Environmental Governance in a Populist/Authoritarian Era

This volume explores the many and deep connections between the widespread rise of authoritarian leaders and populist politics in recent years, and the domain of environmental politics and governance – how environments are known, valued, and managed; for whose benefit; and with what outcomes.The volume is explicitly international in scope and comparative in design, emphasizing both the differences and commonalties to be seen among contemporary authoritarian and populist political formations and their relations to environmental governance. Prominent themes include the historical roots of and precedents for environmental governance in authoritarian and populist contexts; the relationships between populism and authoritarianism and extractivism and resource nationalism; environmental politics as an arena for questions of security and citizenship; racialization and environmental politics; the politics of environmental science and knowledge; and progressive political alternatives. In each domain, using rich case studies, contributors analyse what differences it makes when environmental governance takes place in authoritarian and populist political contexts.This book was originally published as a special issue of Annals of the American Association of Geographers.

1. Introduction: Authoritarianism, Populism, and the Environment: Comparative Experiences, Insights, and PerspectivesJames McCarthyPart I: Historical and Comparative Perspectives2. Authoritarian Environmental Governance: Insights from the Past CenturyRobert Wilson3. Deadly Environmental Governance: Authoritarianism, Eco-populism, and the Repression of Environmental and Land DefendersNick Middeldorp and Philippe Le BillonPart II: Extractivism, Populism, and Authoritarianism4. Neoliberalizing Authoritarian Environmental Governance in (Post) Socialist LaosMiles Kenney-Lazar5. The Speculative Petro-State: Volatile Oil Prices and Resource Populism in EcuadorAngus Lyall and Gabriela Valdivia6. Contradictions of Populism and Resource Extraction: Examining the Intersection of Resource Nationalism and Accumulation by Dispossession in MongoliaOrhon Myadar and Sara Jackson7. Bringing Back the Mines and a Way of Life: Populism and the Politics of ExtractionErik Kojola8. Emotional Environments of Energy Extraction in RussiaJessica K. Graybill9. U.S. Farm Policy as Fraught Populism: Tracing the Scalar Tensions of Nationalist Agricultural GovernanceGarrett Graddy-LovelacePart III: Environment as Political Proxy and Arena for Security and Citizenship10. The State, Sewers, and Security: How Does the Egyptian State Reframe Environmental Disasters as Terrorist Threats?Mohammed Rafi Arefin11. Sequestering a River: The Political Ecology of the "Dead" Ergene River and Neoliberal Urbanization in Today’s TurkeyEda Acara12. "Return the Lake to the People": Populist Political Rhetoric and the Fate of a Resource Frontier in the PhilippinesKristian Saguin13. Fishing for Power: Incursions of the Ugandan Authoritarian StateAnne J. Kantel14. From the Heavens to the Markets: Governing Agricultural Drought under Chinese Fragmented AuthoritarianismAfton Clarke-Sather15. Electricity-Centered Clientelism and the Contradictions of Private Solar Microgrids in IndiaJonathan N. Balls and Harry W. Fischer16. Dreams and Migration in South Korea’s Border Region: Landscape Change and Environmental ImpactsHeejun Chang, Sunhak Bae, and Kyunghyun ParkPart IV: Racialization and Environmental Politics17. Afro-Brazilian Resistance to Extractivism in the Bay of AratuAdam Bledsoe18. Infrastructure and Authoritarianism in the Land of Waters: A Genealogy of Flood Control in GuyanaJoshua Mullenite19. Border Thinking, Borderland Diversity, and Trump’s WallMelissa W. Wright20. Environmental Deregulation, Spectacular Racism, and White Nationalism in the Trump EraLaura Pulido, Tianna Bruno, Cristina Faiver-Serna, and Cassandra Galentine21. Reaction, Resilience, and the Trumpist Behemoth: Environmental Risk Management from "Hoax" to Technique of DominationMatthew Sparke and Daniel BessnerPart V: Politics of Environmental Science and Knowledge22. Situating Data in a Trumpian Era: The Environmental Data and Governance InitiativeLindsey Dillon, Rebecca Lave, Becky Mansfield, Sara Wylie, Nicholas Shapiro, Anita Say Chan, and Michelle Murphy23. Rocket Wastelands in Kazakhstan: Scientific Authoritarianism and the Baikonur CosmodromeRobert A. Kopack24. Avoiding Climate Change: "Agnostic Adaptation" and the Politics of Public SilenceLiz Koslov25. The People Know Best: Situating the Counterexpertise of Populist Pipeline Opposition MovementsKai Bosworth26. Beyond Narratives: Civic Epistemologies and the Coproduction of Environmental Knowledge and Popular Environmentalism in ThailandTim Forsyth27. Speaking Power to "Post-Truth": Critical Political Ecology and the New AuthoritarianismBenjamin Neimark, John Childs, Andrea J. Nightingale, Connor Joseph Cavanagh, Sian Sullivan, Tor A. Benjaminsen, Simon Batterbury, Stasja Koot, and Wendy HarcourtPart VI: Progressive Alternatives28. Populism, Emancipation, and Environmental Governance: Insights from BoliviaDiego Andreucci29. Whatever Happened to Green Collar Jobs? Populism and Clean Energy TransitionSarah Knuth30. Reparation Ecologies: Regimes of Repair in Populist AgroecologyKirsten Valentine Cadieux, Stephen Carpenter, Alex Liebman, Renata Blumberg, and Bhaskar Upadhyay31. Development and Sustainable Ethics in Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve, ChinaStuart C. Aitken, Li An, and Shuang Yang32. A Manifesto for a Progressive Land-Grant Mission in an Authoritarian Populist EraJenny E. Goldstein, Kasia Paprocki, and Tracey Osborne

James McCarthy is a Professor in the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University, USA. His work analyses the interactions of political economy and environmental politics. He has published three major edited volumes and over 50 articles and chapters. His current research explores the relationships between climate change, renewable energy, and the future of capitalism.