Maritime spaces are socially constructed by humans and refer to seas and islands, coasts, port cities and villages, as well as ships and other human-made marine structures. Social interaction with marine environments and living beings, e.g. in a symbolic, cultural or economic manner, has led to the emergence of spatial structures which affect the knowledge, beliefs, meanings and obstinately patterns. Those structures shape mutual expectations of human beings and form the perception, imagination, or memory of inhabitants of maritime spaces. They enable or restrict human action, construct people's everyday life, their norms and values, and are changeable. Contributors include: Jan Asmussen, Robert Bartlomiejski, Benjamin Bowles, Isabel Duarte, Eduardo Sarmento Ferreira, Rita Gracio, Marie C. Grasmeier, Karolina Izdebska, Seung Kuk Kim, Arkadiusz Kolodziej, Agnieszka Kolodziej-Durnas, Maciej Kowalewski, Urszula Kozlowska, Ulrike Kronfeld-Goharani, Rute Muchacho, Giacomo Orsini, Wlodzimierz Karol Pessel, Celia Quico, Harini Sivalingam, Joana Sousa, Frank Sowa, Nuno Cintra Torres, and Gunter Warsewa.

Challenging the normalization of a capitalist reality in which environmental destruction and catastrophe have become 'second nature', Towards a Critical Theory of Nature offers a bold new theoretical understanding of the current crisis via the work of the Frankfurt School. Focusing on key notions of dialectics, natural history, and materialism, a critical theory of nature is outlined in favor of a more traditional Marxist theory of nature, albeit one which still builds on core Marxist concepts to confirm humanity's central place in manufacturing environmental misery. Pre-eminent thinkers of the Frankfurt school, including, Georg Lukacs, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, and Alfred Schmidt, are highlighted for their potential to diagnose the interpenetration of capitalism and nature in a way that neither absolutizes nor obliterates the boundary between the social and natural. Further theoretical claims and practical consequences of a critical theory of nature challenge other contemporary theoretical approaches like eco-Marxism, social constructivism and new materialism, to situate it as the only approach with genuinely radical potential. The possibility of utopian idealism for understanding and responding to the current climate crisis is carefully measured against the dangers of false hope in setting out realistic goals for change. Environmental change in turn is seen through the prism of recent cultural currents and movements, situating the power of a critical theory of nature in relation to understandings of the Anthropocene; concepts of apocalypse, and postapocalypse. This book culminates in a powerful tool for an anti-capitalist critique of society's painfully extractive relationship to a deceptively abstracted natural world.

In Europe and other developed countries, much of the population live in small and medium sized towns. For many such places the pursuit of growth is no longer a viable strategic option. As the ability of small towns to compete with larger cities for private investment and government support diminishes, the number trapped in a spiral of long-term decline grows. Beginning with a brief overview of the global context, highlighting that urban shrinkage and decline is a widespread problem, Schlappa and Nishino illustrate how small towns can generate sustainable forward strategies in contrasting institutional contexts by fostering co-production, adjusting public facilities and right sizing the urban area. The analytical tools and practical examples provided by Schlappa and Nishino are relevant for political and administrative decisionmakers, leaders of civil society and business organisations in developing locally appropriate, creative and robust strategies to shrink smart and re-grow smaller.

Steel has, over centuries, played a crucial role in shaping our material, and in particular, urban landscapes. This books undertakes a cultural and ecological history of the material, examining the relationship between steel and design at a micro and macro level - in terms of both what it has been used to design and how it has functioned as a 'world-making force', necessary to the development of technologies and ideas. The research for the book is informed by diverse fields of literature including industry journals, contemporary accounts and technical literature - all framed by rich, early accounts of iron and steel making from the middle ages to the opening of the industrial age, and most notably, the crucial works of Vannoccio Biringuccio, Georgius Agricola, Andrew Ure and Harry Scrivenor. In contrast, trans-cultural accounts of the history of metallurgy from eminent sinologists and cultural historians like Joseph Neeham and G.E.R. Lloyd are used. Readings on the pre-history and history of science, as well as histories and philosophies technology from scholars such as Siegfried Giedion, Merritt Roe Smith, L.T.C Rolt, Robert B. Gordon inform the analysis. Social and economic history from historians such as Eric Hobsbawn, William T. Hogan and David Brody are consulted; labour process theory is also examined, particularly the influential writings of F.W. Taylor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and his contemporary critics, like David Nobel and Harry Braverman. Many other disciples also inform the account: histories of urban design and architecture, transport and military history, environmental history and geography.

