Open AccessUrban political ecology in prospect and retrospect
Author(s) -
Matthew Gandy
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
sub\urban
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 7
ISSN - 2197-2567
DOI - 10.36900/suburban.v9i3/4.694
Subject(s) - political ecology , materiality (auditing) , urban ecology , politics , ecology , urbanization , environmental ethics , scholarship , agency (philosophy) , sociology , subjectivity , biosphere , urban studies , social science , political science , epistemology , biology , aesthetics , law , philosophy
The contemporary theorization of the urban biosphere has reached something of an impasse between the perceived limitations of urban political ecology, the neo-Lefebvrian emphasis on global patterns of urbanization, and the rise of “new materialisms”. Since its emergence in the mid-1990s, urban political ecology has made a series of distinctive contributions to the study of urban environmental issues yet in recent years a series of conceptual tensions and empirical lacunae have become apparent. In this essay I reflect on the legacy of the “first wave” of urban political ecology scholarship and consider a series of contemporary challenges including more complex interpretations of agency, materiality, and subjectivity.