Beyond the impasse: the power of political ecology in Third World environmental research

Summary In the context of a deepening impasse in Third World environmental research, this paper suggests that researchers should adopt a political ecology perspective to ensure that research addresses the political and economic issues that underlie the Third World's environmental problems. Since an understanding of unequal power relations is central to political ecology, the paper considers how questions of power influence human‐environmental interaction, before assessing briefly how research of this kind might contribute to a resolution of the Third World's environmental problems.