Imperial Ecologies

new formations 69 offers a timely and urgent set of contributions towards the development of what is 'political ecology'. Despite a history of sporadic engagements, cultural theory and cultural studies has rarely dealt thoroughly with ecological issues, tending to retreat into its habitual scepticism regarding anything that might smell of naturalism. The fact that ecological questions frame all of the urgent political debates of our epoch, as well as animating some of the most dynamic areas of critical thought, surely means that this situation cannot continue. As we see from this collection, it is only through a radical interdisciplinarity which can accommodate insights from geography, economics, cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy and the natural sciences that the questions our current predicaments pose can be properly addressed; and it is precisely the remit of new formations to make just such engagements possible.