Research group: Political Ecology

The research group Political Ecology was formed in 1999 to produce research on political ecology, or the interaction between politics and ecology, usually in a developing world context. Despite its being presented as a research group here, it has not yet been formally registered as a group at Noragric.

Members participate in three research clusters: rights and power in development; environmental governance; and climate change and agricultural development.

6.2.1 Organisation, leadership, strategies and resources

The organisation of the research group reflects its status as a loose collection of researchers working together in projects and on related themes, rather than as a tightly organised and governed group.

The self-assessment refers to its internal structure as promoting ‘internal democracy and horizontal organization.’ Consequently, it takes a ‘flexible approach’ in order to adapt to the needs of individual research projects.

The group has developed a reputation for writing on critical approaches to environmental problems, often involving a political approach to how social influences and scientific knowledge interconnect.

Much recent work has focused on governmentality within environment and development. The group has also sought successful collaborations with appropriate and productive international researchers and networks. External funding accounts for most of the support for research.

It is clear that the research group contributes to the objectives of Noragric as an institution, and that the group has a clear identity in its field of academic research. At the same time, however, there is also evidence that the group could seek to achieve more, or to engage more critically with some of the themes it writes about.

6.2.2 Research personnel

The research group comprises 14 researchers, nine of whom are men and five women. The group also comprises seven PhD students, three of whom are women. Two members of the group are originally from Africa. The research group therefore displays some diversity, but is not yet gender balanced.

There is support for PhD training within the group. Of the seven students, five have scholarships from the university, and the remaining two have been funded through projects.

The group also invites and works with international scholars whose research is relevant to the group and it follows the recommendations of the European Charter when recruiting staff.

6.2.3 Research production and scientific quality

Ten publications were submitted. They comprise nine journal articles and one book. Five of them were also submitted as part of the institutional self-assessment. The journals are all internationally recognised and respected. Four out of the ten submitted publications were at NPI level 2.

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Overall, the publications are coherent because they all show local context defined through socially sensitive fieldwork, and because they all seek to criticise orthodox, established views of policy or the nature of environmental degradation, which can be challenged through this research. Most research focused on developing countries, with some papers about minorities in Norway. For example, the papers criticise orthodox rational-choice approaches to institutions, narratives of Malthusian collapse, or the established, official expertise about reindeer.

The scientific quality was judged to be very good. As with the assessment of the institution’s publications, many papers were empirically detailed, but sought to illustrate pre-existing concepts and debates, rather than use empirical analysis to advance conceptual frameworks. Some also aimed to redefine these debates. Four papers relating to REDD+ in Tanzania, water grabbing, the Sahel, and institutional theory have been attracting considerable attention and have been highly cited.

Much of this research can be called interdisciplinary because it seeks to interrogate the interface between science and policy, or how communities of researchers within physical science speak to policymakers and vice versa.

It was also noted that two of the more cited publications were from group members, who are also based at foreign universities, and these publications made no acknowledgement of Noragric. However, during interviews it was confirmed that the work was done as part of their affiliation with Noragric.

6.2.4 Networking

The research group were among the original founders of the Political Ecology Network (POLLEN) that focuses on political ecology research and has bi-annual conferences. The second meeting of POLLEN will be co-organised by Noragric in Oslo. Moreover, the research group has forged successful collaborations with relevant and well-known scholars based at other universities in other countries, resulting in useful publications.

6.2.5 Interplay between research and education

The research group contributes to teaching at Noragric. The group contributed Scandinavia’s first postgraduate course in political ecology in 2002, and then added an undergraduate course on this subject in 2012. The head of the research group is also head of Noragric’s PhD programme in Environment and Development Studies and responsible for the two PhD courses run by the department: on thematic issues in environment and development, and on qualitative methods. The group also co-organised the first PhD course in political ecology in France.

6.2.6 Societal relevance and impact

The research group focuses on topics of immense social relevance, such as governing dryland degradation in Africa, access to land rights, and definitions of resource scarcity.

The group has offered an impact case study of its work relating to Sámi reindeer pastoralism in Norway.

The case concerns the ability of Noragric’s research to challenge the predominant narrative that the main problem in reindeer pastoralism is overstocking. The group argues that impact has been achieved by getting their research read and known by distributing copies of a book, and by holding seminars involving the Sámi Parliament, the Norwegian Reindeer Herders Association, Vitenparken at NMBU, and the Globalization Conference in Oslo. These activities have led to the Sámi Parliament acknowledging the significance of this work in its white paper on reindeer husbandry. Moreover, in 2016 a law court cited the Noragric research when it supported one reindeer herder in his challenge

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against the government requirement to reduce his herd. This decision was then overthrown by the High Court, and it has currently gone to the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.

The research has led to a demonstrable link between its arguments and a tangible outcome concerning the court case. This legal outcome, and the reference to the research, is much stronger than simply disseminating the research.

6.2.7 Overall assessment

The group has achieved international visibility, useful and productive collaboration with international researchers, international funding, and useful engagement with questions of social relevance. The impact case demonstrated that the research led to a legal decision that cited the research in order to challenge official policy (although the longer-term impacts have yet to be recorded).

The research publications by the group show wide variation in quality – from some thoughtful and strongly argued analyses that challenge existing thinking to other papers that, in the main, have tended to be descriptive and apply pre-existing concepts and frameworks, rather than seeking to redefine or assess these frameworks. Some of the most cited or more ambitious work is also conducted by international researchers who have an affiliation to the group, and whose publications do not always make it clear how they are affiliated to Noragric. The group’s own description of itself as a non-formal group within Noragric might contribute to this situation, because the structure is somewhat flexible and uncoordinated.

Assessment of research group: 4 – very good

6.2.8 Feedback

• The main recommendations of this evaluation are to seek ways to enhance the contribution of this group to wider debates about theory, and to go from being users to being developers. Perhaps it might be possible to use the visiting researchers and international group members to stimulate further debate and reflection on this issue.

• It is possible that a more directed group structure might lead to a more ambitious engagement with research. Such coordination, of course, would require participation by its members.

• Ensure that affiliated researchers based at other universities credit Noragric in their publications.

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7 Norwegian University of Science and Technology,