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Book Bioregionalism and Civil Society

Download or read book Bioregionalism and Civil Society written by Mike Carr and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioregionalism and Civil Society addresses the urgent need for sustainability in industrialized societies. The book explores the bioregional movement in the US, Canada, and Mexico, examining its vision, values, strategies, and tools for building sustainable societies. Bioregionalism is a philosophy with values and practices that attempt to meld issues of social and econmic justice and sustainability with cultural, ecolgoical, and spiritual concerns. Further, bioregional efforts of democratic social and cultural change take place primarily in the sphere of civil society. Practically, Carr agrues for bioregionalism as a place-specific, community movement that can stand in diverse opposition to the homogenizing trends of corporate globalization. Theoretically, the author seeks lessons for civil society-based social theory and strategy. Conventional civil society theory from Europe proposes a dual strategy of developing strong horizontal communicative action among civic associations and networks as the basis for strategic vertical campaigns to democratize both state and market sectors. However, this theory offers no ecological or cultural critique of consumerism. By contrast, Carr integrates both social and natural ecologies in a civil society theory that incorporates lessons about consumption and cultural transformation from bioregional practice. Carr’s argument that bioregional values and community-building tools support a diverse, democratic, socially just civil society that respects and cares for the natural world makes a significant contribution to the field of green political science, social change theory, and environmental thought.

Book Bioregionalism

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michael Vincent McGinnis
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2005-07-28
  • ISBN : 1134734336
  • Pages : 256 pages

Download or read book Bioregionalism written by Michael Vincent McGinnis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-07-28 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioregionalism is the first book to explain the theoretical and practical dimensions of bioregionalism from an interdisciplinary standpoint, focusing on the place of bioregional identity within global politics. Leading contributors from a broad range of disciplines introduce this exciting new concept as a framework for thinking about indigenous peoples, local knowledge, globalization, science, global environmental issues, modern society, conservation, history, education and restoration. Bioregionalism's emphasis on place and community radically changes the way we confront human and ecological issues.

Book Global Civil Society and Global Environmental Governance

Download or read book Global Civil Society and Global Environmental Governance written by Ronnie D. Lipschutz and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1996-11-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What will it take to protect the global environment? In this book, Ronnie D. Lipschutz argues that neither world government nor green economics can do the job. Governmental regulations often are resisted by those whose behavior they are intended to change, and markets—even green ones—look to profits more than to protection. What will be needed, Lipschutz believes, is not global management but political action through community- and place-based organizations and projects. People acting together locally can have a cumulative impact on environmental quality that is significant, long lasting, and widespread. The comparative case studies of environmental activism in Northern California, Hungary, and Indonesia (the latter written by Judith Mayer) illustrate one of the central premises of this book: that local action is linked increasingly to globe-spanning networks of knowledge and practice, in what Lipschutz calls global civil society. The result is a system of governance that is both local and global, to which states and international organizations are turning increasingly for help and advice.

Book Bioregionalism

Download or read book Bioregionalism written by Michael Vincent McGinnis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-07-28 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioregionalism is the first book to explain the theoretical and practical dimensions of bioregionalism from an interdisciplinary standpoint, focusing on the place of bioregional identity within global politics. Leading contributors from a broad range of disciplines introduce this exciting new concept as a framework for thinking about indigenous peoples, local knowledge, globalization, science, global environmental issues, modern society, conservation, history, education and restoration. Bioregionalism's emphasis on place and community radically changes the way we confront human and ecological issues.

Book The Bioregional Economy

Download or read book The Bioregional Economy written by Molly Scott Cato and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a world of climate change and declining oil supplies, what is the plan for the provisioning of resources? Green economists suggest a need to replace the globalised economy, and its extended supply chains, with a more 'local' economy. But what does this mean in more concrete terms? How large is a local economy, how self-reliant can it be, and what resources will still need to be imported? The concept of the 'bioregion' -- developed and popularised within the disciplines of earth sciences, biosciences and planning -- may facilitate the reconceptualisation of the global economy as a system of largely self-sufficient local economies. A bioregional approach to economics assumes a different system of values to that which dominates neoclassical economics. The global economy is driven by growth, and the consumption ethic that matches this is one of expansion in range and quantity. Goods are defined as scarce, and access to them is a process based on competition. The bioregional approach challenges every aspect of that value system. It seeks a new ethic of consumption that prioritises locality, accountability and conviviality in the place of expansion and profit; it proposes a shift in the focus of the economy away from profits and towards provisioning; and it assumes a radical reorientation of work from employment towards livelihood. This book by leading green economist Molly Scott Cato sets out a visionary and yet rigorous account of what a bioregional approach to the economy would mean -- and how to get there from here.

