Karen and Arjun understand that political ecology studies the complex relationships that exist between political, economic and social factors which influence environmental issues and changes. Therefore, political ecology majorly politicizes environmental issues and phenomena to bring about the aspect of costing and its benefits and how these affect environmental changes distribution. This field as received numerous contributions from various scholars who believe that the accumulation of resources or wealth is generally influenced by the interplay of economic exchanges and their implication on the environment. According to Karen Bakker in “Golden Road to Riches” she believes that the economic geography affects the availability of resources that are exchanged economically to create economic value (181). Moreover, Karen believes that neo-liberalization of nature has opened new frontiers in capitalism where the global climate and generic resources make up the economic geography through which economic exchange or transactions occur leading to the accumulation of capital. According to Arjun Appadurai, economic exchange creates value where value is embodied on commodities that are physically exchanged for consumption. Hence, according to Walker commodities are particularly objects of political value which arises through the dominance of human beings in the control of resources availed by the society.
The political ecology has for the longest time controlled the economic geography of various markets as well as the nature of economic exchange activities. Therefore, economic geographers have various reasons that justify their interest in understanding the impact of the environment on economic activity. This is because the existence of free trade involving uncontrolled interplay of market forces exhibited by a perfect competition market structure occurs rarely. It is obvious that political ecology creates market platforms that promote economic transactions which enables the transfer of commodities thereby creating economic value. Basically, political ecology informs the policy makers and other stakeholders on the complexities existing in the environment which assists in the construction of policies to better environmental governance. Environmental regulation, environmental threats to business and the growing sensitivity of consumers in OECD countries established to be the main cause why economic geographers are interested in the environment in accordance to the evolving perspectives (Karen 182).Moreover, it establishes the understanding of decisions made by communities in regards to usage of their natural resources. Within the political economy, political ecology attempts to explain the relationships between political processes and economic production concentrating on individual economic relationships in the maintenance of the society’s social order.
Human organization which involves the way people interact with the environment within the social context creates an economic value for their economic exchanges that involves movement of commodities. The interplay of social science mechanisms connects with the principle of political economy leading to the collusion of individual interests brings about a power-centred platform in the political economy. The assumption that costs and benefits of the economy geography and economic exchanges that are associated with environmental changes are true since it is distributed unequally. Moreover, it is exhibited in the different markets that changes in the environment do not occur in a homogenous way due to political, social and economic differences. In addition, the unequal distribution brings about economic and social inequalities which mean that environmental changes affect the political and economic status quo of the societies. Thus, the unequal distribution of costs reinforces the pre-existing inequalities that have significant political implications to the power relationships in existence. Therefore, the economic geography, economic exchange and commodities are highly influenced by the political ecology prevailing in the current environment available to entities.
Good Example Of Literature Review On Political Ecology
Type of paper: Literature Review
Topic: Economics, Economic, Environment, Politics, Political, Environmental, Political Ecology, Ecology
Pages: 2
Words: 600
Published: 05/29/2023
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