Although poisonous substances have been a hazard for the whole of human history, it is only with the development and large-scale production of new chemical substances over the last two centuries that toxic, manmade pollutants have become such a varied and widespread danger. Covering a host of both notorious and little-known chemicals, the chapters in this collection investigate the emergence of specific toxic, pathogenic, carcinogenic, and ecologically harmful chemicals as well as the scientific, cultural and legislative responses they have prompted. Each study situates chemical hazards in a long-term and transnational framework and demonstrates the importance of considering both the natural and the social contexts in which their histories have unfolded.

This volume analyzes the ways in which natural resource wealth has shaped authoritarian political regimes and statist economic systems in the countries of southern Africa in the post-colonial period. It consists of five essays. The first sets out the historical framework and emergence of natural resources as the crucial driver of economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Three essays, drawing on in-country research, focus on Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They show how this explains the economic evolution of those countries - in particular, the impacts of economic and institutional changes on the bulk of the population, the rural poor. The final essay explores the nature of the changes and their neoliberal economic context, and the ways in which their harmful consequences might be relieved.

Contents:
1. Sustainability and Social Policy 2. Sustainable Development: The Policy Response 3. Local Agenda 21 4. Green Ideas 5. Environmental Health 6. Housing and Urban Development 7. Food 8. Work 9. One World

A broad and comprehensive exploration of the role of the ecological sciences in sustainability for undergraduates.The urgent quest for more sustainable patterns of development has placed new and difficult demands on both scientists and policy makers as they seek to establish more informed and effective policy processes and management regimes in the the face of pervasive uncertainty. Written by an international group of authors from a range of disciplines - ecology, geography, law, policy analysis and others - the chapters explore issues of scientific legitimacy, public participation, non-governmental organisations, inter-sectoral communication and pragmatic public policy across a wide range of ecosystem management contexts.

The challenging times we live in show us that there is no going back to 'normal' life, but how do we step forward? Looby Macnamara, international thought leader and teacher, introduces 'Cultural Emergence', a framework and toolkit that enables us to design the world we want to live in. It activates healing and revolutionises our approach to creating life-sustaining and regenerative cultures. Drawing upon the lineages of indigenous wisdom, permaculture design and systems thinking, Cultural Emergence is a profoundly effective toolkit for creating a new understanding of culture. It shows us how to: * Expand our thinking and possibilities * Better understand where problems come from and, by using radical reflection on the root causes, create successful healing strategies * Embody the learning and effectively embed the changes in our lives into new ways of interacting and being * Build our individual and collective resilience in turbulent times and support ourselves to proactively adjust to transitions - whether they are personal life changes or collective challenges such as climate change * Use the tools to create the conditions for emergence, informing the creation of cultures of care, connection, peace, health, effectiveness and trust. Cultural Emergence is visionary, practical, wise and simple to use. It is a message of hope with tools for empowerment. Filled with stories of people around the world who have benefited using this approach, it inspires us with possibilities. It is a timely, much-needed book that has the potential to be useful to everyone and enable deep and radical transformation.

Contents:
Part I. Introduction
1. The approach of transnational social spaces: responding to new configurations of the social and the spatial Ludger Pries
Part II. International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces
2. Comparing local level Swedish and Mexican transnational life: an essay in historical retrieval Robert Smith
3. Dissagregating transnational social spaces: gender, place and citizenship in Mexico - US transnational spaces Luin Goldring
4. Transnational families: institutions of transnational social space Fernando Herrera
5. Shifting spaces - complex identities in Turkish-German migration Jeffrey Jurgens
Part III. International Companies and Transnational Social Spaces
6. Pluri-local social spaces by tele-cooperation in international companies Ralf Reichwald and Kathrin Möslein
7. Pluri-local social spaces in international companies Hermann Kotthoff
8. The transnationalization of companies and their industrial relations Jürgen Kädtler and Hans-Joachim Sperling
9. Co-ordination and control in transnational business and non-profit organizations Jörg Flecker and Ruth Simsa
Part IV. The Future of Trnasnational Social Spaces
10. Cracked casings: towards an analytics for studying transnational processes Saskia Sassen

