New Insights in Political Ecology

As the third decade of the 21st Century approaches, the achievements made by scholars have been exceptional, leading to major advancements in the fast-growing field of Political Ecology within Environment-Society Studies. This field is far from coherent, however. It is characterised by oftentimes conflicting theoretical framings leading to vastly different methodological approaches and empirical studies. It is timely to reflect on the most exciting debates in the field and where leading thinkers believe it ought to develop more.

Frontiers has organized a series of Research Topics to highlight the latest advancements in research across the field of Human Dynamics, with articles from the Associate Members of our accomplished Editorial Boards and selected colleagues. This editorial initiative of particular relevance, led by Prof. Andrea Nightingale, Specialty Chief Editor of the Politics, Environment and Society section, together with Prof. Tim Forsyth (Associate Editor), is focused on new insights, novel developments, current challenges, latest discoveries, recent advances, and future perspectives in the field of Environment-Society Studies.

The Research Topic solicits brief, forward-looking contributions from the editorial board members that describe the state of the art, outlining recent developments and major accomplishments, and ideas on how to move the field forward. How should political ecology inform global policy on environmental change? How do cutting edge debates from science and technology studies (STS), feminist critiques of science, regime theory and new materialisms both challenge and move the field forward? Authors are encouraged to identify the greatest challenges in the sub-discipline, and how to address those challenges.

The goal of this special edition Research Topic is to shed light on the progress made in the past decade in Political Ecology and related Environment- Society fields, and on its future challenges to provide a thorough overview of the debates. This article collection will inspire, inform and provide direction and guidance to researchers in the next couple of decades.