As greater significance is placed on the relationship between people and their environment it is increasingly acknowledged that few environmental problems can be solved without considering the social context in which they arise. But what does it mean to incorporate the 'social' and what types of social sciences are needed? This incisive book critically reviews the theoretical perspectives that underlie social scientific contributions to natural resource management and argues for both a greater social science presence and for conceptual and methodological clarity within the social sciences themselves. The expert contributors explore how new concepts and approaches can contribute positively to natural resource management. They demonstrate how the social sciences can be used as a vehicle to highlight social concerns as well as to foster greater participation, co-operation, and integration among community members, natural resource managers and researchers. Through detailed case studies from Australasia and the Americas, the authors illustrate how different social science perspectives can be utilised. The range and variety of views provide a basis for the evaluation of various and often competing disciplinary paradigms within the social sciences. This book will undoubtedly contribute to a more sophisticated debate about the place of the 'social' in environmental research. It will prove to be of great worth to students and researchers of environmental and social issues, to those involved in environmental decision making and community planning, as well as environmental policymakers and natural resource managers.

In Five Classics of Fengshui Michael Paton traces the theoretical development of this form of spiritual geography through full translations of major texts: the Burial Classic of Qing Wu, Book of Burial, Yellow Emperor's Classic of House Siting, Twenty Four Difficult Problems, and Water Dragon Classic. This theoretical development is analysed through the lens of history, philosophy and sociology of science in an attempt to address Joseph Needham's conundrum of the "great beauty of the siting" in traditional China being based of such a "grossly superstitious system" and to understand what part fengshui played in the environmental history of China.

The assessment and management of risks to human health and the environment has become a topic of increasing importance and presents one of the major challenges to modern society. This comprehensive volume draws together key papers from a range of different perspectives and offers the reader an important insight into the basic principles of environmental risk management.Topics include the background to environmental risk, human health and ecological risk assessment, risk perception and communication, strategic issues in corporate environmental risk and environmental risk and siting hazardous facilities.

Efficient waste management is crucial for a sustainable future. However, due to population growth and the threat of global climate change, systems of urban waste management are under increasing pressure. For the waste sector, the prospect of transitioning to a circular economy presents an opportunity to promote organizational changes and improve performance, as well as contribute to a more sustainable world. Through the examination of case studies of municipalities and waste management firms across Europe, this book provides an overview of the most innovative best practices in urban waste management. The authors analyze the development and results of collection methods, tariff-setting systems, collaborations with partners and providers, recycling policies, and employees' and stakeholders' engagement programs. Given the complexity of urban waste management procedures, analysis is multidisciplinary, encompassing management, environmental and sociological perspectives. Providing an overview of opportunities for knowledge sharing and transfer among firms and municipalities to help them promote best practice, this book is a valuable reference for managers and policy makers in urban waste management.

When it comes to any current scientific debate, there are more than two sides to every story. Controversies in Science and Technology, Volume 4 analyzes controversial topics in science and technology-infrastructure, ecosystem management, food security, and plastics and health-from multiple points of view. The editors have compiled thought-provoking essays from a variety of experts from academia and beyond, creating a volume that addresses many of the issues surrounding these scientific debates. Part I of the volume discusses infrastructure, and the real meaning behind the term in today's society. Essays address the central issues that motivate current discussion about infrastructure, including writing on the vulnerability to disasters. Part II, titled "Food Policy," will focus on the challenges of feeding an ever-growing world and the costs of not doing so. Part III features essays on chemicals and environmental health, and works to define "safety" as it relates to today's scientific community. The book's final section examines ecosystem management. In the end, Kleinman, Cloud-Hansen, and Handelsman provide a multifaceted volume that will be appropriate for anyone hoping to understand arguments surrounding several of today's most important scientific controversies

As the Earth's oil supply runs out, and the effects of climate change threaten nations and their populations, the search for carbon-neutral sources of energy becomes more important and increasingly urgent. This book focuses on solutions to the energy problem, and not just the problem itself. It describes the major energy-generation technologies currently under development, and provides an authoritative summary of the current status of each one. It stresses the need for a balanced portfolio of alternative energy technologies. Certain solutions will be more appropriate than others in particular locations, due to the differences in availability of natural resources such as solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal. In addition, nuclear options (both fission and fusion), as well as technologies such as fuel cells, photovoltaics, artificial photosynthesis and hydrogen (as an energy carrier), all have a potential role to play. A state-of-the-art critique of energy efficiency in building design is also included. Each chapter is written by an acknowledged international expert and provides a non-technical overview of the competing and complementary approaches to energy generation.
Broad in scope and comprehensive in treatment, Energy..beyond Oil provides an authoritative synthesis of the scientific and technological issues which are essential to the survival of the human race in the near future. The book will be of interest and use to graduate students and researchers in all areas of energy studies, and will also be highly useful for policy-makers and professionals in the environmental sector as well as a more general readership who wish to learn more about this extremely topical subject.

