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The Practical Politics of Knowing: State Environmental Knowledge and Local Political Economy

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  • Paul Robbins

Abstract

Study of local environmental knowledge has led to a general critique of state epistemology, positing a controlling, official knowledge that crushes competing accounts of nature. Skeptical of that claim, in this paper I assess the differences between state and local knowledge empirically, using a case study of the Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, to explore the way knowledge varies across class, caste, gender, and affiliation within the state forest bureaucracy. The results show that state versus local knowing is not the most meaningful division in epistemology, and that it is the daily struggle over resources in local political economy that gives rise to contending accounts of nature and environmental change. The conclusions further point to knowledge alliances between state and local actors that render certain claims powerful and so determine natural resource management policy and direct landscape change.

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  • Paul Robbins, 2000. "The Practical Politics of Knowing: State Environmental Knowledge and Local Political Economy," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(2), pages 126-144, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:76:y:2000:i:2:p:126-144
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.2000.tb00137.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Colette, April L., 2016. "The politics of framing risk: Minding the vulnerability gap in climate change research," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 1(C), pages 43-48.
    2. Julie Cidell, 2008. "Challenging the Contours: Critical Cartography, Local Knowledge, and the Public," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(5), pages 1202-1218, May.
    3. Clare Hall & Anita Wreford, 2012. "Adaptation to climate change: the attitudes of stakeholders in the livestock industry," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 207-222, February.
    4. Antinori, Camille & Rausser, Gordon C., 2003. "Does Community Involvement Matter? How Collective Choice Affects Forests in Mexico," CUDARE Working Papers 25076, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    5. Paul Robbins, 2002. "Obstacles to a First World Political Ecology? Looking near without Looking up," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(8), pages 1509-1513, August.
    6. Rob Krueger & David Gibbs, 2010. "Competitive Global City Regions and ‘Sustainable Development’: An Interpretive Institutionalist Account in the South East of England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(4), pages 821-837, April.
    7. Munro, Paul & van der Horst, Greg & Healy, Stephen, 2017. "Energy justice for all? Rethinking Sustainable Development Goal 7 through struggles over traditional energy practices in Sierra Leone," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 635-641.
    8. Jeffrey Jenkins, 2017. "Rare earth at Bearlodge: anthropocentric and biocentric perspectives of mining development in a multiple use landscape," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 7(2), pages 189-199, June.
    9. Agrawal, Arun, 2001. "Common Property Institutions and Sustainable Governance of Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(10), pages 1649-1672, October.
    10. Damania, Richard & Joshi, Anupam & Russ, Jason, 2020. "India’s forests – Stepping stone or millstone for the poor?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    11. James McCarthy, 2002. "First World Political Ecology: Lessons from the Wise Use Movement," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(7), pages 1281-1302, July.
    12. Nordhagen, Stella & Pascual, Unai & Drucker, Adam G., 2017. "Feeding the Household, Growing the Business, or Just Showing Off? Farmers' Motivations for Crop Diversity Choices in Papua New Guinea," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 99-109.

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