IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/inseej/343185.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Political Ecology of an Environmental Crisis in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam

Author

Listed:
  • Baruah, Mitul

Abstract

Political ecology as a framework for studying nature–society relations has come a long way since the 1980s, both in terms of its thematic canvas as well as theoretical robustness. Research in political ecology on hazards on the other hand has not grown as impressively, even though humanity is witnessing increased risks and disasters in the Anthropocene. Indeed, disasters are no longer “extreme events” and have come to be regarded as normal occurrences. This paper delves deeper into the question of the political ecology of hazards and vulnerability by focusing on a case study from Majuli river island in India’s northeast. It critically investigates the twin disasters of flooding and riverbank erosion in Majuli by paying attention to the role of the biophysical features of the Brahmaputra river system as well as the political economic forces at play, with a special focus on the role of the state. The paper draws on fieldwork conducted in Majuli over several years. It foregrounds the role of the state in the reproduction of the Majuli hazardscape and calls for a nuanced, disaggregated analysis of the postcolonial disastrous state.

Suggested Citation

  • Baruah, Mitul, 2023. "The Political Ecology of an Environmental Crisis in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam," Ecology, Economy and Society - the INSEE Journal, Indian Society of Ecological Economics (INSEE), vol. 6(02), July.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:inseej:343185
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.343185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/343185/files/The%20Political%20Ecology.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.343185?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yaffa Truelove, 2021. "Who is the state? Infrastructural power and everyday water governance in Delhi," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 282-299, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yaffa Truelove & Natasha Cornea, 2021. "Rethinking urban environmental and infrastructural governance in the everyday: Perspectives from and of the global South," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 231-246, March.
    2. Vishal Narain & Sumit Vij & Timos Karpouzoglou, 2023. "Demystifying piped water supply: Formality and informality in (peri)urban water provisioning," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(6), pages 1066-1082, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Environmental Economics and Policy;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:inseej:343185. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inseeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.