Editing Political ecology (section)

=== Poststructuralist power perspectives ===

The poststructuralist power perspective is the domain of [[Michel Foucault]]’s work with its application in political ecology. The poststructuralist power perspectives can be in three dimensions such as; [[biopower]], governmentality, and [[discursive power]].

Biopower indicates that to secure life, governments are concerned with the improvement of health and quality of life among populations. Foucault in his work explained how through the knowledge of power, people have learned how they should behave. In so doing, Foucault separates sovereign power from bio-power. Where sovereign power is termed "take life or let live", the bio-power "make life or let die".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Foucault|first=Michel|title=History of sexuality. Vol. 1: an introduction.|publisher=Vintage|year=1978|location=New York}}</ref> While human as specie is continuously elaboration in conformity to nature, the superior one will intervene, acting on the environmental condition if the species of human are to be altered. Therefore, [[Biopower|bio-power]] aim in terms of governance and knowledge is to ascertain environmental issues as core concerns.

Political ecology emphasized that understanding how power works in environmental governance follows Foucault’s notion of “governmentality”.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Agrawal|first=Arun|title=Environmentality: technologies of government and the making of subjects|publisher=Duke University Press.|year=2005|location=Durham}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Johnsen, K. I. and Benjaminsen, T. A.|date=2017|title=The art of governing and everyday resistance: "rationalization" of Sámi reindeer husbandry in Norway since the 1970s.|journal=Acta Borealia|volume=34|issue=1|pages=1–25|doi=10.1080/08003831.2017.1317981|s2cid=84180480|hdl=11250/2479619|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Fletcher|first=Robert|date=2010|title=Neoliberal environmentality: towards a poststructuralist political ecology of the conservation debate|journal=Conservation and Society|volume=8|issue=3|pages=171–181|doi=10.4103/0972-4923.73806|doi-access=free|hdl=10535/8301|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Foucault sees governmentality as the means employed by the government to make its citizens behave in line with the priorities of government.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Foucault|first=Michel|title=The birth of bio-politics: lectures at the Collège de France 1978-1979|publisher=Picador.|year=2008|location=New York}}</ref> Fletcher separates governmentality into four kinds. First is "[[discipline]]" which ensures that the citizens internalize specific manners like ethical standards and social norms.<ref name=":2"/> The second is the "[[truth]]" which is a way of governing citizens using truth-defining standards like religion. The third is "[[doi:10.1080/15295036.2019.1658883|Neoliberal rationality]]" which is a motivational structure formed and used to improve outcomes. The fourth is "Sovereign power" used to govern based on rules and punishment for faulting the rules. According to Fletcher, these governmentalities may conflict, work alone, or overlap. Also, the first two are dependent on humans believing government priorities, the second two do not but are seen as of importance.<ref name=":2"/>

Lastly, "discursive power" manifest when actors (corporate organization, governmental, and non-governmental organizations) make people or groups imbibe and add to the reproduction of the discourses they produce. Unlike in other fields, in political ecology, discourses are studied in line with a critical realist epistemology.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bassett, T.J. and Bi Zuéli, K.|date=2000|title=Environmental discourses and the Ivorian savannah|journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers|volume=90|issue=1|pages=67–95|doi=10.1111/0004-5608.00184|s2cid=140631792}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Forsyth, T. J. and Walker, A.|title=Forest guardians, forest destroyers: the politics of environmental knowledge in Northern Thailand|publisher=University of Washington Press|year=2008|location=Seattle}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Leach, M. and Mearns, R.|title=The lie of the land: challenging received wisdom on the African environment|publisher=James Currey.|year=1996|location=Oxford}}</ref><ref name=":0"/> There are instances where the formation of discursive power is traced to a state’s colonial era when efforts are made in the appropriation of new territories. Going by the basis of Foucault's political-ecological discursive power, it becomes imperative to mention that, there exist various perspectives to those of Foucault with wider space for human agency.

Comparing between bio-power, governmentality, and discursive power, both governmentality, and discursive power can be regarded as a theoretical perspective with significant importance while bio-power can be regarded as a topical concern identified by Foucault as the core of modern-day governments.