by John Allen. It is a more in depth and sophisticated take (I think) on power compared to Peterson's last week (we can perhaps revisit this on Tuesday). Thad is going to send out a more empirical article this weekend I think (so it's not so heavy on theory again). This is from the book A Companion to Political Geography (2003), edited by Mitchell and Toal and put out by Blackwell. If you did not get an email from me that had the attachment, please email me and I will send the attachment to you (nels@asu.edu). I can't figure out how to attach it onto the blog.
Nels

Readings for Wed.- 3 roots

With all the GELSS stuff I completely forgot that I was supposed to send out articles. I will give it another shot next week and apologize. In the meantime, let's take a look at two articles Thad and Bethany posted earlier for Wednesday.

Peterson, Gary (2000). "Political ecology and ecological resilience: an integration of human and ecological dynamics." Ecological Economics 35(3): 323-336.

Keil RProgress report - Urban political ecologyURBAN GEOGRAPHY 26 (7): 640-651 OCT-NOV 2005

We can focus on the Peterson piece since "resilience" is something we have not yet discussed, and if we have time get to the progress report.

Readings for 2/6

Tuesday, 2/6, 5pm @ Casey Moore's

In addition to the Brownlow piece posted by Kate below, we'll read and discuss the following (also posted on google groups):

Walker, Peter (2006). "Political ecology: where is the policy?" Progress in Human Geography 30(3): 382-395.

Political Ecology and Resilience

Here is a very interested article on political ecology and resilience. While we won't read it next week (the other articles seem like a better follow up to recent discussions), I suggest that we read this sometime soon! (This is also posted as a pdf on google groups.)

Peterson, Gary (2000). "Political ecology and ecological resilience: an integration of human and ecological dynamics." Ecological Economics 35(3): 323-336.

More on social control and urban landscapes

I stumbled upon this while looking for something else, but I think it builds nicely on our discussion of different means for social control. It's from the same issue of Geoforum as the articles Bethany posted below.

Alec Brownlow, "An Archaeology of Fear and Environmental Change in Philadelphia", Geoforum 37(2), March 2006

Cool stuff!

More potential readings

I thought that these articles looked interesting...perhaps contenders for future discussion?

Njeru J The urban political ecology of plastic bag waste problem in Nairobi, Kenya GEOFORUM 37 (6): 1046-1058 NOV 2006

Keil R Progress report - Urban political ecology URBAN GEOGRAPHY 26 (7): 640-651 OCT-NOV 2005

Phoenix Beer Map

I'm pretty sure we can count this as urban political ecology... Phoenix Beer Map

Readings for Next Week

for next week, I selected the "Political Ecology: where is the ecology" piece and the "The Lawn-Chemical Economy and Its Discontents" by Paul Robbins and Julie Sharp. Out of Interest, I'm posting a third article called "Reification and the Dictatorship of the Water Meter" that looks pretty interesting.
See you Wednesday Morning at 9:00 at Three Roots!

One more reading?

I don't know if the following reading is going to be terribly relevant for this group, but it's an excellent read. And given our conversations in brown bag yesterday, I thought you might be interested.

Ostrom, Elinor. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions). 1990. 280 pp.

Google Group

http://groups.google.com/group/urban-political-ecology-asu?hl=en

Potential Readings

Here's an initial list of potential readings generated from various people/sources. The references are not complete, but I hope I've provided enough info for easy searching. Please add additional readings to this list.

Concrete and Clay – Matthew Gandy

Selections from In the nature of cities: urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism – Heynen, Kaika and Swyngedouw, eds.

Antipode Special Issue – Urban Political Ecology, Justice and the Politics of Scale – Vol 35(5)

-"Urban Political Ecology, Justice and the Politics of Scale” – Swyngedouw and Heynen

- “Constructing Scarcity and Sensationalising Water Politics: 170 Days That Shook Athens.” – Kaika

- "The Lawn-Chemical Economy and its Discontents” – Robbins

- "The Scalar Production of Injustice within the Urban Forest” - Heynen

“The Political Ecology of Flood Hazard in Urban Guyana”, Geoforum 30(3): 1999 – Mark Pelling

Imperial San Francisco - Brechin

Planet of Slums – Mike Davis

City of Quartz – Mike Davis

American Anthropologist Special Issue - Hurricane Katrina - December 2006

Vulnerability and Place: Flat Land and Uneven Risk in New Orleans – Colten

Lots of other good articles here, too

Environment and Planning A– 38(3) - “Green urban political ecologies: toward a better understanding of inner-city environmental change” - Heynen

Environment and Planning A, 38(11): “Remaking urban environments: the political ecology of air pollution in Delhi” – Veron

Barcelona/Water case study (read in IGERT reading group)

Background/Theoretical:

“Political Ecology: Where’s the ecology?” – Peter Walker – Progress in Human Geography, 29(1)

“Political Ecology: Where’s the policy?” – Peter Walker – Progress in Human Geography, 30(3)

Intro to Paul Robbins Political Ecology Book

More Swyngedouw?

Against Political Ecology – Vayda and Walters, Human Ecology, 27(1), 1999

Political Ecology – Greenburg and Park – Journal of Political Ecology, Vol 1, 1994

Something by Massey

Foucault, “Questions of Geography” in Power/Knowledge - 1980

Spread the Word

A quick note. I would encourage everyone to share this blog (and our readings) with friends and colleagues elsewhere. In addition, if you or they feel like that might have something to add, let me know and I can add them to the list so that they are able to post comments.

A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble

Hey all. Kicking things off here with an extremely interesting series from the Chicago Tribune. The authors track a tank of gas from a station outside of Chicago to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico to the fields in Nigeria and Iraq. Can we all this the ecology of oil???

A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble

There should be a PDF of the series that you can download from the site. Enjoy.