The Arctic-Barents Region is facing numerous pressures from a variety of sources, including the effect of environmental changes and extractive industrial developments. The threats arising out of these pressures result in human security challenges. This book analyses the formation, and promotion, of societal security within the context of the Arctic-Barents Region. It applies the human security framework, which has increasingly gained currency at the UN level since 1994 (UNDP), as a tool to provide answers to many questions that face the Barents population today. The study explores human security dimensions such as environmental security, economic security, health, food, water, energy, communities, political security and digital security in order to assess the current challenges that the Barents population experiences today or may encounter in the future. In doing so, the book develops a comprehensive analysis of vulnerabilities, challenges and needs in the Barents Region and provides recommendations for new strategies to tackle insecurity and improve the wellbeing of both indigenous and local communities. This book will be a valuable tool for academics, policy-makers and students interested in environmental and human security, sustainable development, environmental studies and the Arctic and Barents Region in particular.

The Emergence of Ecological Modernisation offers a wealth of empirical research material from an international perspective, bringing together previously scattered sources for the first time. It addresses a series of theoretical issues that are of key contemporary relevance, such as the relationship between ecological modernisation and sustainable development; strategies for promoting ecological modernisation, and the extent to which it is possible to 'green' contemporary capitalism.

Contents:
Part I. Introduction
1. Environmental sociology and energy efficiency
2. Engaging with energy and buildings
3. Science, knowledge and practice
Part II. Building Research Environments
4. Defining energy research
5. Comparing research environments: i. Close communities ii. Co-ordinated contractors iii. Contracting knowledge iv. Networking expertise
6. Positioning energy efficiency
7. Changing research environments
Part III. Energy Knowledges
8. Constructing conventions
9. Abstracting knowledge: capturing solar energy
10. Building knowledge: demonstrations and case studies
11. Replicating knowledges: i. Design Tools ii. Case studies
12. Converging conventions
Part IV. Theories of Knowledge and Practice
13. Theories of technical change: i. Barriers to energy efficiency ii. Leaping the barriers
14. Changing course
15. Following energy efficiency
Part V. The Politics of Insulation
16. Conventional explanations
17. Culture of energy conservation: i. Denmark ii. Sweden iii. France iv. The European insulation industry
18. Filling the gap: i. First fillings 1959-1974 ii. Curbing the cowboys 1975-1981 iii. Foam fears 1981-1983 iv. Fibre Wars 1984-1992
19. Government, industry and consumer interaction
Part VI. Organising Design: Housing and Energy Efficiency
20. Best practice and decision-making
21. Contexts of action: i. Shifting associations ii. Local pressures iii. Private dilemmas
22. Context, change and choice
Part VII. Developing Interests: Office Buildings and Barriers
23. Property relationships: i. Investing and exchanging ii. Nesting and using iii. Globalising design
24. Fluctuating priorities
Part VIII. Conclusions
25. Understanding energy efficiency
26. Technical convergence, cultural diversity
27. Reconstructing research

For the anthropologists, people-wildlife conflicts readily invite symbolic analysis. This volume examines people-wildlife conflicts in Europe, Africa and Asia from an anthropological perspective. It contributes to a discussion which with growing human populations, expanding developmental activity, and progressive loss of wildlife habitat, is likely to intensify in the 21st century.

Moving beyond traditional cultural and disciplinary boundaries, social scientists, humanists, natural scientists, and public servants examine the different ways in which people understand and inhabit their environments in communities across the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific Rim, and throughout Asia. Utilizing ethnographic and historical case studies; textual, cartographic, and narrative analysis; and critical examinations of discourse and methods, these essays broaden our understanding of human/environmental interactions, and prompt more realistic assessments and effective action.

