Greenmentality: A Political Ecology of the Green Economy in the Global South

What type of governance does the unfolding green economy lead to in the Global South? How does it influence rural production systems and how do rural people respond to its implementation? These are the main questions that this research project has investigated through detailed empirical fieldwork in a selection of cases in East Africa and India. The research focused on ecotourism, carbon forestry and climate-smart agriculture as expressions of this new green economy. Conceptually, the project has been based on a combination of Foucault's notion of 'governmentality' (understood as the techniques and tactics of government) with theories of resistance, social agency and critical institutionalism. In this way, the project has aimed to break new ground in studies of environmental governance by combining a focus on power and authority with one on agency, rights, and institutions. The ambition has been to develop an understanding of the interplay between structural power and individual agency as played out in the context of economic and environmental change in the Global South. Results demonstrate that the implementation of the green economy is dominated by modernisation thinking. In practice, this results in a reproduction of measures inspired by the green revolution and focused on technological change and large-scale production. In this way, the green economy further enhances a modernisation policy that excludes small-scale producers such as small-scale farmers and pastoralists sometimes including the use of violence. We have observed the same tendency of excluding local people from participation as well as economic benefits in forest conservation as a form of climate mitigation (Tanzania), tree planting as environmental compensation and climate mitigation (India), wildlife management and ecotourism (Kenya, Tanzania, India) as well as in climate-smart agriculture (Kenya). In response to the exclusion, people resist passively in various ways.

Prosjektet finansierte en PhD-kandidat og en postdoc på NMBU. I tillegg var to PhD-kandidater på NMBU tilknyttet prosjektet, samt en PhD-kandidat på OsloMet. Prosjektet har også finansiert PhD-kandidater ved Sheffield University, University of Wisconsin-Madison og ATREE (Bangalore, India) (en kandidat hvert sted) og en postdoc i Sheffield og en ved ATREE. Denne kompetansebyggingen har bidratt til å forsterke samarbeidet mellom de involverte institusjonene og økt den internasjonale profilen til NMBU innen politisk økologi. Gjennom et stort antall publikasjoner har prosjekt også fremmet den internasjonale profilen til enkeltforskere og institusjoner involvert i prosjektet.

What type of governance does the unfolding green economy lead to in the Global South? How does it influence rural production systems and how do rural people respond to its implementation? These are the main questions that this research project will investigate through detailed empirical fieldwork in a selection of cases in East Africa and India. The research will focus on ecotourism, carbon forestry and climate-smart agriculture as expressions of this new green economy. It will be carried out by a strong interdisciplinary and international team consisting of both experienced and promising young scholars. The project will apply a novel approach to understanding current environmental governance in the Global South, and not only because of the newness of the green economy itself. The project also develops a novel conceptual approach by combining Michel Foucault's notion of 'governmentality' (understood as the techniques and tactics of government) with theories of resistance, social agency and critical institutionalism. We believe this theoretical combination retains the potential to break new ground in environmental governance studies by combining a focus on power and authority with one on agency, rights, and institutions. The ambition is thus to develop an understanding of the interplay between structural power and individual agency as played out in the context of global economic and environmental change in the Global South. While the current outline is ambitious, we also believe it is realistic in view of the team consisting of experienced scholars from both the North and the South, who can document excellent publication records and have good access as well as strong working relationships in the research sites.