ABSTRACT
This chapter was to identify crucial concepts that have been applied in political ecology and to discuss their use-value for an analysis of the agrofuels project. Starting from the origins and basic assumptions of political ecology, it introduces central concepts which are crucial for an analysis of the agrofuels issue from a political ecology perspective. Environmental problems in political ecology are thus seen through the lens of power and domination. The political dimension of environmental degradation has provoked critique from within the discipline of political ecology itself. Vayda and Walters have complained that the 'overreaction to the "ecology without politics" of three decades ago is resulting now in a "politics without ecology"'. Political ecology draws upon different theoretical approaches, the common feature of which is nevertheless the centrality of power and domination. Materiality as a concept is central not only in political ecology but also in critical political economy and social theory in the tradition of Marx.
