Abstract

Critique is integral to political ecology scholarship: its diagnostic power, combined with its ability to adapt and evolve, has long positioned the field to generate critically informed theories that illuminate the political forces shaping contemporary and rapidly changing socionatural challenges. Yet, the hegemonic epistemological role that critique has come to occupy both within political ecology and in academia more broadly, have long been under scrutiny, raising important debates about its explanatory limits and its reparative or imaginative potential. In response to these debates, I explore the potential of a political ecology that approaches socionatures more experimentally and speculatively, particularly in relation to ongoing struggles for and over climate justice in the city. I begin by examining different strands of scholarship that have problematised critique and make a case for approaching nature–society relations more experimentally and creatively. I then discuss emerging approaches in political ecology that already gesture toward experimentation and speculation. Finally, I present two experiments developed collaboratively developed by a team of hydrologists, climatologists, and political ecologists. These experiments illustrate one – among many possible – ways in which critique can be mobilised not only to diagnose contemporary and past socio-natures, but also to explore and reimagine urban futures.