According to the central premise of Political Ecology, environmental use and change are politicized as well as expressions and consequences of political conflicts and power relations. Central to our understanding of political ecology is the critique of the positivistic understanding of nature and resources in favor of a constructivist and poststructural view on natural resources understood as socionatures, as well as a methodological pluralism focusing on qualitative empirical research methods and the consideration of the historical dimension. The specific research focuses on actors of different scale levels, their interests and options for action, as well as on the influence of dominant discourses and the marginalization of social groups and spaces.