This thesis brings the philosophies of Jean-Luc Nancy, Slavoj Zizek and Bruno Latour into conversation around the cynosure of ecological rhetoric. It argues for a renewed contemplation of political ecology, one that relinquishes the concept of Nature in favour of the overtly politicized notion of a world in common. By tracing, for the first time, the intersections between these three thinkers’ respective philosophies of nature, this thesis strives to articulate a philosophical framework that can live up to the ecological challenges of the contemporary Anthropocene. / Graduate / 0422 / 0401 / 0298

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2006. / Supervisor: Tina Moffat. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 280-305).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-128). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 148-157). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-94). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Northeastern University, 2008. / Title from title page (viewed Aug. 5, 2009). Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2007. / "Publication number: AAT 3281715."

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Susan Walcott; submitted to the Dept. of Geography. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jun. 7, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-206).

Sugarcane cultivation is expanding throughout the Pacific coast of Guatemala, with political and ecological consequences for subsistence communities. The majority of sugar production occurs in the departments of Santa Rosa, Escuintla, Suchitepequéz and Retalhuleu on the Pacific coast. As sugarcane expands into fincas (large plantations owned by an agricultural elite), the amount of land available for rent to landless or land-poor farmers is reduced. Sugarcane expansion provokes various forms of environmental degradation, including deforestation, air pollution, water contamination, and draining of rivers and wetlands. Sugarcane cultivation also provokes health problems for workers and those who live near these sites, including kidney failure, dehydration, and respiratory and skin problems. As sugarcane expands, subsistence communities in the surrounding area are subject to these detrimental effects of sugarcane cultivation. Building academic knowledge on the impacts of sugarcane expansion is necessary in order to be better equipped to be in solidarity with, or support subsistence communities facing this expansion. It is crucial to meaningfully involve subsistence communities in this process of knowledge production since it is the inhabitants of these places, not researchers, who are the experts on these issues. In this thesis, I describe a feminist community-based research project in the community of La Montaña, Guatemala, on the impacts of sugarcane in their community. The key goals of this research were to 1) collaboratively identify with participants specific areas of interest regarding sugarcane impacts, and investigate these areas; 2) analyse data with an awareness of gender and 3) share research findings with the community to facilitate the possibility of action or critical reflection. I used public group discussions, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and drop-in sessions to collect data. Through this process, the issues of political inaction (as a response to sugarcane) and deforestation (driven by sugarcane) emerged as two key areas of interest which I explore in this thesis. The main finding of my research was that sugarcane cultivation is a divisive force in La Montaña: while community members agree on the negative aspects of sugarcane cultivation, they disagree about how to address this issue. As I find, these divisions occur along the axes of gender and age. These divisions also constitute an obstacle to a collective political platform to address sugarcane expansion, and a potential site for intracommunity violence as sugarcane continues to expand. These findings were presented to the community in a public presentation in February 2015, to provide a space for critical discussion of these issues. Overall, this research identifies a key difficulty that subsistence communities face in the context of agroindustrial expansion: as the importance of collective action grows, so too do intra-community divisions. This research highlights the need for long-term solidarity-building work in communities on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, in order to be able to achieve the changes that community members feel powerless to enact alone. / Graduate

The rapid expansion of oil palm plantations throughout Indonesia has resulted in a range of environmental and social consequences, including dispossessing rural people of their land. But these people are not accepting the infringements passively. As oil palm plantations have expanded and spread, so have instances of oil palm-related protest and resistance. In almost all accounts of oil palm, however, women and gender relations are overlooked. This thesis examines the role of women and gender relations in oil palm expansion and resistance in Indonesia today. Using a combination of secondary literature (specifically, the fields of agrarian political economy, feminist political ecology and contentious politics) and primary data, this thesis provides both a new case study and a new way - through the lens of gender - of understanding oil palm expansion and resistance in Indonesia. At the heart of this research study are the voices, opinions and experiences of 42 women who participated in one protest against dispossession in Sambas district, Indonesia. Emphasizing the role of these women in their households, communities and in this protest, as well as the gender relations that shape and are shaped by the women’s participation at all of these levels, this study offers new analysis of who is impacted by oil palm expansion, who resists it and in what ways. The Sambas case study demonstrates how gender relations shape all stages and facets of a protest, from womenʼs decisions to participate in protest (by informing their motivations and political opportunities) to womenʼs protest activities and how women experience protest outcomes. It also reveals how at all stages of mobilization, gender relations are not fixed. Rather, gender relations themselves may also be shaped by and through womenʼs participation in protest. This study has far-reaching implications not only for the future of oil palm expansion and resistance, but on women’s participation in protest, in politics in general and on gender relations.