Thinking Through the Environment
Green Approaches to Global History
Published on 15. August 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
314 pages
978-1-874267-71-3 (ISBN)
Description
Thinking through the Environment: Green Approaches to Global History is a collection offering global perspectives on the intersections of mind and environment across a variety of discourses - from history and politics to the visual arts and architecture. Its geographical coverage extends to locations in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. A primary aim of the volume is, through the presentation of research cases, to gather an appropriate methodological arsenal for the study of environmental history. Among its concerns are interdisciplinarity, eco-biography, the relationship of political and environmental history and culturally varied interpretations and appreciations of space - from Bangladesh to the Australian outback. The approaches of the indigenous peoples of Lapland, Mount Kilimanjaro and elsewhere to their environments are scrutinised in several chapters.
Balancing survival - both in terms of resource exploitation and of response to natural catastrophes - and environmental protection is shown to be an issue for more and less developed societies, as illustrated by chapters on Sami reindeer herding, Sudanese cattle husbandry and flooding and water resource-use in several parts of Europe. As the title suggests, the volume exposes the lenses - tinted by culture and history - through which humans consider environments; and also foregrounds the importance of rigor- ous 'thinking through' of the lessons of environmental history and the challenges of the environmental future.
Balancing survival - both in terms of resource exploitation and of response to natural catastrophes - and environmental protection is shown to be an issue for more and less developed societies, as illustrated by chapters on Sami reindeer herding, Sudanese cattle husbandry and flooding and water resource-use in several parts of Europe. As the title suggests, the volume exposes the lenses - tinted by culture and history - through which humans consider environments; and also foregrounds the importance of rigor- ous 'thinking through' of the lessons of environmental history and the challenges of the environmental future.
Reviews / Votes
'the book is highly recommended not only for all environmental historians >but also to other historians. The book offers fresh perspectives on history >in general and, above all, it provides evaluations of common methodological >tools and their application in environmental history that have often and >loudly been requested.' (Petri Juuti, Ymparistohistoria, Finnish Journal of >Environmental History) >'interest over a broad spectrum of themes' (Douglas Weiner, Environmental >History) >' its variety is deliberate and intriguing' (Richard Tucker, Environment and >History)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Knapwell
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
black & white illustrations; black & white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
512 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-874267-71-3 (9781874267713)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Timo Myllyntaus is Professor of Finnish history at the University of Turku, Finland. His articles on environmental history deal with forest, water and climate history as well Finnish historiography. He co-edited Encountering the Past in Nature, Essays in Environmental History (2001) and the anthology Pathbreakers, Small European Countries Responding to Glo- balisation and De-globalisation (2008). He is the Board member of the European Society for Environmental History and chairs the local organising committee of ESEH's 2011 conference in Turku.
Content
Preface, Timo Myllyntaus TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I. Approaching the Environment of the Past Chapter 1, Fiona Watson Interdisciplinarity as Disciplinary Co-operation: A Plea for the Future of Environmental History Chapter 2, Donald Worster Biography and Environmental History Chapter 3, Frank Uekoetter The Nazis and the Environment - a Relevant Topic? Part II. Cultural Perceptions of Landscapes Chapter 4, Dilshad Rahat Ara The Space of a Dwelling - the Temporal Boundaries of Vernacular Architecture in the Chittagong Hills, Bangladesh Chapter 5, Libby Robin Art and Environmental History: Perceptions of Place and Deep Time in the Australian Desert Chapter 6, Anu Eskonheimo Desertification - A Significant Problem? Diverse Environmental Literacy in the North Kordofan Area of Sudan Chapter 7, Timothy Clack Thinking Through Memoryscapes: Symbolic Environmental Potency on Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania Chapter 8, Leena Rossi Oral History and Individual Environmental Experiences Part III. Indigenous Peoples and the Pressures of Modernisation Chapter 9, Helena Ruotsala Ancestors' Wisdom or Desktop Reindeer Management? The Role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Contemporary Reindeer Herding Chapter 10, Jukka Nyyssonen Identity Politics and the Alliance Building between the Sami Parliament and Conservationists in the Kessi Forest Dispute Part IV. Managing Flood Catastrophes Chapter 11, Jochen Seidel, Paul Dostal, Katrin Burger, Florian Imbery and Mariano Barriendos Analysis and Reconstruction of the Flood Catastrophe along the River Neckar (SW-Germany) in October 1824 Chapter 12, Guido Poliwoda Times of Flood - Times of Favour. Disaster Management and the Social Response to Catastroph- ic Floods: the Example of Saxony (1784-1845) Part V. Remoulding Rivers, Reshaping Societies Chapter 13, Erik Tornlund From Natural to Modified Rivers and Back? Timber Floating in Northern Sweden in 1850-1980 and the Use of Historical Knowledge in Today's Ecological Stream Restoration Chapter 14, Viktor Pal To Act or Not to Act: Water Problems in North-east Hungary after 1945