This paper examines the framework of political ecology, which has been developed mainly by geographers since the 1980s. In particular, this paper focuses on scale discussions since the 2000s, as a new approach in political ecology. When tracing its history, the political ecology of the 1980s followed an approach linking ecology and political economy, based on a critical examination of cultural ecology, ecological anthropology, and neo-Malthusianism. In the 1990s, researchers began applying social theory of post-structural perspectives to political ecology, expanding the discussion to include such themes as discourse of environmental and developmental issues and gender studies. Since the 2000s, ecological approaches have regained prominence in political ecology, and research focusing on the scale concept has emerged in conjunction with this trend. In particular, discussion of scale in political ecology focuses on the interaction between the “ecological scale,” based on natural environmental conditions such as soil, topography, or vegetation, and the socially and politically produced scale. In the future, it is necessary to construct and develop a scale theory unique to political ecology, with reference to scale discussions in ecology and geography, based on empirical research of scale problems in resource management and environmental governance.