Book Toward a Bioregional State

Download or read book Toward a Bioregional State written by Mark D. Whitaker and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2005 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental sociologist Mark D. Whitaker is a comparative historical researcher on the politics of environmental degradation and sustainability. Toward A Bioregional State is his novel approach to development and to sustainability. He proposes that instead of sustainability being an issue of population scale, managerial economics, or technocratic planning, an overhaul of formal democratic institutions is required. This is because environmental degradation has more to do with the biased interactions of formal institutions and informal corruption. Because of corruption, we have environmental degradation. Current formal democratic institutions of states are forms of informal gatekeeping, and as such, intentionally maintain democracy as ecologically "out of sync". He argues that we are unable to reach sustainability without a host of additional ecological checks and balances. These ecological checks and balances would demote corrupt uses of formal institutions by removing capacities for gatekeeping against democratic feedback. Sustainability is a politics that is already here--only waiting to be formally organized.

Book Environmental Anthropology

Download or read book Environmental Anthropology written by Helen Kopnina and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents new theoretical approaches, methodologies, subject pools, and topics in the field of environmental anthropology. Environmental anthropologists are increasingly focusing on self-reflection - not just on themselves and their impacts on environmental research, but also on the reflexive qualities of their subjects, and the extent to which these individuals are questioning their own environmental behavior. Here, contributors confront the very notion of "natural resources" in granting non-human species their subjectivity and arguing for deeper understanding of "nature," and "wilderness" beyond the label of "ecosystem services." By engaging in interdisciplinary efforts, these anthropologists present new ways for their colleagues, subjects, peers and communities to understand the causes of, and alternatives to environmental destruction. This book demonstrates that environmental anthropology has moved beyond the construction of rural, small group theory, entering into a mode of solution-based methodologies and interdisciplinary theories for understanding human-environmental interactions. It is focused on post-rural existence, health and environmental risk assessment, on the realm of alternative actions, and emphasizes the necessary steps towards preventing environmental crisis.

Book LifePlace

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert L. Thayer
  • Publisher : Univ of California Press
  • Release : 2003
  • ISBN : 9780520213128
  • Pages : 330 pages

Download or read book LifePlace written by Robert L. Thayer and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation This is a passionately written advocacy of bioregionalism, the conviction that people should live, work, play, and consume locally, for the health of the environment and for society. The book is inspirational as well as educational, a combination of philosophy and practical suggestions for implementing bioregionalism in communities.

Book Companion to Environmental Studies

Download or read book Companion to Environmental Studies written by Noel Castree and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Companion to Environmental Studies presents a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the key issues, debates, concepts, approaches and questions that together define environmental studies today. The intellectually wide-ranging volume covers approaches in environmental science all the way through to humanistic and post-natural perspectives on the biophysical world. Though many academic disciplines have incorporated studying the environment as part of their curriculum, only in recent years has it become central to the social sciences and humanities rather than mainly the geosciences. ‘The environment’ is now a keyword in everything from fisheries science to international relations to philosophical ethics to cultural studies. The Companion brings these subject areas, and their distinctive perspectives and contributions, together in one accessible volume. Over 150 short chapters written by leading international experts provide concise, authoritative and easy-to-use summaries of all the major and emerging topics dominating the field, while the seven part introductions situate and provide context for section entries. A gateway to deeper understanding is provided via further reading and links to online resources. Companion to Environmental Studies offers an essential one-stop reference to university students, academics, policy makers and others keenly interested in ‘the environmental question’, the answer to which will define the coming century.

