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Urban political ecology (UPE) has provided critical insights into the sociomaterial construction of urban environments, their unequal distribution of resources, and contestation over power and resources. Most of this work is rooted in Marxist urban geographical theory, which provides a useful but limited analysis. Such works typically begin with a historical-materialist theory of power, then examine particular artifacts and infrastructure to provide a critique of society. We argue that there are multiple ways of expanding this framing, including through political ecology or wider currents of Marxism. Here, we demonstrate one possibility: starting from theory and empirics in the South, specifically, African urbanism. We show how African urbanism can inform UPE and the associated research methods, theory and practice to create a more situated UPE. We begin suggesting what a situated UPE might entail: starting with everyday practices, examining diffuse forms of power, and opening the scope for radical incrementalism.
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... UPE approaches pay special attention to how power is exercised to shape the city. Urban development is a process infused with power relations that shape who will have access to or control urban spaces and water resources (Lawhon et al., 2014;Swyngedouw, 1997;Swyngedouw et al., 2002). One can even say that all human actions evolve around the capacity to act with effect, as "to engage in a practice is to exercise a power" (Cetina et al., 2005, p. 28) and power relations are built in the "ordering and the churn of innumerable Practices and politics of urban water | 69 moments of practices" (Watson, 2016, p. 181). ...
... physical layout of a city or infrastructures) and the social environment (e.g. social identities of class, gender, and race) -that together configure social practices -carry structural features that shape social interaction (Lawhon et al., 2014). The capacity to mobilise power allows actors to either uphold or challenge social orders, resulting in divergent sociomaterial geographies. ...
... In the context of African urbanism, closely related to the concept of everyday urbanism regularly used in this dissertation, Lawhon et al. (2014) ...
... To urbanise degrowth, we put it in dialogue with UPE, which studies the urbanisation of nature (Tzaninis et al. 2021) or society-nature relation. We engage with the notions of provincialised UPE (Lawhon, Ernstson, and Silver 2014) and degrowth in/from the south to appreciate Semarang as a Southern city, a city of Global South, with the latter as a site of resurgences (see Nirmal and Rocheleau 2019). ...
... We subscribe to the argument that there is a need for degrowth in/from the south, an engagement of degrowth with environmental justice movements (see Martínez-Alier 2012), as we do to the idea of provincialising UPE (Lawhon, Ernstson, and Silver 2014). Here, the experience of Semarang as a Southern city in pumping and conserving groundwater is our device to provincialise UPE. ...
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This article brings degrowth into conversation with urbanisation through our analysis of environmental transformations in the coastal Southern city of Semarang, Indonesia. We analyse two collective activisms to build a theoretical dialogue between degrowth and provincialised urban political ecology (UPE). The first activism contests the ongoing development of pro-growth giant flood infrastructure and is politically rooted in mangrove ecosystem conservation. The second activism conserves groundwater. We identify mangrove and groundwater conservations as spatial practices of degrowth in/from the south. We make connections between the two scholarships and activisms to expand their political and pragmatic possibilities and, therefore, open space for more hopeful alternatives for the city's future.
... By investigating diverse agencies of mountain ecology in the governing of settlements, the study extends the critical scholarship on more-than-human governance (Harris, 2017). In doing so, this work answers recent calls from urban political ecology scholars to incorporate the ideas of new materialism (Tzaninis et al., 2021) and think outside the Global North (Lawhon et al., 2014). ...
Article
Macropaintings have gained popularity as a tool employed by urban authorities and artists to uplift marginalized communities in cities across the Global South through the painting of their physical environments. However, despite the significant visibility of these paintings and their potential impacts on cities, there is limited knowledge regarding the conditions of their creation as well as the circumstances of their “fading.” Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Bogotá, Colombia, I analyze how urban authorities, artists, and the community, in conjunction with ecological and environmental aspects, distinctly contributed to the emergence and eventual fading of the macromural La Mariposa. I reveal how the mountain ecology of La Mariposa significantly influenced policy and politics through its articulation in particular relational conceptions of the territory mobilized by different actors in the project. This ecology became an actor in governance, not as a site of response to an event or a potential event but as an ontologically formed entity co-creating policy through its various conceptions and registers. I contend that macromurals are the product of tipping point urbanism, a hopeful approach to governing self-built settlements in which the intended transformation lies not in the macromural itself but in the process of its implementation. I further claim that the category “fading,” with its physical and symbolic dimensions, represents a fundamental heuristic to comprehend the outcomes of macromurals and other social interventions.
