Political Ecology and Planning Theory

Political ecology is the inquiry into the politi cal causes and consequences of environmental change, with the goal of facilitating sustain able development through the reconstruction of social and political systems. In this intro ductory paper, I consider how political ecol ogy might become a productive area of in quiry for planning theorists. After surveying political ecology's topical and intellectual terrain, I link the field to theory through the consideration of several planning models and roles. I argue that Deweyan pragmatism, by method of social inquiry and communitarian politics, provides an appropriate philosophical basis for integrating political ecology into planning theory.