@phdthesis{01K6A4DVH2Y25Q6DGZ8CRAB7HH,
  abstract     = {{This dissertation examines how political ontology (PO) can deepen our understanding of socio-environmental conflict and inform the development of more equitable and effective environmental policies. In the face of an escalating environmental crisis, many existing policies fail to address the root causes of the crisis and often generate new forms of conflict. By analyzing the world-making politics embedded in EU environmental policy and socio-environmental conflicts in Sumapaz, Colombia, this dissertation explores how PO offers crucial insights for rethinking environmental governance. The research draws on a dialogue between PO, Henri Lefebvre’s work on the production of space, and Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory to enrich PO’s theoretical framework and address its main critiques. The dissertation consists of four articles: the first develops the theoretical dialogue between PO and Lefebvre’s work, while the subsequent three apply a PO perspective to empirical cases. The second article analyzes the EU’s ontology in environmental policy through the expression of ideas, while the fourth article studies it through analyzing practices in two cases—the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and the Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Insights for this shift are grounded in the third article, which examines campesino resistance to green grabbing policies in Sumapaz, Colombia, using political ethnography. This dissertation contributes to the theoretical, analytical, conceptual, and methodological advancement of a PO approach for examining environmental policy and the conflicts it generates. It also translates these insights into concrete policy recommendations for both EU and Colombian governance, aimed at fostering more equitable and context-sensitive environmental policies.}},
  author       = {{Lamers, Louise}},
  keywords     = {{Environmental policy, social movements, environmental justice, political ontology, Henri Lefebvre}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{300}},
  publisher    = {{Ghent University. Faculty of Political and Social Sciences}},
  school       = {{Ghent University}},
  title        = {{Conflicted worlds in contested places : environmental policy and resistance as ontological struggles in the European Union and Colombia}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}