Ecological Politics

Ecological Politics

Author: Greta Gaard

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 1998-05-11

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1566395704

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AN ILLUMINATING ACCOUNT OF TWO INTERCONNECTED SOCIAL MOVEMENTS FROM THEIR GRASSROOTS ORIGINS THROUGH THE 1996 GREEN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN Both ecofeminism and Green politics have played an important role in the radical environmental movement. As a theory and a movement bringing together feminism, environmentalism, socialism, and peace activism, ecofeminism began taking shape in the U.S. by 1980. Four years later, many ecofeminists participated in founding and developing the U.S. Green movement. Where are these movements today? A member of both movements, Greta Gaard bases her analysis on personal experience as well as extensive secondary sources and interviews with key theorists, activists, and speakers across the United States. She describes the paths -- environmental causes, the feminist peace movement, the feminist spirituality movement, the animal liberation movement, and the anti-toxics movement, as well as experiences of interconnectedness -- that have led women (and a few men) to articulate an ecofeminist perspective. The book illustrates the development of the Greens from a national movement into a political party and defines the factions -- the Left Greens, the Youth Greens, and the Green Politics Network -- that underlay the debates during Ralph Nader's 1996 presidential campaign. She sees the history of these three groups as stages in the transition from a leftist and sometimes anarchist focus to an emphasis on electoral political action that places the Green movement squarely within the pattern of other social movements around the world. Gaard's analysis illuminates the nature and direction of each of these important movements and the pressures and conflictsexperienced by all social movements at the end of the twentieth century.


Book Synopsis Ecological Politics by : Greta Gaard

Download or read book Ecological Politics written by Greta Gaard and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1998-05-11 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN ILLUMINATING ACCOUNT OF TWO INTERCONNECTED SOCIAL MOVEMENTS FROM THEIR GRASSROOTS ORIGINS THROUGH THE 1996 GREEN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN Both ecofeminism and Green politics have played an important role in the radical environmental movement. As a theory and a movement bringing together feminism, environmentalism, socialism, and peace activism, ecofeminism began taking shape in the U.S. by 1980. Four years later, many ecofeminists participated in founding and developing the U.S. Green movement. Where are these movements today? A member of both movements, Greta Gaard bases her analysis on personal experience as well as extensive secondary sources and interviews with key theorists, activists, and speakers across the United States. She describes the paths -- environmental causes, the feminist peace movement, the feminist spirituality movement, the animal liberation movement, and the anti-toxics movement, as well as experiences of interconnectedness -- that have led women (and a few men) to articulate an ecofeminist perspective. The book illustrates the development of the Greens from a national movement into a political party and defines the factions -- the Left Greens, the Youth Greens, and the Green Politics Network -- that underlay the debates during Ralph Nader's 1996 presidential campaign. She sees the history of these three groups as stages in the transition from a leftist and sometimes anarchist focus to an emphasis on electoral political action that places the Green movement squarely within the pattern of other social movements around the world. Gaard's analysis illuminates the nature and direction of each of these important movements and the pressures and conflictsexperienced by all social movements at the end of the twentieth century.


Ecological Politics and Democratic Theory

Ecological Politics and Democratic Theory

Author: Mathew Humphrey

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-09-12

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1134380429

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This volume examines the reasons why some despair at the prospects for an ecological form of democracy, and challenges the recent ‘deliberative turn’ in environmental political thought. Deliberative democracy has become popular for those seeking a reconciliation of these two forms of politics. Demand for equal access to a public forum in which the best argument will prevail appears to offer a way of incorporating environmental interests into the democratic process. This book argues that deliberative theory, far from being friendly to the environmental movement, shackles the ability those seeking radical change to make their voices heard in the most effective manner. Mathew Humphrey challenges beliefs about the relationship between ecological politics and democracy at a time when those who take direct action are being swept up in the War on Terror. By calling for a more open and contested form of democracy, in which the boundaries of what constitutes ‘acceptable’ behaviour are not decided in advance of actual debate, Ecological Politics and Democratic Theory is an original contribution to the literature on environmental politics, ecological thought and democracy.


