Ecologia política: onde está a ecologia?

While political ecology has thrived, its coherence as a field of study and its central intellectual contributions remain the subject of sometimes contentious debate. One of the recurrent, and unresolved, questions has been “Where is the ecology in political ecology?”. Indeed, controversy has emerged about whether, in fact, the field has become “politics without ecology” (BASSETT; ZIMMERER, 2004, p. 103). This brief review examines this question and argues that, despite the claims of critics, there is a great deal of research in political ecology that engages biophysical ecology as a central concern.