The ''Journal of Political Ecology'' is an annual open access peer-reviewed

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...

covering political ecology. It was established in 1994 as one of the first open access journals in the social sciences, by James B. Greenberg and Thomas K. Park (

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

), to experiment with online formats and to showcase new work in the emerging field of political ecology. The current

editors-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

are Simon P.J. Batterbury (

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

and Lancaster University) and Casey Walsh (

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

). There is an international editorial board.

Publication

Unlike the majority of academic journals it is produced free of charge for readers and authors using voluntary academic labour, and its website is hosted at the University of Arizona library. There is no journal budget and editorial work is voluntary. The ''Journal of Political Ecology'' is abstracted and indexed in

Scopus Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-l ...

, and the number of articles published, and citation index, has risen substantially since 2014. The journal publishes Eric Wolf Prize papers submitted by early career scholars to the

Society for Applied Anthropology The Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) is a worldwide organization for the Applied Social Sciences, established "to promote the integration of anthropological perspectives and methods in solving human problems throughout the world; to advocate ...

annual meetings in the United States. The journal is a founding member of the

Free Journal Network The Free Journal Network is an index of open access scholarly journals, specifically for those that do not charge article processing charges. Criteria The network founded in early 2018 in order to promote free, open access journals, a publishin ...

that supports and lobbies for quality open access publishing.

Scope

The scope of the journal is research into the linkages between

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

and

human impact on the environment Human impact on the environment (or anthropogenic impact) refers to changes to biophysical environments and to ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans. Modifying the environment to fit the need ...

, particularly where there are inequalities in access to resources, or an increase in vulnerability, as a result of resource use or assertion of political power. Articles must address some aspect of this relationship, framed in political ecology, and topics have ranged from

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

and

indigenous peoples of Oceania The indigenous peoples of Oceania are Aboriginal Australians, Papuans, and Austronesians ( Melanesians (including Torres Strait Islanders), Micronesians, and Polynesians). These indigenous peoples have a historical continuity with pre-colonial ...

, to drug production in Lesotho,

marine protected area Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conse ...

management in Vietnam, the

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...

trade in

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

, environmental pollution in post-communist countries, water consumption and management in the United States West and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and the plight of

Adivasi The Adivasi refers to inhabitants of Indian subcontinent, generally tribal people. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term ...

peoples living in national parks in India. Special issues are occasionally published, for example: ''Ecologies of Hope'', edited by S. Ravi Rajan and Colin Duncan in 2013; ''Non-capitalist political ecologies,'' edited by Brian Burke and Boone Shear and ''Degrowth, Culture and Power'', edited by Lisa Gezon and Susan Paulson in 2017. The four most important research areas covered by the 145 articles published as of late 2014 were 1) food and agricultural issues 2) social aspects of conservation 3) fishing issues and 4) mining and social struggles.Batterbury, S.P.J. 2015. Doing political ecology inside and outside the academy. In Bryant, R. (ed.) ''International Handbook of Political Ecology''. Edward Elgar. Pp. 27-43

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Journal of Political Ecology Environmental social science journals Academic journals established in 1994 Open access journals English-language journals Annual journals University of Arizona Environmental economics Human ecology Political ecology Political economy Anthropology journals Geography journals Multidisciplinary social science journals Political science journals