Theory of regulation and political ecology : an inevitable separation ?

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I n his contribution on ecology to the compendium “La théorie de larégulation: l’état des savoirs”, Alain Lipietz observes that, although several prominentregulationists have joined the ecological movement, few regulationist analyses dealwith ecological issues (LIPIETZ, 1995a). In a way, this observation is pertinent toAlain Lipietz himself. Thus, the question whether or not the regulationist approachand political ecology are compatible arises.In this article, departing from a critique of Lipietz’s dichotomy betweentheory of regulation and political ecology, we aim at presenting a proposal on how tointegrate political ecology and the theory of regulation. We regard this necessary forboth theoretical and political reasons, since for one thing the theory of regulationlacks a systematic treatment of social relations with regard to the interaction betweensociety and nature, while concepts of political ecology, notably that of Alain Lipietz asoutlined in Lipietz (1998b), lack a critical analysis of political economy. In the lastpart of the paper, we will illustrate how social relations to nature interact in the currentprocess of colonization of biodiversity, which we think might eventually form a centralpart of a new regime of accumulation.