Outside abstract 2
James B. Greenberg and Thomas K. Park
James Greenberg and Thomas Park’s article gives a chronological formation of the discipline of Political Ecology. By sectioning three major contributors of this field in to sciences, social sciences, and political economy they show the development of ecological theories, the conflicts of these theories, and the importance of the culmination of the three ecological sectors to form political ecology. The influence of this article is given by expressing issues with the fragmentation of disciplines in the social sciences through the “intellectual deforestation”, as Eric Wolf puts it, of past ideas or theories. The article does not necessarily claim that fragmentation is the problem but follows the idea that theory should not narrow its view by ignoring other interactive characteristics within a field of study such as political economy not considering factors that are nonhuman.
The sciences section follows the intellectual development of Ecology discussing its origins in geography and analyzing the features of biological systems in different locations. This section is formatted to show famous contributors to the field of ecology such as Charles Darwin and then examines controversies derived from varied views in the application of their contributions. The section devoted to social sciences examines the progression of cultural analysis as it became integrated with ecological processes. The underlying goal, as the authors explain, was to examine cultural practices as adaptations to ecological systems. Political economy was viewed in its origins as societies going through a “regular series of stages in their economic development” yet as the introduction explains theories go through their own series of stages. The purpose of this article in general and for my site is to show the development of varied ideas in how we approach political, cultural, and environmental intersections.