Book Synopsis Ecological Politics and Democratic Theory by : Mathew Humphrey

Download or read book Ecological Politics and Democratic Theory written by Mathew Humphrey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-09-12 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the reasons why some despair at the prospects for an ecological form of democracy, and challenges the recent ‘deliberative turn’ in environmental political thought. Deliberative democracy has become popular for those seeking a reconciliation of these two forms of politics. Demand for equal access to a public forum in which the best argument will prevail appears to offer a way of incorporating environmental interests into the democratic process. This book argues that deliberative theory, far from being friendly to the environmental movement, shackles the ability those seeking radical change to make their voices heard in the most effective manner. Mathew Humphrey challenges beliefs about the relationship between ecological politics and democracy at a time when those who take direct action are being swept up in the War on Terror. By calling for a more open and contested form of democracy, in which the boundaries of what constitutes ‘acceptable’ behaviour are not decided in advance of actual debate, Ecological Politics and Democratic Theory is an original contribution to the literature on environmental politics, ecological thought and democracy.


Politics of Nature

Politics of Nature

Author: Bruno Latour

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0674039963

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A major work by one of the more innovative thinkers of our time, Politics of Nature does nothing less than establish the conceptual context for political ecology—transplanting the terms of ecology into more fertile philosophical soil than its proponents have thus far envisioned. Bruno Latour announces his project dramatically: “Political ecology has nothing whatsoever to do with nature, this jumble of Greek philosophy, French Cartesianism and American parks.” Nature, he asserts, far from being an obvious domain of reality, is a way of assembling political order without due process. Thus, his book proposes an end to the old dichotomy between nature and society—and the constitution, in its place, of a collective, a community incorporating humans and nonhumans and building on the experiences of the sciences as they are actually practiced. In a critique of the distinction between fact and value, Latour suggests a redescription of the type of political philosophy implicated in such a “commonsense” division—which here reveals itself as distinctly uncommonsensical and in fact fatal to democracy and to a healthy development of the sciences. Moving beyond the modernist institutions of “mononaturalism” and “multiculturalism,” Latour develops the idea of “multinaturalism,” a complex collectivity determined not by outside experts claiming absolute reason but by “diplomats” who are flexible and open to experimentation.


Book Synopsis Politics of Nature by : Bruno Latour

Download or read book Politics of Nature written by Bruno Latour and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major work by one of the more innovative thinkers of our time, Politics of Nature does nothing less than establish the conceptual context for political ecology—transplanting the terms of ecology into more fertile philosophical soil than its proponents have thus far envisioned. Bruno Latour announces his project dramatically: “Political ecology has nothing whatsoever to do with nature, this jumble of Greek philosophy, French Cartesianism and American parks.” Nature, he asserts, far from being an obvious domain of reality, is a way of assembling political order without due process. Thus, his book proposes an end to the old dichotomy between nature and society—and the constitution, in its place, of a collective, a community incorporating humans and nonhumans and building on the experiences of the sciences as they are actually practiced. In a critique of the distinction between fact and value, Latour suggests a redescription of the type of political philosophy implicated in such a “commonsense” division—which here reveals itself as distinctly uncommonsensical and in fact fatal to democracy and to a healthy development of the sciences. Moving beyond the modernist institutions of “mononaturalism” and “multiculturalism,” Latour develops the idea of “multinaturalism,” a complex collectivity determined not by outside experts claiming absolute reason but by “diplomats” who are flexible and open to experimentation.