Wild animals raid crops, attack livestock, and sometimes threaten people. Conflicts with wildlife are widespread, assume a variety of forms, and elicit a range of human responses. Wildlife pests are frequently demonized and resisted by local communities while routinely 'controlled' by state authorities. However, to the great concern of conservationists, the history of many people-wildlife conflicts lies in human encroachment into wildlife territory.
In Natural Enemies the authors place the analytical focus on the human dimension of these conflicts - an area often neglected by specialists in applied ecology and wildlife management - and on their social and political contexts. Case studies of specific conflicts are drawn from Africa, Asia, Europe and America, and feature an assortment of wild animals, including chimpanzees, elephants, wild pigs, foxes, bears, wolves, pigeons and ducks.
These anthropologists challenge the narrow utilitarian view of wildlife pestilence by revealing the cultural character of many of our 'natural enemies'. Their reports from the 'front-line' expose one fact - human conflict with wildlife is often an expression of conflict between people.

Contents:
1:Business and Environment; 2:The Changing Relationships Through Time, 3:Environmental Business Perspectives - assets, costs and externalities; 4:Environmental Business Necessities - the pressures which cannot be ignored; 5:Environmental Business Opportunities - business becomes proactive; 6:Primary Industries - using resources directly; 7:Secondary Industries - adding value and carrying the burden; 8:Tertiary Industries - the hidden environmental issues; 9:Enviromental Business; 10:Business and Environment - the future for the relationships.

Social work is the profession that claims to intervene to enhance people's well-being. However, social workers have played a low-key role in environmental issues that increasingly impact on people's well-being, both locally and globally.

This compelling new contribution confronts this topic head-on, examining environmental issues from a social work perspective. Lena Dominelli draws attention to the important voice of practitioners working on the ground in the aftermath of environmental disasters, whether these are caused by climate change, industrial accidents or human conflict. The author explores the concept of 'green social work' and its role in using environmental crises to address poverty and other forms of structural inequalities, to obtain more equitable allocations of limited natural resources and to tackle global socio-political forces that have a damaging impact upon the quality of life of poor and marginalized populations at local levels. The resolution of these matters is linked to community initiatives that social workers can engage in to ensure that the quality of life of poor people can be enhanced without costing the Earth.

This important book will appeal to those in the fields of social work, social policy, sociology and human geography. It powerfully reveals how environmental issues are an integral part of social work's remit if it is to retain its currency in the modern world and emphasize its relevance to the social issues that societies have to resolve in the twenty-first century.

This introductory level text examines how businesses and the environment interact. It is ideal for students with no previous knowledge of business studies. It examines in depth the ways in which business, industry, the physical environment, environmentalism and social change have evolved alongside each other. The authors use boxed case studies to highlight how business practice and the environment interact at levels from local to global, with examples from multi-national companies, government bodies, national charities and local enterprise. The book also contains a large number of informative diagrams. The case studies include:
* Shell Oil's environmental policy
* railways and the industrial revolution
* the British National Trust's business enterprises
* Sainsbury's approach to organic foods
* Australia's landcare scheme
* changing trends in retailing
* Brent Spar
* big game hunting and conservation.

In a myriad of ways, animals help make up the societies in which we live. People eat animals, wear products made from them, watch them in zoos or on television, keep them in their houses and in factory farms, hunt them and experiment on them, and place them in mythology and stories. This work examines how animals interact and relate with people in different ways. Through a comprehensive range of examples, which include feral cats and wild wolves, to domestic animals and intensively farmed cattle, the contributors explore the complex relations in which humans and non-human animals are mixed together. Our emotions involving animals range from those of love and compassion to untold cruelty, force, violence and power. As humans we have placed different animals into different categories, according to some notion of species, usefulness, domesticity or wildness. As a result of these varying and often contested orderings, animals are assigned to particular places and spaces.;This book shows us that there are many exceptions and variations on the spatiality of human-animal spatial orderings, within and across cultures, and over time. It develops new ways of thinking about human animal inter

Ecological footprinting is rapidly being adopted as an effective and practical way to measure our impact on the environment - in both large- and small-scale planning and development. This is an introduction to ecological footprint analysis, showing how it can be done, and how to measure the footprints of activities, lifestyles, organizations and regions. Case studies illustrate its effectiveness at national, organizational, individual and product levels.

