Tor A. Benjaminsen

Bringing climate security and climate justice into dialogue, this topical book uses the Sahel as a case study to discuss the contrast between these two approaches and how they tend to lack an engagement with social, historical and political contexts. Tor A. Benjaminsen introduces the international debate on climate security, with a particular focus on Mali as a ‘hub’ country of the current security crisis in the Western Sahel. Providing a critique of simplistic narratives, he develops the idea of ‘recognition’ as a neglected aspect of justice in the literature on the Sahel, as well as in policy and media debates. Chapters cover topics including colonization, desertification and forest governance; pastoralism, moral economies of resistance and Jihadism; materialist political ecology; and green transformation, afforestation, land dispossession and context. The book ultimately demonstrates how issues of climate justice across Africa are embedded in the politics of social transformation towards low-carbon societies in rich countries. This book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of climate justice and climate change, peace and security studies, environmental and development studies, geography and political ecology. Its practical implications are vital to environmental policymakers, NGO employees and climate activists worldwide.

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.

Over hele verden pågår det konflikter om bruk og vern av miljø og naturressurser. Politisk økologi er en tverrfaglig forskningstradisjon for studier av årsaker til slike konflikter, der det spesielt legges vekt på å studere maktforhold.2. utgave av «Politisk økologi» er oppdatert og har mye nyskrevet tekst. Et nytt kapittel handler om norske klimasatsinger i det globale Sør. Begge forfatterne har omkring 30 års erfaring med forskning om miljø og samfunn i Afrika og Norge. De bruker eksempler fra sin egen forskning for å demonstrere hvordan politisk økologi kan forstås og anvendes. Sagt om «Politisk økologi»:Boken er praktisk og politisk, provokerende og præcis. Benjaminsen og Svarstad demonstrerer, at sandhedens modsætning ikke er falskhed, men forsimpling, og forklarer, hvorledes politisk økologi giver os analytiske instrumenter til at forstå klodens mest akutte og komplekse problemer. Bogens mange eksempler på sammenhænge mellem miljø, mennesker, og magt understreger, at dette er ikke blot «de andres problem»; det gælder os alle. PROFESSOR CHRISTIAN LUND, KØBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET

This collection of research papers from across the African continent illustrates the complex and ever-changing rules of the land tenure game, and how government legislation and reform (formalization) interact with local innovations (informalization) to form land tenure systems.

This collection of research papers from across the African continent illustrates the complex and ever-changing rules of the land tenure game, and how government legislation and reform (formalization) interact with local innovations (informalization) to form land tenure systems.