Research in environmental justice reveals that low-income and minority neighborhoods in our nation's cities are often the preferred sites for landfills, power plants, and polluting factories. Those who live in these sacrifice zones are forced to shoulder the burden of harmful environmental effects so that others can prosper. "Mountains of Injustice "broadens the discussion from the city to the country by focusing on the legacy of disproportionate environmental health impacts on communities in the Appalachian region, where the costs of cheap energy and cheap goods are actually quite high. Through compelling stories and interviews with people who are fighting for environmental justice, "Mountains of Injustice "contributes to the ongoing debate over how to equitably distribute the long-term environmental costs and consequences of economic development.

Climate-induced disasters constitute a major risk to peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Drawing on case studies from Cambodia, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Samoa, the contributions in this volume examine local response, recovery and adaptation strategies, incorporating the perspectives and knowledge of affected individuals and communities. Asia-Pacific is the world's most disaster-prone region, accounting for about half of the climate-related displacements of 19 million people globally in 2017. Climate-related, fast-onset hazards, such as floods, cyclones and typhoons, have claimed many lives, displaced a high number of people and caused widespread damage over the past twenty years. The cost of short-term response to and medium- to long-term recovery from climate-induced disasters falls disproportionately on the poorest and most marginalised communities within Asia-Pacific countries. This book presents richly-detailed qualitative research from diverse contexts across the Asia-Pacific region, and adds to scholarship on the trajectory of community resilience and adaptation to climate-related hazards.

The twin categories of the state and nature collectively embody some of the most fundamental reference points around which our lives and thinking are organized. Despite their combined significance, however, the complex relationships that exist between modern states and nature remain under-theorized and are relatively unexplored. Through a detailed study of different sites, moments, and framing strategies The Nature of the State challenges the ways in which geographers and social scientists approach the study of state-nature relations. The authors analyse different instances of state-nature interaction from all over the world, considering the geo-politics of resource conflicts, the operation of natural history museums, the organizational practices of environmental departments and ministries, the regulation of genetic science, and contemporary forms of state intervention within issues of climate change. Introducing original research into the different institutional, spatial, and temporal strategies used by states to frame the natural world this book provides a critical overview of the latest political and ecological theories and addresses a wide range of pressing socio-environmental debates.

Nowhere on Earth is the challenge for ecological understanding greater, and yet more urgent, than in those parts of the globe where human activity is most intense - cities. People need to understand how cities work as ecological systems so they can take control of the vital links between human actions and environmental quality, and work for an ecologically and economically sustainable future. An ecosystem approach integrates biological, physical and social factors and embraces historical and geographical dimensions, providing our best hope for coping with the complexity of cities. This book is the first of its kind to bring together leaders in the biological, physical and social dimensions of urban ecosystem research with leading education researchers, administrators and practitioners, to show how an understanding of urban ecosystems is vital for urban dwellers to grasp the fundamentals of ecological and environmental science, and to understand their own environment.

Since in the current global environmental and climate crisis East Asia will play a major role in negotiating solutions, it is vital to understand East Asian cultural variations in approaching and solving environmental challenges in the past, present, and future. The interdisciplinary volume Nature, Environment and Culture in East Asia. The Challenge of Climate Change, edited by Carmen Meinert, explores how cultural patterns and ideas have shaped a specific understanding of nature, how local and regional cultures develop(ed) coping strategies to adapt to environmental and climatic changes in the past and in the present and how various institutions and representatives might introduce their ideas and agendas in future environmental and climate policies on national levels and in international negotiating systems.

"Sustaining the Borderlands in the Age of NAFTA" provides the only book-length study of the impact on residents of the US-Mexico border of NAFTA's Environmental and Labor Side Accords, which required each state to enforce labor and environmental regulations. Through field research in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, anthropologist Suzanne Simon tests the premise that the side accords would encourage Mexican grassroots democratization. The effectiveness of the side accords was tied to transparency and accountability, and practically bound to opportunities for Mexican border populations to participate in the side accord petitioning and civil society input mechanisms. Simon conducted sixteen months of fieldwork with both a group of environmental activists and a group of those fighting for labor justice in Mexico. Both of these groups became enmeshed in the types of cross-border advocacy networks and coalition building efforts that are typical of the NAFTA era.

