Takeshi Ito – Worldviews, values and the political ecology of disasters

I am a political ecologist trained in politics and political economy, with broad interests in agrarian and environmental change. What motivaes my work is a desire to holistically understand how complex and dynamic social-ecological interactions shape human well-being and environmental integrity. By employing a multidisciplinary perspective, I explore the uneven ways in which human systems including power, knowledge, and values shape social-ecological interactions and their outcomes.  

Teaching is a central part of my academic life. Much of what motivates me in the classroom comes from conversations with students about the futures they imagine and the futures they may inherit. These discussions unfold against the backdrop of biodiversity loss, climate change, and ongoing geopolitical tensions, and they raise difficult but necessary questions for me as an educator. How can we encourage students to pay attention to urgent issues unfolding beyond the classroom? How can college education offer forms of knowledge that remain meaningful throughout life, not only during one’s time at college? I believe that cultivating curiosity, reflection, and imagination is just as important as conveying content. Creating learning spaces where students can uncover overlooked connections between humanity and nature—and rethink how meaningful lives are both shaped by and shape humanity-nature relations—has become a guiding principle in my teaching.

At present, I am working with colleagues on a transdisciplinary research project entitled “A World Ecology of Disasters in Development in East Asia: Integrating Values into Decision-Making by Shifting Worldviews.” This project seeks to reduce the impact of disasters through rethinking development that would integrate multiple values into policies and governance of development, environment, and disasters through shifting knowledge systems, worldviews and values on humanity-in-nature relations. A key premise of our research is that how we conceptualize the world structure political responses. Shifting worldviews and values are thus central to policy change. It is important to move from anthropocentric, linear, and narrowly technical approaches that often obscure the deeper social and ecological causes of disasters to holistic, transdisciplinary, and pluricentric approaches that recognize and integrate diverse values of nature into decision-making.

In East Asia, where I do research and teach, interest in political ecology has been growing, especially because of its emphasis on justice and sustainability. Yet, the field remains underrepresented in many academic settings. In Japan, for example, opportunities to study political ecology at the undergraduate and graduate levels are still limited, and many students and researchers struggle to find intellectual spaces that take seriously the political dimensions of nature. POLLEN can be an important platform for cultivating dialogue, collaboration, and mutual learning for those based in the region, and I look forward to contributing to and learning from this community.