By Alejandra Rivera, international urbanist and founder of Urban Matters and Marie Urfels, urban geographer and Northern Europe Lead at Urban Matters.
Since we had two team members at this conference, on this blog we present our joint and complementary perspectives on this gathering. Political Ecology is a fascinating field where the realm of the political, economic and social interact with the natural environment around us. The research in this field is wide and varied, and we observed two large and distinctive types of stories. On one hand the confronting and disheartening stories emerging from documenting cases of environmental injustices around the world, and on the other hand, are the stories of hope on how it is possible to coexist with nature and others in harmony. Here we bring you examples and insights from both sides we observed at POLLEN.
If you are interested to explore more any of this content or get in touch with the researchers behind it, please reach out to us.
Photo taken by Alejandra Rivera at Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) during the POLLEN 2026 Conference, June 30 2026
What is the POLLEN Conference?
The POLLEN conference this year was a massive gathering of 1875 participants out of which were 1439 authors, 284 attendees, 462 convenors, 28 chairs and 32 discussants, from around the world. This offered a unique window to the latest academic research on a huge diversity of themes and interweaving of them. The conference topics ranged from agriculture, cities, climate change, conservation, degrowth, disasters, energy, environmentalism, extractivism, food, forests, geopolitics, green economy, infrastructure, intersectionality, more than human, tourism, transition and water. We focused on the most relevant topics for Urban Matters: cities, degrowth, more than human and transitions.
What is political ecology and why it is important?
Political ecology is the theoretical and analytical study of how human realms –our political, social and cultural structures and interactions– shape and are shaped by the ecological systems we are embedded into. The key here is the recognition that environmental issues are not neutral and never happen in a vacuum. They are deeply political and the result of social, economic or cultural interactions and tensions that have a direct impact on the ecological environment around us. Research in political ecology is important because it provides a more realistic understanding of human interactions with the ecological world, thus providing the foundation for social and political movements with ecological agendas. Hence it is relevant for anyone interested in just sustainability transitions. That’s why we were there.
Photo taken by Alejandra Rivera at Barcelona, June 29 2026
The confronting and disheartening stories of environmental injustices
Many of the case studies we heard about illustrated the struggles and suffering of communities confronting extractivism and processes of capital accumulation. These cases reveal inequalities of resource distribution and of the impacts of climate change, shedding light on who benefits and who bears the costs. Across these accounts, ecological degradation and social inequality emerged as deeply intertwined with global capitalism.
Here we highlight 3 key panels:
1. Business Political Ecology:
This panel was based on the EJAtlas – a global database documenting empirical cases of communities’ resistance to the extractivism of businesses. The discussion focused on the strategies that businesses use to expand their extractive activities:
- Cooperation: where the limit to extractivism is the resistance being faced by the social groups impacted
- Co-optation: giving some value to the local community e.g. through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), donations, a local school, etc. in order to have access to all the natural resources of an area
- Confrontation: through public or private means, which could include violence
Hence, in environmental justice conflicts, there are often two sides (a) the business seeking extraction, accumulation and profit maximization vs. (b) the community groups resisting the negative impacts of extractivism. Here the role of the public sector is key to mediate and safeguard the health and wellbeing of local populations.
2. Petro-pedagogy
This was a new term for us. It refers to the perverse strategies of fossil fuel companies to influence children and local communities to have a more positive attitude towards fossil fuels and their economic activities. This corporate strategy attempts to ‘buy a social license’ to operate through ‘investments in education’ including science programs and industry-branded school materials such as children’s books exhibiting fossil fuel essentialism and fear of change. Research on petro-pedagogy asks these key questions: how does this corporate strategy reinforces fossil fuel hegemony? How it impacts attitudes towards sustainability measures? And what can we do to counter these strategies?
3. Oil & gas greenwashing strategy
Another presentation was on the oil & gas industry greenwashing strategy. It presented evidence that fossil fuel companies are not decarbonizing and that they obstruct climate action because they have an intrinsic conflict of interest. Fossil fuels are central to their business model; therefore, they cannot align with the Paris Agreement climate targets even if they pretend to be. Hence, public institutions committed to the Paris Agreement should cut ties with the fossil fuel industry altogether. Actions that governments can take, and are already doing in some cases, are for example: banning fossil fuel advertisements, lobbying and political donations; ending university research partnerships on fossil fuel exploration and exploitation; and divesting pension funds from those companies.
Photo taken by Alejandra Rivera at Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) during the POLLEN 2026 Conference, June 30 2026
The hope and theory of better futures
Just like the study of political ecology brings us confronting and disheartening stories of environmental injustices happening around the world, it also offers us a positive side, an entire field of study of how human-nature relations could be harmonious and beautiful. What I (Alejandra) personally love about political ecology is that it helps us theorize and design possibilities, not only imagining and dreaming, but through scientific and systematic methods –quantitative and qualitative, with measures and indicators, to concretize and realize such possibilities. We followed various panels on degrowth that highlighted cases where eco-social dreams are already a reality and here we summarize what we can learn from them.
