Living with Nature
Published on 1. August 1999
Book
Hardback
283 pages
978-0-19-829226-5 (ISBN)
Description
Despite the optimism of the "Earth Summit" held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the politics of environmental sustainable development has reached an impasse. Why do issues of environmental protection continue to take a back seat to economic competition, particularly in the international realm? Once the environmental problem was widely recognised, it was held that consensus could be reached. In practice, however, the development of sustainability had often continued to merely extend earlier technocratic practices and solutions, which fail to take into consideration the specific cultural questions. This text seeks to place the question of the dynamics of environmental crisis within a socio-cultural dimension of the existing economic and political institutions. It argues for a need to find a new balance between a theoretical analysis of the debate and an appreciation of local circumstances, norms and knowledge. Politically, it implies an implicit understanding of the way in which we live together with nature.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Illustrations
ISBN-13
978-0-19-829226-5 (9780198292265)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Part I The cultural construction fo the natural environment: sustainable development and the crisis of nature - on the political anatomy of an oxymoron, Wolfgang Sachs; the North as/and the other - ecology, domination, solidarity, Yrjo Haila; nature in spiritual traditions - social and cultural implications for environmental change, Carolyn Egri. Part II Discourse in environmental policy and expertise: engineering the environment - the politics of nature development, Josef Keulartz; eco-managerialism - environmental studies as a power/knowledge formation, Timothy Luke; mapping complex socio-natural relationships - cases from Mexico and Africa, Peter Taylor; security and solidarity - toward an anti-reductionist framework for the analysis of environmental policy, Michael Thompson. Part III Environmental politics and cultural difference: the environment of justice, David Harvey; images of place in green politics - the cultural mirror of indigenous traditions, Douglas Torgerson; partnership ethics and cultural discourse - women and the earth summit, Carolyn Merchant.