Development, Ecology and Climate Change: Resistance by the Peasantry

Critical theory like political ecology and peasant studies point to the insufficiency of adaptation strategies and call for more radical alternatives, such as the abandonment of development strategies based on fossil-fuelled industrialisation and urban-centred economic growth. They favour rural livelihood strategies based on sustainable natural resource management and organic/agro-ecological production, thus combining genuine development with resistance to the hegemony of that neoliberal-driven transformation of fundamental socio-economic structures in developing countries. This is associated with detrimental climatic and ecological consequences. This article offers a theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding the nexus of development, ecology and climate change, and explores significant patterns of community resistance evolving into promising strategies of reactions ‘from below’ against growth-driven development implicating ecocide. Such resistance opposes the regional and global obsession with excessive growth and poses new challenges to the international political system.