Power, Development and Environment: An Introduction

This special issue of TES is the fruit of an initiative taken by a number of Ph.D. students at Roskilde University working with issues concerning the environment and development. Although coming from different academic backgrounds and being engaged in a variety of research topics, their work had taken them to the point where they felt that the concept of power had to be part of their analysis if they were to really understand what was going on – a problem they all needed to deal with in their practical work. A Ph.D. training course was then organised in Nexoe on the Danish Island of Bornholm in June 2004 with presentations and discussions of concepts, theories and methodological aspects of power and empowerment in relation to development and environment. The idea was to give some hands-on analytical frameworks and methodological handles through which they could capture the power relations imbedded in their respective research problems. Selected presentations from lecturers and participants were subsequently worked into the five articles, which have been published in this issue of TES.