Some highlights were:
1. The town of Hernani (Basque Country) and the eco-socialist degrowth transition by Sarah Bretschko
In the Basque small town of Hernani, the local government has adopted radical municipalism and democratic economic planning as political strategies. Given the context and history of the Basque Country, sovereignty is an important issue. There, the project «Hernani Burujabe» (sovereign) project, weaves together multiple «sovereignties» –on energy, food, care, housing, currency, language and culture — into an integrated plan with the objective to reappropriate, democratize and socialize the means of production. It is key that this is an effort in planning and articulation from the government’s ideology and political will. Research in the Hernani case interrogates how can we repurpose social and physical infrastructures for an eco-social transition, and shows how municipalism and democratic planning can be important tools in this process.
2. Ikaria: the making of a degrowth island by Angelos Varvarousis
Angelos has studied the island of Ikaria for many years, an example of a place living in a state of degrowth. This island contrasts sharply with the traditional image of Greek islands: increasingly gentrified into «highly manicured coastal desires» and their white and blue houses, often showcased in Instagram and other social media, which then results in overtourism. Ikaria disrupts that image entirely: the island is rugged and rough, unlavish and frugal, communitarian with a large public sphere, self-provisioning and festive. It is also 1 of the 5 blue zones in the world where average life expectancy is one of the highest in the world. It is definitely a special place.
Research on the island suggests it lives in “frugal abundance when resources circulate through institutions of collective joy, reciprocity and community”. So, from this point of view, it shows us an alternative territorial organization of abundance.
We also loved the outstanding and simple definition of degrowth given by Angelos:
“Degrowth: low consumption & high wellbeing without cost-shifting”
With these two ‘degrowth cases’ we sensed a tension between cases of already existing degrowth, such as these, vs. becoming/transforming already existing growth-centric cities:
Cases like Ikaria and Hernani seem to have developed their own degrowth-aligned philosophies and ways of living a long time ago, being deeply rooted in long local histories and developed small scale and relatively isolated from global capitalism. Reflecting across these cases, what stands out is that they are small and/or isolated places, with ways of living that are convivial, socially and ecologically conscious. They embrace municipalism, citizen participation, and the right to the city, as well as sustainability principles including minimalism and simplicity, which overlaps with degrowth on individual elements.
Then this raises the question: how and to what extent can we take the lessons of these cases to transform already existing, growth-centric cities and big metropolis like London, New York or Tokyo – the ‘Global Cities’ Saskia Sassen talks about? What are the contextual and political conditions that allow degrowth ideas and policies to take root in highly capitalist places, such as average cities? And what is the role of culture, media, narratives, and policy making in achieving this?
When raised these questions to the panel they said that if we study the very specific cases of degrowth such as Hernani, Ikaria or Bhutan we can start seeing patterns on how degrowth principles have developed in these places, and then we can measure ‘real existing degrowth’ with indicators, to then help us theorize for (political) change in other cities. This is a monumental undertaking, but which is necessary and exciting when thinking, designing and making just and sustainable cities. Very inspiring work!
Photos taken by Alejandra Rivera at Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA-UAB) during the POLLEN 2026 Conference, June 30 2026
To conclude…
It is challenging to write a closing remark to the POLLEN conference. The experience has rather been an opener to different worlds, fields of study, possibilities and inspiration. It has opened and left many questions unanswered and, as the poet Rilke advises, we will have to learn to embrace and love the questions.
One thing to say is that the collection of all the research, the panel discussions we listened to, the informal conversations we had with interesting people over coffee breaks, it all points out to one thing: everything is political. Every corner, every millimeter of unexplored territory, theories, propositions, ideas and stances, everything carries its own connotation and weight.
During the closing session this was a subject of debate: whether the role of academia is staying neutral, objective, distanced from the subject of study or is rather to be political and activist by creating the narratives and critiques of injustices in the status quo? A fair discussion, but in the face of the urgent social and ecological crisis, the answer is clear: there is no time to not be political. We all have a role to play in transformation work: some protest in the street, some protest online, some try to change narratives, shape scholarly thought, in fact any profession any doctor, lawyer, worker, has a role that can and should be political to create a better world. Each one of us has a choice, we can take a stand from where we are and through what we do, to resist racism, patriarchy, fascism, genocide, capital extraction and accumulation, and the various hegemonies of injustices that exist in the world. It requires courage, firm values and coherence between what we think and what we do.
Political ecology can and does inspire us to act, mobilize, write, and build movement from different fields and spheres of action. Thank you, POLLEN!
The perfect inspiring ending to POLLEN 2026 with the amazing poet Adriana Bertran Anía in a mix of English, Spanish and Catalán lines that go straight to your heart.
Credit for the videos: Nicolás Vargas-Ramirez
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