Abstract

This study explores how social media analytics (SMA) advances political ecology (PE) through a case study on Polish discourse around waste-to-energy facilities (March 2020–June 2023). Using a social media listening platform (SMLP) for sentiment analysis, geoparsing, keyword frequency analysis, and online reach estimation, SMA provides a big-data-driven framework for examining environmental conflicts and discursive power in the digital sphere. The Polish case shows SMA's ability to tackle PE methodological challenges, including dependence on static datasets, researcher bias, and the complexity of analyzing diverse online data sources. However, its application must be approached critically. The article highlights both its strengths—such as amplifying varied voices across the entire digital domain and enabling real-time analysis of evolving discourse—and its weaknesses, including ethical, environmental, and analytical concerns. Overcoming these obstacles requires a sustainable, collaborative approach that integrates SMA with qualitative methods to provide contextual depth and validate findings. This integration can unlock SMA's game-changing potential for PE.

Keywords: social media, big data, political ecology, environmental conflict, online activism, waste, Poland, social media analytics, incinerator

How to Cite:

Kalaska, M., (2025) “Harnessing social media analytics for political ecology: Polish digital discourse on waste incinerators”, Journal of Political Ecology 32(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.6031