Although the key to the side accords' anticipated success lay in their ostensibly generous encouragement of a participatory politics and sustainable development opportunities, "Sustaining the Borderlands" reveals that the Mexican border populations for which they were largely created are effectively excluded from participating due to the ongoing online, territorial, class, and cultural barriers that shape the borderlands. Rather than experiencing the side accords and their companion institutions as transparent and accessible, residents experienced them as opaque and indecipherable. Simon concludes that the side accords have failed to deliver on their promise of bringing democracy to Mexico because practical mechanisms that would ensure their effective implementation were never put in place.

NAFTA took effect at a time when Mexico was undergoing a democratic transition. The treaty was supposed to encourage this transition and improve environmental and labor conditions on the US-Mexico border. This book demonstrates that, twenty years later, the promises of NAFTA have not come to pass.

For decades, studies of oil-related conflicts have focused on the effects of natural resource mismanagement, resulting in great economic booms and busts or violence as rebels fight ruling governments over their regions' hydrocarbon resources. In "Oil Sparks in the Amazon," Patricia I. Vasquez writes that while oil busts and civil wars are common, the tension over oil in the Amazon has played out differently, in a way inextricable from the region itself.
Oil disputes in the Amazon primarily involve local indigenous populations. These groups' social and cultural identities differ from the rest of the population, and the diverse disputes over land, displacement, water contamination, jobs, and wealth distribution reflect those differences. Vasquez spent fifteen years traveling to the oilproducing regions of Latin America, conducting hundreds of interviews with the stakeholders in local conflicts. She analyzes fifty-five social and environmental clashes related to oil and gas extraction in the Andean countries (Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia). She also examines what triggers local hydrocarbons disputes and offers policy recommendations to resolve or prevent them.
Vasquez argues that each case should be analyzed with attention to its specific sociopolitical and economic context. She shows how the key to preventing disputes that lead to local conflicts is to address structural flaws (such as poor governance and inadequate legal systems) and nonstructural flaws (such as stakeholders' attitudes and behavior) at the outset. Doing this will require more than strong political commitments to ensure the equitable distribution of oil and gas revenues. It will require attention to the local values and culture as well.

The question Chris Gibson and his colleagues answer in this book is simple: 'Why is it not easy being green?' In 20 concise, focused and accessible chapters from birthing to dying, from toilets to Christmas - they unveil the ambiguities, instabilities and paradoxes of affluent household living in the 21st century. In so doing, they temper the easy rhetoric of sustainable lifestyles with some authentic realities drawn from the affluent world. Earth system science is showing us the deep complexity of our material planet. This book brilliantly reflects back to us the complex materiality of our cultural lives.' - Mike Hulme, University of East Anglia, UKContrary to the common rhetoric that being green is 'easy', household sustainability is rife with contradiction and uncertainty. Households attempting to respond to the challenge to become more sustainable in everyday life face dilemmas on a daily basis when trying to make sustainable decisions. Various aspects of life such as cars, computers, food, phones and even birth and death, may all provoke uncertainty regarding the most sustainable course of action. Drawing on international scientific and cultural research, as well as innovative ethnographies, this timely book probes these wide-ranging sustainability dilemmas, assessing the avenues open to households trying to improve their sustainability. The authors engage critically, and constructively, with the proposition that households are a key scale of action on climate change. They confront dilemmas of practice and circumstance, and cultural norms of lifestyle and consumerism that are linked to troublesome environmental problems - and question whether they can be easily unsettled. The work also illuminates the informal and often unheralded work by households - frequently the poorest - in reducing their environmental burden. This important book is critical to understanding both the barriers to household sustainability and the 'unsung' sustainability work carried out by householders. Containing a unique combination of science and cultural research, this fascinating book will appeal to researchers and students of environmental science, environmental studies, sustainability studies, climate change adaptation, geography, sociology, cultural studies, science and technology studies, as well as energy studies and housing research. Policy-makers in various levels of government working through sustainability problems, environmental educators, social planners and sustainability officers working for governments, will also find much to interest them in this unique book. Contents: Introduction 1. Having a Baby 2. Spaghetti Bolognese 3. Clothes 4. Water 5. Warmth 6. Toilets 7. Laundry 8. Furniture 9. Plastic Bags 10. Driving Cars 11. Flying 12. The Refrigerator 13. Screens 14. Mobile Phones 15. Solar Hot Water 16. The Garden 17. Christmas 18. Retirement 19. Death 20. Conclusion References Index

When did the kid who strolled the wooded path, trolled the stream, played pick-up ball in the back forty turn into the child confined to the mall and the computer screen? How did "Go out and play " go from parental shooing to prescription? When did parents become afraid to send their children outdoors? Surveying the landscape of childhood from the Civil War to our own day, this environmental history of growing up in America asks why and how the nation's children have moved indoors, often losing touch with nature in the process.

