Ecologically unequal exchange and landesque capital on Kinmen Island
Author
Summary, in English
Two conceptual tools in historical analyses of environmental issues and
political ecologies have gained much attention in recent years: ecologically
unequal exchange and landesque capital. The former narrows in on how
societal relations of power allow for the physical transfer of environmental
degradation—upon which our daily consumption rests—to places far away
from our environmentally clean (and therefore often presumed sustainable)
homes, cities and regions. The latter focuses instead on the power of human
activity to improve environmental conditions, commonly in terms of soil
fertility, biodiversity, land cover, carrying capacity, resilience vis-à-vis
ecological degradation, or other dimensions of sustainability. One draws
attention to the geographically uneven and ecologically detrimental
consequences of human activities, while the other draws attention to the
potential of human activities to reinforce the resilience and sustainability of
social-ecological systems. There is an interesting tension between these
processes which calls for closer inspection. The purpose of this paper is to
bring them together in the same empirical analysis.
political ecologies have gained much attention in recent years: ecologically
unequal exchange and landesque capital. The former narrows in on how
societal relations of power allow for the physical transfer of environmental
degradation—upon which our daily consumption rests—to places far away
from our environmentally clean (and therefore often presumed sustainable)
homes, cities and regions. The latter focuses instead on the power of human
activity to improve environmental conditions, commonly in terms of soil
fertility, biodiversity, land cover, carrying capacity, resilience vis-à-vis
ecological degradation, or other dimensions of sustainability. One draws
attention to the geographically uneven and ecologically detrimental
consequences of human activities, while the other draws attention to the
potential of human activities to reinforce the resilience and sustainability of
social-ecological systems. There is an interesting tension between these
processes which calls for closer inspection. The purpose of this paper is to
bring them together in the same empirical analysis.
Department/s
Publishing year
2009
Language
English
Pages
148-167
Publication/Series
Asia-Pacific Forum
Volume
44
Full text
- Available as PDF - 206 kB
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Academia Sinica, The Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies
Topic
- Human Geography
Keywords
- ecologically unequal exchange
- landesque capital
- environmental degradation
- land improvement
Status
Published
Project
- LUCID - Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability
Research group
- LUCID - Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1729-2980