Environmental Politics in the Middle East

Environmental Politics in the Middle East

Author: Harry Verhoeven

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2018-11

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0190916680

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This book investigates how ecology and politics meet in the Middle East and how those interactions connect to the global political economy. Through region-wide analyses and case studies from the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf of Aden, the Levant and North Africa, the volume highlights the intimate connections of environmental activism, energy infrastructure and illicit commodity trading with the political economies of Central Asia, the Horn of Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The book's nine chapters analyze how the exploitation and representation of the environment have shaped the history of the region--and determined its place in global politics. It argues that how the ecological is understood, instrumentalized and intervened upon is the product of political struggle: deconstructing ideas and practices of environmental change means unravelling claims of authority and legitimacy. This is particularly important in a region frequently seen through the prism of environmental determinism, where ruling elites have imposed authoritarian control as the corollary of 'environmental crisis'. This unique and urgent collection will question much of what we think we know about this pressing issue.


Book Synopsis Environmental Politics in the Middle East by : Harry Verhoeven

Download or read book Environmental Politics in the Middle East written by Harry Verhoeven and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2018-11 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates how ecology and politics meet in the Middle East and how those interactions connect to the global political economy. Through region-wide analyses and case studies from the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf of Aden, the Levant and North Africa, the volume highlights the intimate connections of environmental activism, energy infrastructure and illicit commodity trading with the political economies of Central Asia, the Horn of Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The book's nine chapters analyze how the exploitation and representation of the environment have shaped the history of the region--and determined its place in global politics. It argues that how the ecological is understood, instrumentalized and intervened upon is the product of political struggle: deconstructing ideas and practices of environmental change means unravelling claims of authority and legitimacy. This is particularly important in a region frequently seen through the prism of environmental determinism, where ruling elites have imposed authoritarian control as the corollary of 'environmental crisis'. This unique and urgent collection will question much of what we think we know about this pressing issue.


Critical Environmental Politics

Critical Environmental Politics

Author: Carl Death

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-04

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1134684061

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The aim of this book is to review central concepts in the study of environmental politics and to open up new questions, problems, and research agendas in the field. The volume does so by drawing on a wide range of approaches from critical theory to poststructuralism, and spanning disciplines including international relations, geography, sociology, history, philosophy, anthropology, and political science. The 28 chapters cover a range of global and local studies, illustrations and cases. These range from the Cochabamba conference in Bolivia to climate camps in the UK; UN summits in Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg to climate migrants from Pacific islands; forests in Indonesia to Dutch energy governance reform; indigenous communities in Namibia to oil extraction in the Niger Delta; survivalist militias in the USA to Maasai tribesmen in Kenya. Rather than following a regional or issue-based (e.g. water, forests, pollution, etc) structure, the volume is organised in terms of key concepts in the field, including those which have been central to the social sciences for a long time (such as citizenship, commodification, consumption, feminism, justice, movements, science, security, the state, summits, and technology); those which have been at the heart of environmental politics for many years (including biodiversity, climate change, conservation, eco-centrism, limits, localism, resources, sacrifice, and sustainability); and many which have been introduced to these literatures and debates more recently (biopolitics, governance, governmentality, hybridity, posthumanism, risk, and vulnerability). Features and benefits of the book: Explains the most important concepts and theories in environmental politics. Reviews the core ideas behind crucial debates in environmental politics. Highlights the key thinkers – both classic and contemporary – for studying environmental politics. Provides original perspectives on the critical potential of the concepts for future research agendas as well as for the practice of environmental politics. Each chapter is written by leading international authors in their field. This exciting new volume will be essential textbook reading for all students of environmental politics, as well as provocatively presenting the field in a different light for more established researchers.