In the time the book covers, the nation that once lived in the country has migrated to the city, a move whose implications and ramifications for youth Pamela Riney-Kehrberg explores in chapters concerning children's adaptation to an increasingly urban and sometimes perilous environment. Her focus is largely on the Midwest and Great Plains, where the response of families to profound economic and social changes can be traced through its urban, suburban, and rural permutations--as summer camps, scouting, and nature education take the place of children's unmediated experience of the natural world. As the story moves into the mid-twentieth century, and technology in the form of radio and television begins to exert its allure, Riney-Kehrberg brings her own experience to bear as she documents the emerging tug-of-war between indoors and outdoors--and between the preferences of children and parents. It is a battle that children, at home with their electronic amenities, seem to have won--an outcome whose meaning and likely consequences this timely book helps us to understand.

There has been increasing concern over the impacts of 21st century challenges, be it on environmental, social, and economic aspect. Rapid development, a global health pandemic and climate change are just some of the monumental challenges affecting us. While the foundation of knowledge surrounding these impacts is continuously expanding, the adaption of sustainability concepts is not yet established especially in developing countries. Sustainability Management Strategies and Impact in Developing Countries emphasizes on the research of sustainability management and strategies in developing countries. Covering topics on sustainability management in construction, education and in social behaviour, this 26th volume of the Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management presents the importance of sustainability concepts as a vital element in development. Reviewing sustainable construction management including green schemes, industrial safety, adaptable frameworks, and policies from countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Nigeria, Sustainability Management Strategies and Impact in Developing Countries provides information to the public, researchers, planners, and stakeholders dealing with sustainability management and strategies, particularly for developing and emerging economic countries.

Michael P Hassell examines the population dynamics of the interaction between insect parasitoids and their hosts. He incorporates all the major recent advances in our understanding of these interactions to show how the resulting body of theory makes direct contact with systems in the field, and can provide us with an in-depth understanding of a whole area of population dynamics. Hassell gives us a new and authoritative synthesis of his subject, as well as an elegant and exciting demonstration of how ecological studies advance.

Over time, it is expected that climate change will have a profound impact on human and natural systems, and thereby impede future economic growth and sustainable development. In this innovative and authoritative work, leading international experts discuss the challenges and opportunities for building an economy and society that is more resilient to climate change. Building a Climate Resilient Economy and Society fulfils a long-felt need, which assumed added importance following the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, for a comprehensive work on climate resilience. The chapters are organised into three thematic sections. The first part explores vulnerability, adaptation and resilience, whilst part two offers sectoral perspectives from agriculture, fisheries, marine ecosystems, cities and urban infrastructure, drought prone areas and renewable energy. In the final part, the authors examine incentives, institutions and policy, covering topics such as carbon pricing, REDD-plus, the role of institutions and communities, climate finance and policies. Combining a global focus with detailed case studies from a cross section of regions, countries and sectors, this book will prove to be an invaluable resource for researchers, scholars and students. Written in concise, non-technical language, it will also provide a thorough reference for those in civil society or government working on climate resilience and disaster risk reduction. Contributors include: I. Arakelyan, L. Barrage, I. Bateman, C. Carraro, W.W. L. Cheung, R. Costanza, P.M. Cury, M. Davide, S. Dekker, Y. Elhadi, C. Fezzi, I. Haque, A.R. Harwood, C. Hesse, M. Inoue, C. Johnson, A.A. Lovett, K. May, K.A. Miller, A.J. Mohammed, D. Moran, K. Mutafoglu, K.N. Ninan, V. Orindi, A. Panda, A. Patt, R. Pichs-Madruga, M. Rao, J.-P. Schweitzer, V. Shandas, U. Sharma, Y. Su, U.R. Sumaila, T. Tai, P. ten Brink, D. Timmons, C. Tisdell, A. van Diepen-Heyadat, J. Voelkel, R.T. Watson, J. Woollard, A. Wreford

This work addresses the cultural background of stewardship as a progression from individual personal aesthetics to a deeply informed environmental ethic that could become a national environmental policy. Howell begins by assessing our personal cultural background and our philosophical notions of our role in the natural world. She looks at the evolution of Western civilization and changing worldviews in relation to nature, examining especially early conceptions of a more appealing, simpler life closer to nature in contrast to the perceived civilized world that is portrayed as decadent. Howell examines archetypes from literature and the popular arts, finding examples in Jungian psychology and in contemporary film and television that support the Wild Man image and promote the Simple Life yearning. She then looks at the early 20th-century conservation and preservation writers as the most direct ancestors of today's environmental movement and an immediate source of inspiration.