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.
In this special issue on Disempowering Democracies, Swati Sidhu, Ganesh Raghunathan, Divya Mudappa, and TR Shankar Raman discuss human-leopard coexistence in the Anamalai Hills, India. They suggest a combination of measures to mitigate negative interactions and support continued human-leopard coexistence.
In this special issue on Disempowering Democracies, Emmanuel Sulle and Holti Banka explore the impacts of taxes imposed on tourism activities occurring on communal lands and the emerging politics of resource and revenue sharing among Wildlife Management Area (WMA) member villages in Tanzania.
In this special issue on Disempowering Democracies, Gretchen M. Walters and Melis Ece analyze the project development negotiations in a World Bank-led REDD+ capacity building regional project, involving six Central African countries between 2008 and 2011. It explores how the project created a “negotiation table” constituted of national and regional institutions recognized by the donors and governments, and how this political space, influenced by global, regional and national political agendas, led to “instances” of recognition and misrecognition among negotiating parties.
In this special issue on Disempowering Democracies, Melis Ece argues that Senegal’s 1996 regionalization reforms narrowed down local democracy via neoliberal processes.
In this special issue on Disempowering Democracies, Robert Mbeche argues that even though REDD+ claims to be democratic and participatory, the Uganda program allows the input of only a few selected stakeholders – mainly the government actors and a limited number of NGOs.
In this special issue on Disempowering Democracies, Papa Faye shows that “derecognition” is effectively a new “recognition” dynamic in decentralized forest management in Senegal, in which Forestry officials and agents derecognize elected local governments (ELGs) drawing upon technical claims.
In this special issue on Disempowering Democracies, Emmanuel O. Nuesiri critically examines the United Nations’ REDD and REDD+ programmes (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus the sustainable management of forest and enhancement of carbon stocks) in Nigeria and finds them to exclude politically weak rural people.
In this special issue on Disempowering Democracies, Manali Baruah scrutinizes elite formation and elite capture through the case of a Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) in western Ghana.