Though still a relatively young field, the study of Latin American environmental history is blossoming, as the contributions to this definitive volume demonstrate. Bringing together thirteen leading experts on the region, A Living Past synthesizes a wide range of scholarship to offer new perspectives on environmental change in Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean since the nineteenth century. Each chapter provides insightful, up-to-date syntheses of current scholarship on critical countries and ecosystems (including Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean, the tropical Andes, and tropical forests) and such cross-cutting themes as agriculture, conservation, mining, ranching, science, and urbanization. Together, these studies provide valuable historical contexts for making sense of contemporary environmental challenges facing the region.

Society and Exploitation Through Nature offers an integrated approach to the environment, linking the philosophical, social and physical sciences to environmental problems and issues. The text covers three main themes; exploitation of nature and society; the limits of exploitation through sustainability and managing environmental problems. These themes are illustrated throughout the book with global case studies.

Animal Spaces, Beastly Places examines how animals interact and relate with people in different ways. Using a comprehensive range of examples, which include feral cats and wild wolves, to domestic animals and intensively farmed cattle, the contributors explore the complex relations in which humans and non-human animals are mixed together. Our emotions involving animals range from those of love and compassion to untold cruelty, force, violence and power. As humans we have placed different animals into different categories, according to some notion of species, usefulness, domesticity or wildness. As a result of these varying and often contested orderings, animals are assigned to particular places and spaces. Animal Spaces, Beastly Places shows us that there are many exceptions and variations on the spatiality of human-animal spatial orderings, within and across cultures, and over time. It develops new ways of thinking about human animal interactions and encourages us to find better ways for humans and animals to live together.

This important new book explores the interaction of global environmental discourses and local traditions and practices in twelve countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Based upon two parallel groups of studies, reviewing cultural influences in individual countries, and the attitudes of young people across the region, it has important implications for environmental policy and education.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203459261

Introduces undergraduates to the key debates regarding space and culture and the key theoretical arguments which guide cultural geographical work. This book addresses the impact, significance, and characteristics of the 'cultural turn' in contemporary geography. It focuses on the development of the cultural geography subdiscipline and on what has made it a peculiar and unique realm of study. It demonstrates the importance of culture in the development of debates in other subdisciplines within geography and beyond. In line with these previous themes, the significance of space in the production of cultural values and expressions is also developed. Along with its timely examination of the health of the cultural geographical subdiscipline, this book is to be valued for its analysis of the impact of cultural theory on studies elsewhere in geography and of ideas of space and spatiality elsewhere in the social sciences.

The concept of heritage relates to the ways in which contemporary society uses the past as a social, political or economic resource. However, heritage is open to interpretation and its value may be perceived from differing perspectives - often reflecting divisions in society. Moreover, the schism between the cultural and economic uses of heritage also gives rise to potential conflicts of interest. Examining these issues in depth, this book is the first sustained attempt to integrate the study of heritage into contemporary human geography. It is structured around three themes: the diversity of use and consumption of heritage as a multi-sold cultural and economic resource; the conflicts and tensions arising from this multiplicity of uses, producers and consumers; and the relationship between heritage and identity at a variety of scales.

In this critical and sophisticated analysis, Philip F. Kelly challenges the conventional definition of globalization as an irresistible and inevitable force to which societies must succumb. By tracing the consequences of global economic integration in the Philippines, he argues that global processes are constituted, accommodated, mediated and resisted in social processes at multiple scales, from the national economy to the village and the household.


eBook available with sample pages: 020302169X

Moving beyond traditional cultural and disciplinary boundaries, social scientists, humanists, natural scientists, and public servants examine the different ways in which people understand and inhabit their environments in communities across the Pacific Northwest, the Pacific Rim, and throughout Asia. Utilizing ethnographic and historical case studies; textual, cartographic, and narrative analysis; and critical examinations of discourse and methods, these essays broaden our understanding of human/environmental interactions, and prompt more realistic assessments and effective action.