In this article for a special section on Green Wars, Jared D. Margulies considers Louis Althusser’s theory of ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) for advancing political ecology scholarship on the functioning of the state in violent environments. He uses the example of conservation as ideology in Wayanad, Kerala.

Victoria Gonzalez Carman and Maria Carman focus on the interaction between a fishing community and a group of conservation experts in Brazil. They find that although fishers classify species according to their capacity to be exploited as a resource, they may also be willing to become strategic conservationists by negotiating with conservation experts to protect some of these species.

Aimee L. Schmidt and Douglas A. Clark examine the response of local people and agencies to a polar bear-inflicted human injury in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, showing how human-bear conflict is often widely publicized and controversial, and how it shapes public expectations around bear management.

Arjaan Pellis, Annemiek Pas, and Martijn Duineveld build upon Niklas Luhmann’s Social Systems Theory to study the multidimensional nature of resource-based conflicts in and around Loisaba conservancy in Kenya.