The knowledge-power nexus: towards a political ecology of South Africa�s Integrated Coastal Management policy
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Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
Integrated coastal management (ICM) has been unequivocally established in policy and
legislation as the preferred framework within which environmental management in South
Africa�s coastal environment should be undertaken. The production and dissemination of
knowledge is seen as a critical component of the ICM framework, to the extent that �reliable
knowledge� is considered as one of two pillars that underpin the philosophy of the ICM process.
The centrality of knowledge to ICM raises questions around objectivity, relevance,
subjectivity, hegemony, hierarchy, power and negotiation within the process of knowledge
production, as well as concepts of knowledge legitimacy in the promotion of specific kinds of
knowledge within the ICM framework. This study responds to the prevailing notion within the
environmental management field that the act of managing our environment is an apolitical or
socially sterile one, by exploring the relationship between the concepts of knowledge and
power as a point of departure. Thereafter, political ecology is employed as a method to
contextualise and highlight some of the social processes at play within the ICM process.
Description
Magister Artium - MA
Keywords
Political ecology, South Africa, National Biodiversity Assessment, Foreign direct investment, KwaZulu-Natal, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research