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An ecology of politics

Environment, sociality and development in southern Belize

This project addressed relationships between ecology and politics that have proved hard to pin down in studies of environment and development, and related policy responses. By exploring the mutual constitution of resources and meanings in rural southern Belize, it examined resource-related issues, focussing on how local people perceive and engage with decision-making over highway construction, electricity provision, community forestry and the disputed national border, in a sensitive political climate in which the nation-state, indigenous groups and others are urgently debating land security within broader contestations of marginality and modernity. Proposals for a new international highway refracted many hopes and fears. Understanding the associated interactions, border processes and negotiations – comprising what I envision as an ecology of politics - can underpin a more nuanced, contextualized approach to studies of environment, sociality and development.