Response 10 (the last one!)

The construction of nature, issues of control over local conservation issues by foreigners, degradation of that land and marginalization of local communities because of that invasive policy, and environmental conflicts between different groups over these conservation issues…These topics are all brought up not only in Robbins’ book, but also in Milking the Rhino. The movie in itself was intensely insightful and beneficial to be able to understand both sides of the matter. I’m grateful that we watched it before reading this part of Political Ecology because I feel that it gives an easily relatable face to the problems that arise in the text.

Additionally, I cannot help read Robbins without seeing anthropology within it all as well. Each chapter brings a new facet to both political ecology and anthropology. The concept of “we” versus “them” (151), the difficulties in defining “traditional” versus “contemporary” (153), and the proliferation and obscurities of boundaries both geographical and between humans (156, 173). I am excited to study these concepts further and be able to put the four theories to use in my career (hopefully).

Political ecology seems to be a wonderful mesh of so many different areas that would be beneficial to a multitude of professions. It seems strange that I have never heard of it before and that so many concepts arise from Robbins that seem newly foreign and yet common sense simultaneously. As previously noted in responses, the issues of Malthusian population and Garret Harding’s “Tragedy of the Commons” are both concepts that I learned long ago and took for granted. It has not been until now that my mind has changed (and quite quickly) after reading Robbins’ simple rebuttals. I wish that others had been introduced to this revolutionary (yet common sense) outlook on environmental issues before. I strongly urge you to use this book again for further classes taught in the department and ideally create an entirely new class around this concept that can be cross-referenced in a host of disciplines. Thanks for introducing me to this!