Political Ecology: A Critical Engagement with Global Environmental Issues

“The book describes our common present with unsentimental urgency. Benjaminsen and Svarstad demonstrate the complexity of human engagement with the scarce resources of our planet, and the analytical pathways offered by political ecology. The book’s many vivid examples underscore how power is always part of the equation: people + their environment.
Christian Lund, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
This textbook introduces political ecology as an interdisciplinary approach to critically examine land and environmental issues.

Drawing on discourse and narrative analysis, Marxist political economy and insights from natural science, the book points at similarities, differences and inter-connections between environmental governance in the global North and South. A wide range of carefully curated case studies are presented, with a particular focus on Africa and Norway. Key themes of power, justice and environmental sustainability run through all chapters.

The authors challenge established views and leading discourses and present research findings that may surprise readers. Chapters cover topics including wildlife conservation, climate change and conflicts, land grabbing, the effects of population growth on the environment, jihadism in the African Sahel, bioprospecting, feminist political ecology, and struggles around carbon mitigation within a fossil fuel-based economy. This introductory text provides tools and examples for both undergraduate and postgraduate students to better understand on-going struggles about some of the world’s most urgent challenges.


Tor A. Benjaminsen is a human geographer and Professor of Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway. His research is focused on environmental change and its governance within a broad and interdisciplinary political ecology perspective. He is a lead author of the 6th IPCC report and an Associate Editor of Political Geography.

Hanne Svarstad is a sociologist and Professor of Development Studies at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. Her research is about climate change mitigation, land use conflict, bioprospecting, power, environmental justice, education and alternative sustainabilities.