Page "Political ecology" Paragraph 40

As with any theoretical approach in the social sciences, political ecology has its strengths and weaknesses.

At its core, political ecology makes great strides in attempting to contextualize political and ecological explanations of human behavior.

But as Walker ( 2006 ) points out, it has failed to offer “ compelling counter-narratives ” to “ widely influential and popular yet deeply flawed and unapologetic neo-Malthusian rants such as Robert Kaplan's ( 1994 ) ' The coming anarchy ' and Jared Diamond's ( 2005 ) Collapse ” ( 385 ).

Another problem is the neo-Marxist nature of political ecology in a world where policy decisions are dominated by a global capitalist system ( Walker 2006: 388-389 ).

Ultimately, applying political ecology to policy decisions – especially in the US and Western Europe – will remain problematic as long as there is a resistance to Marxist and neo-Marxist theory.