Malcom Ferdinand is an environmental engineer from University College London and doctor in political philosophy from Université Paris Diderot. He is currently a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (IRISSO/University Paris Dauphine) whose work intersects political philosophy, postcolonial theory and political ecology, with a focus on the Black Atlantic and the Caribbean in particular. In this Recently Published Book Spotlight, Ferdinand discusses his new book Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World, the need to unite demands for environmental protection and social equality, and his motivation for writing the book.
What is your work about?
My work provides a new understanding of the contemporary state of ecological destruction of the world. I do so both on an empirical level by conducting sociological and political science studies on contemporary conflicts in the Caribbean, and on a theoretical level, unearthing a different genealogy of environmental thought, one that encompasses the voices and experiences of the (formerly) colonized and enslaved. The result is a proposition to join together demands for ecological preservation of the world and demands for gender and postcolonial equality.
How do you relate your work to other well-known philosophies?
My work is in constant critical dialogue with classical environmental theories and ideas (including concepts like the Anthropocene, Gaia theories, or collapsology), but also in critical dialogue with postcolonial and decolonial thought, in an attempt to move beyond what I call the “double fracture of modernity”.
What do you mean by the “double fracture of modernity”? How does your work seek to move beyond this fracturing?
By double fracture of modernity, I want to point out a major divide not just in the way western modernity has been shaped, but also in the way modernity is understood. That double fracture is the combination of two fractures that are related, yet distinct. On the one hand, one finds the environmental fracture that imposes a hierarchy of Man—understood alternately as the Anthropos, society, and culture—above nature, the environment, the planetary ecosystem. On the other hand, one finds the colonial fracture that has separated the world and the way the Earth is inhabited into the binary of colonizer and colonized. So far, there still remains an overwhelming tendency to not engage holistically with these fractures. The one addresses politically, culturally, and scientifically the major environmental changes to the Earth while dismissing the voices, concerns, and experiences of the formerly colonized. The other engages with postcolonial and decolonial praxis while not structurally confronting the environmental crises.
My project, through both conceptual work and storytelling, attempts to go beyond this double fracture by tackling both the environmental and colonial fractures. This is the meaning of “decolonial ecology.” Hopefully, at the end of the book, the reader will see that ecology must be decolonial—otherwise it becomes just a depolitizing environmentalism. And vice versa, decolonial praxis must be ecologically minded for it to be truly a world-making praxis.
Why did you feel the need to write this work?
I felt the need to write this book because I believe that all voices matter. Unfortunately, there are many people whose contributions, concerns, and voices are not heard within environmentalist discourse and action. In particular, Indigenous peoples, racialized people, and women are seldom heard. Beyond tokenism, I wanted to show that there are more politically comprehensive ways of tacking the ecological crisis, ways that are more conducive to world-making.
How have readers responded?
Readers have, for the most part, welcomed this book. The very concept of “decolonial ecology” has started to have a life of its own, and has been taken up in other books, and even had an effect on the language of the streets. Movements in France now have banners branding the term. It is a testimony to the need for such work that brings together ecological concern and the demand for gender and postcolonial equality.
What advice do you have for others seeking to produce such a work?
I followed the advice of Toni Morrison: If there is book that you are looking for and you can’t find it, you have to write it. Of course, there will always be people that do not agree, or that do not think that your work is of any value. Disregard these comments, for there are so many celebrated historical works today that were heavily criticized in their times. It is just a part of the task. Just keep on pushing.
What else would you like to do with your research, if you could do anything?
I want my research to contribute to a transformation of the world, toward more just and ecologically-minded societies. Of course, this involves breaking down a few barriers, stepping out of the relative comfort of the university classroom, and engaging directly with a plurality of groups within societies.
Malcom Ferdinand
Born and raised in Martinique, Malcom Ferdinand is an environmental engineer from University College London and doctor in political philosophy from Université Paris Diderot. He is now a researcher at the CNRS (IRISSO/University Paris Dauphine). At the crossroad of political philosophy, postcolonial theory and political ecology, his research focuses on the Black Atlantic and particularly the Caribbean. He explores the relations between current ecological crises and the colonial history of modernity.
Maryellen Stohlman-Vanderveen is the APA Blog's Diversity and Inclusion Editor and Research Editor. She graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy in 2023 and currently works in strategic communications. Her philosophical interests include conceptual engineering, normative ethics, philosophy of technology, and how to live a good life.
