Energies Beyond the State

Resource and environmental management generally entail an attempt by governing authorities to dominate, reroute, and tame the natural flows of water, the growth of forests, manage the populations of non-human bodies, and control nature more generally. Often this is done under the mantle of conservation, economic development, and sustainable management, but still involves a quest to civilize and control all aspects of nature for a specific purpose.

The results of this form of environmental management and governance are many, but by and large, across the globe, it has meant governments construct a specific idea regarding nature and the environment. These forms of control also extend beyond the natural environment, allowing for particular methods of managing human and non-human populations in order to maintain power and enact sovereignty.

This volume contributes to advancing an ecology of freedom, which can critique current anthropocentric environmental destruction, as well as focusing on environmental justice and decentralized ecological governance. While concentrating on these areas of anarchist political ecology, three major themes emerged from the chapters: the legacies of colonialism that continue to echo in current resource management and governance practices, the necessity of overcoming human/nature dualisms for environmental justice and sustainability, and finally discussions and critiques of extractivism as a governing and economic mentality.

Jennifer Mateer is Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Geography, while also lecturing in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria, Canada.

Martin Locret-Collet is Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Birmingham and works as a Research Associate for the Liveable Cities Project.

Simon Springer is Professor of Human Geography, Head of Discipline for Geography and Environmental Studies, and Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Maleea Acker is Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria, Canada.

Preface, John P. Clark

Introduction: The Political Ecology of Resource and Energy Management Beyond the State, Jennifer Mateer, Simon Springer, and Martin Locret-Collet

Chapter 1. Panoptic Geography: Man and Nature under Surveillance, Sotiris Lycourghiotis and George Poulados

Chapter 2. Uranium: Capitalism, Colonialism, and Ecology, Chris Colella

Chapter 3. Moving Beyond borders: Anarchist Political Ecology and Evironmental Displacement, Nicolas Parent

Chapter 4. Questioning Capitalistic Power Structures: A Way to Reconnect People with Lands? Simon Maraud and Etienne Delay

Chapter 5. When the Wolf Guards the Sheep: Confronting the Industrial Machine through Green Extractivism in Germany and Mexico, Alexander Dunlap and Andrea Brock

Chapter 6. Dismantling the Dam Hierarchies, Jennifer Mateer

Chapter 7. The Conservation of Anarchy: Ethnographic Reflections on Forest Policies and Resource Use, Philipp Zehmisch

Chapter 8. Blockading Hamburg: Green Syndicalism vs. G20, Ryan Thompson

Chapter 9. Rising Above the Thinking Behind Climate Change: World Ecology and Workers' Control, Ben Debney

Chapter 10. The Soft Hand of Capital, Deric Shannon and Clara Perez-Medina