Book Synopsis Critical Environmental Politics by : Carl Death

Download or read book Critical Environmental Politics written by Carl Death and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to review central concepts in the study of environmental politics and to open up new questions, problems, and research agendas in the field. The volume does so by drawing on a wide range of approaches from critical theory to poststructuralism, and spanning disciplines including international relations, geography, sociology, history, philosophy, anthropology, and political science. The 28 chapters cover a range of global and local studies, illustrations and cases. These range from the Cochabamba conference in Bolivia to climate camps in the UK; UN summits in Rio de Janeiro and Johannesburg to climate migrants from Pacific islands; forests in Indonesia to Dutch energy governance reform; indigenous communities in Namibia to oil extraction in the Niger Delta; survivalist militias in the USA to Maasai tribesmen in Kenya. Rather than following a regional or issue-based (e.g. water, forests, pollution, etc) structure, the volume is organised in terms of key concepts in the field, including those which have been central to the social sciences for a long time (such as citizenship, commodification, consumption, feminism, justice, movements, science, security, the state, summits, and technology); those which have been at the heart of environmental politics for many years (including biodiversity, climate change, conservation, eco-centrism, limits, localism, resources, sacrifice, and sustainability); and many which have been introduced to these literatures and debates more recently (biopolitics, governance, governmentality, hybridity, posthumanism, risk, and vulnerability). Features and benefits of the book: Explains the most important concepts and theories in environmental politics. Reviews the core ideas behind crucial debates in environmental politics. Highlights the key thinkers – both classic and contemporary – for studying environmental politics. Provides original perspectives on the critical potential of the concepts for future research agendas as well as for the practice of environmental politics. Each chapter is written by leading international authors in their field. This exciting new volume will be essential textbook reading for all students of environmental politics, as well as provocatively presenting the field in a different light for more established researchers.


The Meaning of Environmental Security

The Meaning of Environmental Security

Author: Jon Barnett

Publisher: Zed Books

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9781856497862

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Jon Barnett takes on the military-industrial interests of those in the establishment to reveal how ordinary human beings must have a safe environment in which security is subordinate to care of the planet and its delicate ecosystems.


Book Synopsis The Meaning of Environmental Security by : Jon Barnett

Download or read book The Meaning of Environmental Security written by Jon Barnett and published by Zed Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jon Barnett takes on the military-industrial interests of those in the establishment to reveal how ordinary human beings must have a safe environment in which security is subordinate to care of the planet and its delicate ecosystems.


Deliberative Environmental Politics

Deliberative Environmental Politics

Author: Walter F. Baber

Publisher: Mit Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13:

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Linking theory and practice, this book explores the potential of deliberative democracy to produce more effective environmental policy.


Book Synopsis Deliberative Environmental Politics by : Walter F. Baber

Download or read book Deliberative Environmental Politics written by Walter F. Baber and published by Mit Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Linking theory and practice, this book explores the potential of deliberative democracy to produce more effective environmental policy.


The Politics of Environmental Discourse

The Politics of Environmental Discourse

Author: Maarten A. Hajer

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Published: 1995-12-14

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 019152106X

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Dr Hajer's path-breaking study opens the way for a better understanding of the environmental conflict, showing how language can be seen to shape our view of what environmental politics is really about and how those perceptions can differ between countries. The author identifies the emergence and increasing political importance of 'ecological modernization' as a new concept in the language of environmental politics. This concept, which has come to replace the antagonistic debates of the 1970s, stresses the opportunities of environmental policy for modernizing the economy and stimulating the technological innovation. Combining abstract social theory with detailed empirical analysis, Martin Hajer illustrates the social and political dynamics of ecological modernization in a detailed analysis of the acid rain controversies in Great Britain and the Netherlands. He concludes by reflecting on the institutional challenge of the environmental politics in the years to come.


Book Synopsis The Politics of Environmental Discourse by : Maarten A. Hajer

Download or read book The Politics of Environmental Discourse written by Maarten A. Hajer and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1995-12-14 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr Hajer's path-breaking study opens the way for a better understanding of the environmental conflict, showing how language can be seen to shape our view of what environmental politics is really about and how those perceptions can differ between countries. The author identifies the emergence and increasing political importance of 'ecological modernization' as a new concept in the language of environmental politics. This concept, which has come to replace the antagonistic debates of the 1970s, stresses the opportunities of environmental policy for modernizing the economy and stimulating the technological innovation. Combining abstract social theory with detailed empirical analysis, Martin Hajer illustrates the social and political dynamics of ecological modernization in a detailed analysis of the acid rain controversies in Great Britain and the Netherlands. He concludes by reflecting on the institutional challenge of the environmental politics in the years to come.