Book Watershed Discipleship

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ched Myers
  • Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • Release : 2016-10-21
  • ISBN : 1498280773
  • Pages : 246 pages

Download or read book Watershed Discipleship written by Ched Myers and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-10-21 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection introduces and explores "watershed discipleship" as a critical, contextual, and constructive approach to ecological theology and practice, and features emerging voices from a generation that has grown up under the shadow of climate catastrophe. Watershed Discipleship is a "triple entendre" that recognizes we are in a watershed historical moment of crisis, focuses on our intrinsically bioregional locus as followers of Jesus, and urges us to become disciples of our watersheds. Bibliographic framing essays by Myers trace his journey into a bioregionalist Christian faith and practice and offer reflections on incarnational theology, hermeneutics, and ecclesiology. The essays feature more than a dozen activists, educators, and practitioners under the age of forty, whose work and witness attest to a growing movement of resistance and reimagination across North America. This anthology overviews the bioregional paradigm and its theological and political significance for local sustainability, restorative justice, and spiritual renewal. Contributors reread both biblical texts and churchly practices (such as mission, baptism, and liturgy) through the lens of "re-place-ment." Herein is a comprehensive and engaged call for a "Transition church" that can help turn our history around toward environmental resiliency and social justice, by passionate advocates on the front lines of watershed discipleship. CONTRIBUTORS: Sasha Adkins, Jay Beck, Tevyn East, Erinn Fahey, Katarina Friesen, Matt Humphrey, Vickie Machado, Jonathan McRay, Sarah Nolan, Reyna Ortega, Dave Pritchett, Erynn Smith, Sarah Thompson, Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

Book The Bioregional Imagination

Download or read book The Bioregional Imagination written by Tom Lynch and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioregionalism is an innovative way of thinking about place and planet from an ecological perspective. Although bioregional ideas occur regularly in ecocritical writing, until now no systematic effort has been made to outline the principles of bioregional literary criticism and to use it as a way to read, write, understand, and teach literature. The twenty-four original essays here are written by an outstanding selection of international scholars. The range of bioregions covered is global and includes such diverse places as British Columbia's Meldrum Creek and Italy's Po River Valley, the Arctic and the Outback. There are even forays into cyberspace and outer space. In their comprehensive introduction, the editors map the terrain of the bioregional movement, including its history and potential to inspire and invigorate place-based and environmental literary criticism. Responding to bioregional tenets, this volume is divided into four sections. The essays in the “Reinhabiting” section narrate experiments in living-in-place and restoring damaged environments. The “Rereading” essays practice bioregional literary criticism, both by examining texts with strong ties to bioregional paradigms and by opening other, less-obvious texts to bioregional analysis. In “Reimagining,” the essays push bioregionalism to evolve—by expanding its corpus of texts, coupling its perspectives with other approaches, or challenging its core constructs. Essays in the “Renewal” section address bioregional pedagogy, beginning with local habitat studies and concluding with musings about the Internet. In response to the environmental crisis, we must reimagine our relationship to the places we inhabit. This volume shows how literature and literary studies are fundamental tools to such a reimagining.

Book Bioregionalism and Global Ethics

Download or read book Bioregionalism and Global Ethics written by Richard Evanoff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While a number of schools of environmental thought — including social ecology, ecofeminism, ecological Marxism, ecoanarchism, and bioregionalism — have attempted to link social issues to a concern for the environment, environmental ethics as an academic discipline has tended to focus more narrowly on ethics related either to changes in personal values or behavior, or to the various ways in which nature might be valued. What is lacking is a framework in which individual, social, and environmental concerns can be looked at not in isolation from each other, but rather in terms of their interrelationships. In this book, Evanoff aims to develop just such a philosophical framework — one in which ethical questions related to interactions between self, society, and nature can be discussed across disciplines and from a variety of different perspectives. The central problem his study investigates is the extent to which a dichotomized view of the relationship between nature and culture, perpetuated in ongoing debates over anthropocentric vs. ecocentric approaches to environmental ethics, might be overcome through the adoption of a transactional perspective, which offers a more dynamic and coevolutionary understanding of how humans interact with their natural environments. Unlike anthropocentric approaches to environmental ethics, which often privilege human concerns over ecological preservation, and some ecocentric approaches, which place more emphasis on preserving natural environments than on meeting human needs, a transactional approach attempts to create more symbiotic and less conflictual modes of interaction between human cultures and natural environments, which allow for the flourishing of both.

