Relational environmental governance
A critical framework for praxis with the material world
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4301720 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Miles Kenney-Lazar (0000-0001-6977-8345, Geography, National University of Singapore, corresponding author), A Johnson (0000-0002-4975-380X, University of San Francisco, corresponding author), Farhana Sultana (0000-0003-3050-5053, Syracuse University), Matthew Himley (0000-0001-9624-2845, Illinois State University), Anthony J Bebbington (0000-0003-3342-7898, Clark University & Ford Foundation), Elizabeth Havice (0000-0003-0760-2082, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), J Rice (0000-0003-1843-1194, University of Georgia), Tracey Osborne (0000-0002-2475-083X, University of California, Merced) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Political Ecology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1073-0451 • E-ISSN: 1073-0451 |
| Publisher | University of Arizona (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2458/jpe.5542 |
| OpenAlex | W4388611326 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
Environmental governance (EG) has become a hegemonic concept for understanding and transforming environmental decision-making processes that operate beyond the state. However, political ecologists, drawing from a diverse set of theoretical frameworks, have critiqued the concept for being malleable, vague, and apolitical, which has enabled its appropriation in ways that conceal inequality and difference, advocate techno-managerial fixes, and espouse neoliberal solutions. Political ecologists have approached EG more critically with the conceptual tools of neoliberal natures, environmental regulation, and eco-governmentality. In this article, we contend that these conceptualizations, while theoretically rich, are limited in their capacity to capture a diversity of governance contexts, processes, and actors and to drive both scholarly analysis and radical change. Thus, we put forward a conceptual framework of relational environmental governance (REG) that captures the dynamic and unequal interactions among heterogeneous human and non-human actors by which socio-ecological arrangements are structured, controlled, and transformed. Drawing from a variety of relational traditions, the framework comprises four key "moves" related to i) ontological understandings of EG processes as full of unequal power relations and heterogeneous actors, ii) epistemological privileging of intersections among racialized, gendered, queer and/or alternative or Indigenous knowledges in EG processes, iii) methodological emphasis on conducting research relationally with diverse EG actors, and iv) a praxis of engagement with EG processes to change how socio-ecologies are controlled and address crises of sustainability
Appropriation · Conceptual framework · Corporate governance · Economics · Environmental ethics · Environmental governance · Environmental politics · Epistemology · Governmentality · Hegemony · Management · Political science · Politics · Praxis · Social science · Sociology · Sustainability · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Law · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Ecology
Multispecies governance beyond post-politics
Eponyms, Heirlooms, Living Memory, and the Planty Memorialization of People
Relational Processes and Networks in Environmental Politics
Challenges in Forest Carbon Governance
Ecological gaze and unequal subjectivity
In agriculture 1+1 does not equal 2”
Beyond directional care
Geography and Environmental Governance I
Insuring the reef
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 9 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |