“[W]e need much subtler tools for distinguishing a range of human
impacts on natural systems, some negative, some neutral, some positive,
all judged by values that cannot help but be anthropogenic even as we
strive to make them less anthropocentric.”
Cronon, W. 2000. "Resisting monoliths and tabulae rasae" Ecological
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"We cannot afford to see people as opponents—especially not those
who oppose us. The conservation community can't afford to draw lines in
the sand. Seeing people as enemies distorts them into something both
bigger and smaller than they really are. We must embrace our enemies,
look into their eyes long enough to see ourselves. Then we can begin
talking. Some people make this easy; others, difficult. Some of those
who make it difficult are on our side. The barriers have to go. In a
world of hurt and need, what choice is there?"
W.J. and C. Safina. 2004
Page 36 in "Lunch with a Turtle Poacher" Conservation
in Practice Fall:
In addition to core courses in
environmental studies, my teaching focuses on the social-ecological
dimensions of environmental change and management. A key feature of
several of the "synthesis courses" I teach is the mix of
interdisciplinary literature and project-based, experiential
- ENV 100 - Introduction
to Environmental Studies
- ENV 332 -
Globalization and the Environment
- ENV 338 - Forests and
- ENV 342 - Urbanization
and the Environment (Project focus)
- ENV 366 - Ecological
Change in Historical Perspective (Project focus)
- ENV 368 - Political
- ENV 454W -
Sustainability in Urbanizing Watersheds (Capstone,
My research examines the implications that
in politics, land-use, and landcover associated with
urbanization have for natural resource-based livelihoods
(practices), conservation efforts, and environmental governance.
My research draws on diverse theoretical threads within
environmental geography and the subfield of political ecology. I
on a mixture of ethnographic and GIS methods. Findings
have implications for land-use policy and planning, biodiversity
conservation practice, and
urban forest and greenspace management.
Currently, I am working on several collaborative projects that
NonTimber Forest Product
foraging practices in urbanized and urbanizing environments in the
Philadelphia Metropolitan area as well as beyond (in
New York City
Dr. Marla Emery (U.S. Forest Service) as well as in Seattle with
Dr. Rebecca McLain, IFCAE, and Dr. Melissa Poe);
Exurbanization and land conservation in southeastern Pennsylvania;
The role that amenity migrants play in shaping land-use and
conservation in the Kaz Dağı (Ida Mountains) region of western
Turkey (with Dr. Yılmaz Arı of the University of Balikesir);
consequences of urbanization for sweetgrass basket-making
communities in the greater Mt. Pleasant area of South Carolina.
In the past, I have examined the politics of planning in
California's Sierra Nevada
(Hurley and Walker 2004) as well as
the ways that peoples' visions about appropriate land-use shape
planning practices in the State of Oregon's much celebrated
statewide planning system (Walker and Hurley 2010). I am drawn
particularly to case studies where amenity migration shapes both
uses of the environment and the places that are either developed
Students are active participants in my research,
including working on
suburban foraging and NonTimber Forest
Product management in
the Philadelphia Metropolitan area. Students are also actively engaged
in examinations of exurban Philadelphia as well as occasional
documentation of the historical geography and emergent social dynamics of urban
greening in West Philadelphia.
Hurley, P., M.
Emery, R. McLain, M. Poe, B. Grabbatin, and C. Goetcheus.
Forthcoming. Whose urban forest? The political ecology of
gathering urban Non Timber Forest Products (uNTFPs). In
Sustainability in the Global City. Isenhour, C., M. Checker,
and G. McDonogh (editors). Cambridge University Press.
Poe, M., J.
LeCompte, R. McLain, and P. Hurley. 2014. Urban foraging and
the relational ecologies of belonging. Social & Cultural
McLain, M., P.
Hurley, M. Emery, and M. Poe. 2014.
Gathering "wild" food in the city: Rethinking the role of
urban foraging in urban ecosystem planning and management.
Local Environment 19 (2): 220-240
Poe, M., R.
McLain, M. Emery, and P.T. Hurley. 2013.
justice and the rights to wild foods, medicines, and
materials in the city. Human Ecology 41: 409-422.
2012. Whose 'sense of place': A political ecology of amenity
development in Central Oregon. In Place-based
conservation: Perspectives from the social sciences.
Stewart, W., D. Williams, and L. Kruger (Editors). Springer.
Hurley, P.T., B.
Grabbatin, A. Halfacre, and C. Goetcheus. 2012.
Gathering, Buying, and Growing grass:
Urbanization and Social Networking
in the Sweetgrass Basket-Making Industry of
Lowcountry South Carolina. In African Ethnobotany in
the Americas, Robert Voeks and John Rashford (editors). Pp.
153-174. New York: Springer Publishers
2011. Mining (Dis)Amenity: The political ecology of mining
opposition in the Ida Mountain region of western Turkey.
Development and Change. 42(6): 1393-1415.
- B. Grabbatin, P.
Hurley, and A. Halfacre. 2011. "I still have the old
tradition": The co-production of sweetgrass basketry and
coastal development. Geoforum 42: 638-649
- P.A. Walker and
P.T. Hurley. 2011.
Planning paradise: Politics and visioning of Land Use in
Oregon. University of Arizona Press: Tucson, AZ.
A. Halfacre. 2011. Dodging alligators, rattlesnakes, and
backyard docks: A political ecology of sweetgrass
basket-making and conservation in the South Carolina
Lowcountry, USA. GeoJournal 76(4):
Hurley, P.T. and
E. Carr. 2010. Introduction:
Why a Political Ecology of the US South? Southeastern
Presentations (Including Student Presentations)
Maccaroni, M.* and P. Hurley. "Exurban
Forest Metabolism? A Political Ecology of Material
Landscape Transformations in Southeastern, PA
Annual Meetings of the Association
of American Geographers in Tampa Bay, FL. April, 2014.
Dzuna*, M. Emery, L. Brody*, A. Schwemin*, and B.
Satmary*. “Hidden resources, illegal harvests: 'Wild’
plant gathering and the role of parks and protected
areas in the Philadelphia, PA Metro Area”
Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference, University
of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, March 2014.
Hurley, P. "Engaging
Urban Greening: The Role of Student-Led Oral History in
Assessing the Success of Urban Tree Connection in the
Haddington Neighborhood of West Philadelphia"
Annual Meetings of the Association for Environmental
Studies and Sciences, Burlington, VT, June 2011.
Dombay, M.* and P. Hurley. "Analysis of Suburban Forest
Species Composition in Land-Use Policies in Montgomery
County, PA" Poster at the Annual Meetings of the
Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences,
Burlington, VT, June 2011.
M.* and P. Hurley. "Suburban NTFP Gathering in the
Philadelphia Metropolitan Area" Poster at the Annual
Meetings of the Association for Environmental Studies
and Sciences, Burlington, VT, June 2011.
Brody, L.* and P. Hurley.
“Gathering in the Neighborhood: NTFPs in the suburbs of
Philadelphia.” Annual Meetings of the Association of
American Geographers in Washington, DC. April, 2010.