Contribution short abstract

I offer 7 lessons on positionality and decoloniality in political ecology, as a Western teacher, curator at the Journal of Political Ecology, and supporter of research and students over 3 decades. Practicing PE involves ethical commitment, not just research inputs and outputs.

Contribution long abstract

Decolonised storytelling in political ecology (PE) means learning from personal biographies. My 'positionality' as a relatively privileged British PE with a stable job, even one committed to engaged scholarship [https://nordia.journal.fi/article/view/79938], may seem irrelevant. But insights of more general interest include 1. Passions and bad life experiences can guide material actions and scholarly contributions. 2. PE is radical but it takes different forms, informed by conjunctures (Clark University, and postcolonial Burkina Faso for me). 3. Scholars can actually engage with policy and international development, while maintaining integrity. 4. Refusing academic norms in universities is vital (especially scholar arrogance, 'large grant capture' focus, avoiding teaching, and attacks on critical programs). 5. Publication is an Achilles heel of PE. Capitalist firms don't deserve our support, or our articles. 6. Supporting rights and justice is pluriversal and vital (for me supporting students, Kanak peoples in New Caledonia, environment, and local refugees & asylum seekers). 7. Life stages, and health, alter PE commitments and contributions significantly. PE has transgressed Western origins, and Western practitioner stories like mine will lose their importance. But personal responsibility includes acts of curation (now 950 articles edited for the JPE), prioritizing the work of others, and teaching, among a multitude of contributions and career options. Most importantly, while doing PE we should all hold authority and corporate actors to account, in/outside universities, and promote good values and behaviour. I conclude with observations on embodied values in current work with refugees and asylum seekers which is practical, and sometimes scholarly.