since the early 1990 s. It reXects a body of work poised to emerge from the
shadows of the non-discipline of political theory, 7 and it oVers reason for
conWdence in Dobson’s earlier speculation that meaningful new contribu-
tions could be made to each of these three forms of inquiry. At the same time,
however, this framework reveals relatively little about thecontentof recent
environmental political theory; about its distinctive and emerging concerns,
challenges, or characteristic topics of debate. Any attempt to identify such a
distinctive set of concerns will be inherently more controversial and incom-
plete than Dobson’s framework could be; yet it is to this task that I now turn.
4 Substantive Categories
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There are three nexuses of concern within which much recent work in
environmental political theory can be understood to have emerged. The
Wrst of these surrounds the question and meaning of ‘‘nature.’’ The second
explores the relationship between apparently politically dominant concep-
tions of ‘‘liberalism’’ or ‘‘liberal democracy’’ and environmental advocacy.
The third identiWes—and seeks to remedy—a gulf between theory and the
practices of environmental activists and policy-makers. By exploring each of
these, we can also begin to develop a sense of the possibilities and anxieties
that aZict environmental political theory today.
The contested meaning of nature has been of concern to a far greater array
of academics and activists, of course, than just environmental political
theorists; it is tied to questions of ontology and epistemology, and has been
central to discourse about postmodernism. In fact, the particular concern of
environmental political theory seems to be both a bit broader and narrower
than this. It is narrower in the sense that the debate about nature is central to
the extent that it is focused on whether claims to know nature can provide a
basis for political authority. It is a bit broader in the sense that this attention
to the link between nature and political authority is an exemplar of a
contested claim that environmental features can—in some form—serve as a
7 Thanks to Harlan Wilson for this characterization.780 john m. meyer