Political Ecology

Political Ecology

Author: Paul Robbins

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 2004-08-09

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9781405102667

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This text presents a critical survey of the burgeoning field of political ecology, an interdisciplinary area of research which connects politics and economy to problems of environmental control and ecological change. Provides the first full history of the development of political ecology over the last century. Considers the major challenges facing the field now and for the future. Written to be accessible to students at all levels and from different disciplines. Uses case examples to explore abstract, theoretical issues in a down-to-earth way. Features study boxes, introducing key figures in the development of the discipline and summarizing their key works. Details of the author’s own research experiences to offer a personal glimpse into political ecology research.


Book Synopsis Political Ecology by : Paul Robbins

Download or read book Political Ecology written by Paul Robbins and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2004-08-09 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text presents a critical survey of the burgeoning field of political ecology, an interdisciplinary area of research which connects politics and economy to problems of environmental control and ecological change. Provides the first full history of the development of political ecology over the last century. Considers the major challenges facing the field now and for the future. Written to be accessible to students at all levels and from different disciplines. Uses case examples to explore abstract, theoretical issues in a down-to-earth way. Features study boxes, introducing key figures in the development of the discipline and summarizing their key works. Details of the author’s own research experiences to offer a personal glimpse into political ecology research.


Ecological Thinking

Ecological Thinking

Author: Lorraine Code

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2006-04-27

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 0195159438

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Arguing that ecological thinking can animate an epistemology capable of addressing feminist, multicultural, and other post-colonial concerns, this book critiques the instrumental rationality, hyperbolized autonomy, abstract individualism, and exploitation of people and places that western epistemologies of mastery have legitimated. It proposes a politics of epistemic location, sensitive to the interplay of particularity and diversity, and focused on responsible epistemic practices. Starting from an epistemological approach implicit in Rachel Carson's scientific projects, the book draws, constructively and critically, on ecological theory and practice, on (post-Quinean) naturalized epistemology, and on feminist and post-colonial theory. Analyzing extended examples from developmental psychology, from medicine and law, and from circumstances where vulnerability, credibility, and public trust are at issue, the argument addresses the constitutive part played by an instituted social imaginary in shaping and regulating human lives. The practices and examples discussed invoke the responsibility requirements central to this text's larger purpose of imagining, crafting, articulating a creative, innovative, instituting social imaginary, committed to interrogating entrenched hierarchical social structures, en route to enacting principles of ideal cohabitation.


Book Synopsis Ecological Thinking by : Lorraine Code

Download or read book Ecological Thinking written by Lorraine Code and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-04-27 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguing that ecological thinking can animate an epistemology capable of addressing feminist, multicultural, and other post-colonial concerns, this book critiques the instrumental rationality, hyperbolized autonomy, abstract individualism, and exploitation of people and places that western epistemologies of mastery have legitimated. It proposes a politics of epistemic location, sensitive to the interplay of particularity and diversity, and focused on responsible epistemic practices. Starting from an epistemological approach implicit in Rachel Carson's scientific projects, the book draws, constructively and critically, on ecological theory and practice, on (post-Quinean) naturalized epistemology, and on feminist and post-colonial theory. Analyzing extended examples from developmental psychology, from medicine and law, and from circumstances where vulnerability, credibility, and public trust are at issue, the argument addresses the constitutive part played by an instituted social imaginary in shaping and regulating human lives. The practices and examples discussed invoke the responsibility requirements central to this text's larger purpose of imagining, crafting, articulating a creative, innovative, instituting social imaginary, committed to interrogating entrenched hierarchical social structures, en route to enacting principles of ideal cohabitation.