Political Ecological School is a thought in political geography where people are important than the political area they live. It concentrates on human group rather than political boundary.

1. ECOLOGICAL SCHOOL
OF POLITICAL
GEOGRAPHY
Mohammad Mohaiminul
Islam
Department of Geography and
Environmental Studies,
University of Chittagong

2. Concept of Political Ecological
School
Political Ecological School is a thought in
political geography where people are important
than the political area they live. It concentrates
on human group rather than political boundary.
The classification of the scope of political
geography into political, ecological and
organismic has been theorized by G.T. Renner.

3. Focus of Ecological School

4. Elements of Ecological School
 There are 5 elements of ecological school-

5. 1. The Human Group
 The human group consists of several attributes
that indicate the structure, composition and
pattern of human categorizations. Those are-
a) Origin and growth
b) Present ethnic traits
c) Spatial Attributes

6. 1.a: Origin and Growth
 The ecological seeks to find answers to
several questions related to the origin and
growth of people e.g.-
 Where have people come from? how and
under what influences have they been
structured as they are now? what would their
future dispersion be? Which ethnicity did they
belong to? Etc.

7. 1.a: Origin and Growth
Muslim-majority
districts
of Bengal highlighted in
green on a map in
1909. It shows the
origin and growth of
religion based people in
the subcontinent.

8. 1.b: Present Ethnic Traits
 Ecological thought also explains the current
ethnological characteristics and inclusions of
people; how people are considered to be the
member of a certain group, what are their
dispersion and variation etc.
 A comparative discussion between present
and past ethnic condition is discussed in in
ecological concept.

9. 1.b: Present Ethnic Traits
 This map shows the
present ethnic traits
of Bangladeshi
people based on
ethnic language.

10. 1.c: Spatial Attributes
 It includes the area, it’s location, space,
resource equipment, areal growth, lines of
expansion and it’s historical stage in terms of
the relationship of human group.
 The spatial attributes are geographical and
anthropological rather than political.

11. 2. The Economy
 The economy is discussed in ecological
thought to assess the relationship between
economic activities of people and state
considering 3 phenomena-
1) Pattern of resource use
2) Social attitude and social control
3) The nationality structure

12. 2.a: Pattern of Resource Use
 It discusses what resources a country/state
possesses, what resource can be use and
what cannot be, how much resource would be
surplus, how much can be conserved, trading
practice of resource etc.
 Renewable Natural
Resources are Energy, Water, Fish, Forest etc.
and Non-renewable Natural Resources are
Gas & Oil, Coal, Rock, Sand etc. Water is the
renewable natural resources of Bangladesh.

13. 2.a: Pattern of Resource Use
The pie chart
shows the
renewable
resources of
Bangladesh.

14. 2.b: Social Attitudes and Control
 The attitude is toward an object and the object
is, in some sense, the externalization of
the attitude. Attitudes can be positive or
negative. Explicit attitudes are conscious
beliefs that can guide decisions and behavior.
Implicit attitudes are unconscious beliefs that
can still influence decisions and behavior.
 Social control simply refers to the control of
state/government over it’s existing society.

15. 2.c: The nationality Structure
 The Nationality Structure refers to majority and
minority of people and the differentiations
between them from a economic perspective.
 For example, the Chakma community has
more per capita income than Garo people, and
Garo has more PCI than Santal. The economic
condition varies from community to community,
ethnicity to ethnicity.

16. 2.c: The nationality Structure
The chart shows the
ethnic weekly income
in UK including
Bangladeshi people.

17. 3. Adjustments for Controlling the
Areas
 The control of government over it’s population
and administration is discussed in ecological
school considering 3 levels of ascendancy,
e.g.-
a) National governmental arrangement
b) Provincial governmental arrangement
c) Local governmental arrangement

18. Illustration of Adjustments for
Controlling the Areas

19. 3.a: National Governmental
Arrangement
 The ascendancy of the state over it’s all
provisions or states. The government of
Bangladesh plays the role of National
Governmental Arrangement; although
terminologically it’s called provisional
government.
 In Federal States (e.g. India, USA), the central
power controls over it’s individual federalism.
Central government controls the
states/provinces with a defined level of
involvement.

20. 3.b: Provincial Governmental
Arrangement
 This is the ascendancy of central government
over it’s provincial states stands in middle
hierarchy. Provincial governments are
controlled by national government but have
well defined freedom to initiate and implement
heterogeneous law.
 California (USA), West Bengal (India), Gujarat
(India) etc. are run by provincial government.

21. 3.c: Local Governmental
Arrangement
 The primmest unit of government is local
government that are controlled by provincial
government and have limited indipendence to
be an independent government.
 Accordingly, a four-tier local government of
Bangladesh are namely Gram Parishad, Union
Parishad, Upazila Parishad and Zila Parishad
was recommended by the Commission.

22. Government Hierarchy
National
Govt.
Provincial
Govt.
Local
Govt.

23. 4. Adjustment in Boundary
Delimitation
 Boundary delimitation (or simply delimitation)
is the drawing of boundaries, particularly of
electoral precincts, states, counties or other
municipalities. In the context of elections, it
can be called redistribution and is used to
prevent unbalance of population across
districts.
 Ecological School is consisted with boundary
delimitation.

24. 4. Adjustment in Boundary
Delimitation

25. 4. Adjustment in Boundary
Delimitation
 It has two components-
a) Relationship to environmental factors.
b) Disputed points.
a) Relationship to environmental factors: The
physical feature of a country is an influence
to delimitation; whether it’s mountainous,
marshy, riverine, oceanic etc.

26. 4. Adjustment in Boundary
Delimitation
 b) Disputed points: Disputed points are some
points or locations where there are some
ongoing conflictions between nations/states
regarding its ownership or ascendancy.
 There are several disputed points in the world
even in Bangladesh or in Indian Subcontinent
such as Jammu-Kashmir, Crimea, East China
Sea etc.

27. Jammu-Kashmir Disputed Point

28. Bangladesh-India Disputed
Points

29. 5. External Adjustments
 Apart from the above points, there are some
external influences to be adjusted regarding
the ascendency of government and wellbeing
of its subjects. There are 3 segments of
external arrangements-
a) International governmental arrangement
b) Extra national arrangement
c) Project activities

30. 5.a: International governmental
arrangement
 International governmental arrangement refers
to the involvement and organizations of
several governments in order to help each
other or stay associated to each other, e.g.-
a) Commonwealth of nations
b) League of nations
c) Alliance or entente

31. League of Nations (Countries: 1919-
1946)

32. Commonwealth of Nations
(Countries)

33. 5.b: Extra National Arrangement
 Extra National Arrangement refers to the
extensional activities apart from the
governmental alliance agreements or treaties
e.g.-
a) Colonies
b) Extra territorialities
c) Buffer states
d) Mandates and protectorates

34. 5.c: Project Activities
 Project activities refer to the agreements of
mutual actions in order to associate or not
associate, to begin war or not to begin, to
maintain peace or not to, to allow trade or not
to etc. Such as-
a) Peace plans
b) War strategies
c) Trade programmes

35. THANK YOU