... Here, further research is needed to investigate alternatives to mitigate adverse social impacts whilst providing conservation benefits. A fruitful starting point for further research could be to expand on studies that seek to uncover inscribed injustices in urban environments [12,39,80], or research focusing on the participatory design of NbS and bottom-up approaches [15,81]. ...
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Urban Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are increasingly promoted globally as a multifunctional and cost-effective way to address social and environmental challenges in cities. Based on these premises, there is a growing municipal interest in promoting NbS in cities of the so-called ’Global South’. However, current research is still clearly biased towards the ’Global North’, with particularly few studies focusing on cities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). As a result of these research gaps, there is a high risk that maladapted NbS – modelled on examples from other regions that do not meet local requirements and needs – will be adopted. Against this background, this article examines barriers to the adoption of urban Nature-based Solutions and the opportunities for successful implementation of NbS in cities in Malawi. Drawing on qualitative data (workshops, narrative expert interviews, group discussions) collected during five research stays in Lilongwe (2022–2024), the article outlines and analyses in detail the strategies employed to overcome these barriers by those actors in charge for implementing the Lilongwe Ecological Corridor Initiative (LECI), a large-scale NbS in the country’s capital city. By empirically exploring the particularities of the implementation of the LECI, the article characterises features of NbS in SSA rarely explored in other contexts, such as the reframing of existing greenspaces, the pragmatic adaptation of NbS-plans and the formulation of by-laws as part of their planning. These insights can serve as a basis for further conceptual developments and critical engagement and to promote a deeper understanding of the potentials and pitfalls of implementation strategies seeking to manoeuvre persistent barriers.
... FPE addresses social justice issues and aims to enhance agricultural sustainability by integrating feminist theories. This framework exposes the gendered dimensions of environmental risks, rights, and responsibilities, showing how gender inequalities intersect with environmental issues (Lawhon et al., 2013). Moreover, it links individual experiences to broader socio-political and economic structures, exploring how gendered power relations impact resource access, decision-making processes, and environmental outcomes (Nightingale, 2006). ...
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Agriculture is pivotal in the global economy but is challenged by unsustainable practices that harm the environment and aggravate social inequalities, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Women, making up half the agricultural workforce, often do not benefit equitably from their labour due to systemic gender inequalities. Applying a Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) lens reveals the unequal gendered power dynamics that influence access to resources, decision-making, and the distribution of benefits within agricultural value chains. In a narrative literature review, I integrate FPE principles with agroecological approaches to address gaps in understanding gender dynamics within food systems and highlight positive outcomes from integrating FPE, such as improved crop diversity, food security, and economic stability, while acknowledging challenges like entrenched gender norms, intersecting inequalities, and resistance to change. I explore how gender-sensitive agroecology can promote sustainable and equitable food systems and examine how patriarchal systems marginalize women in agriculture, restricting their access to resources and decision-making. The analysis asserts ongoing debates around the scalability of gender-sensitive agroecological approaches and the challenges of implementing FPE insights within existing policy frameworks. Identified gaps include the need for more longitudinal studies on the impacts of FPE-informed interventions and greater attention to women's diverse experiences across different agroecological zones. Overall, this review contributes to academic discourse and policy discussions, seeking to advance a critical understanding of gender equality and sustainable agriculture in smallholder farming.
... Floods are therefore understood as part of wider processes of uneven urbanization shaped by capitalism [98]. Thus, our analysis contributes to UPE's situated theory on how "urban environments are shaped, politicised, and contested" [99]. ...
Article
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Chapter
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https://global.oup.com/academic/product/an-uncooperative-commodity-9780199253654?cc=ca&lang=en&
Chapter
Introduction The Routes of Theorizing Urban Neoliberalism Conclusion References