Book The Biosphere and the Bioregion

Download or read book The Biosphere and the Bioregion written by Cheryll Glotfelty and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-17 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioregionalism asks us to reimagine ourselves and the places where we live in ecological terms and to harmonize human activities with the natural systems that sustain life. As one of the originators of the concept of bioregionalism, Peter Berg (1937-2011) is a founding figure of contemporary environmental thought. The Biosphere and the Bioregion: Essential Writings of Peter Berg introduces readers to the biospheric vision and post-environmental genius of Berg. From books and essays to published interviews, this selection of writings represents Berg's bioregional vision and its global, local, urban, and rural applications. The Biosphere and the Bioregion provides a highly accessible introduction to bioregional philosophy, making Berg's paradigm available as a guiding vision and practical "greenprint" for the twenty-first century. This valuable compilation lays the groundwork for future research by offering the first-ever comprehensive bibliography of Berg's publications and should be of interest to students and scholars in the interdisciplinary fields of environmental humanities, environment and sustainability studies, as well as political ecology, environmental sociology and anthropology.

Book The Future of the Policy Sciences

Download or read book The Future of the Policy Sciences written by Anis B. Brik and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2021-06-25 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This forward-thinking book examines the future of public policy as a discipline, both as it is taught and as it is practiced. Critically assessing the limits of current theories and approaches, leading scholars in the field highlight new models and perspectives.

Book Global Environmental Politics

Download or read book Global Environmental Politics written by Ronnie D. Lipschutz and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2003-07-30 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditional views of global environmental politics take the structures and relations of international politics as a given. Solutions to environmental problems, then, must be products of concession, negotiation, and inevitable compromise—a world of top-down planetary management. Lipschutz challenges students to question these conventional approaches. He argues that much light can be shed on global environmental degradation if we look beyond the politics of conflict and cooperation and explore environmental problems from their very "roots." Using a framework that accounts for the ontologies, material conditions, and power relations that structure global environmental problems, Lipschutz is able to more effectively question attempts to clean up the globe and sustain the world′s natural resources. Throughout the text, the author uses compelling cases to illustrate the effects of globalization and capitalism, yet is careful to make the link between the local and the global to show how we, as individuals, are both consumers of goods and producers of pollution. A powerful new approach How is the financing of a water system in Bolivia linked to long-standing forestation practices in India? Taking nothing for granted, the root causes of major global environmental problems are exposed and subjected to rigorous analysis. Lipschutz shows, for instance, how privatization operates in different global contexts with strikingly similar consequences. In what ways are liberalism and realism actually two sides of the same coin? Both make self-interest—of the individual and of the state—key operating terms. In a revealing comparison, Lipschutz explores the limits of these dominant political models to effectively frame and solve environmental problems. What kinds of political, social, and environmental practices bring about meaningful change? By emphasizing the global impacts of local actions, the text shows how attempts to control environmental problems may actually reproduce the very systems they are meant to ameliorate. Combined with practical pedagogy Rich historical background helps contextualize contemporary issues. Extensive suggested reading lists at the end of each chapter guide students to further research, while tables and figures elegantly show data and concepts. The emphasis on assessing the root causes of global environmental problems and models encourages critical thinking. Students are also encouraged to rethink their own role in the global environmental system and to get involved in effective forms of social change.

Book Environmental Politics for a Changing World

Download or read book Environmental Politics for a Changing World written by Ronnie D. Lipschutz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-07-12 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that environmental problems are, first and foremost, political and, therefore, about power. Using a framework of political economy and political ecology, the authors deconstruct current environmental problems to identify root causes and address those problems through mobilization of collective action and social power. The second edition also offers: •Updated examples and stories of political struggles and the actors involved •Explicit attention to various forms of power in environmental politics, including structural and social power •Local politics and collective action as related to global environmental politics •Discussion of emerging issues such as synthetic biology; commodification and financialization of nature, including carbon markets; and geoengineering

Book Local Environmental Sustainability

Download or read book Local Environmental Sustainability written by S Buckingham and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2003-02-17 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of local programmes in driving sustainable development has been enshrined in Local Agenda 21, arguably the most influential output of the 1992 Rio 'Earth' Summit. Its importance has been reiterated more recently by the Johannesburg Summit in 2002.Local Environmental Sustainability sets the context for local environmental sustainability and, in particular, considers how local government can promote sustainable development by building partnerships with different groups and organisations in the local community. Using case studies, individual chapters focus on different types of regional and local initiatives, the partnerships that have made them possible, and the key issues in making them effective.Local Environmental Sustainability provides a blueprint for both local governments and local communities to work together effectively for a more sustainable future. An important new study focusing on the links between local environmental initiatives and the provision of sustainable services Includes case studies showing how local government initiatives can work in the community Considers the relationship between local programmes and the implementation of Local Agenda 21