Economic activities that degrade the environment do not simply pit humans against nature. They also pit some humans against others. Some benefit from these activities; others bear net costs from pollution and resource depletion. In a provocative and original analysis, James K. Boyce examines the dynamics of environmental degradation in terms of the balances of power between the winners and the losers. He provides evidence that inequalities of power and wealth affect not only the distribution of environmental costs, but also their overall magnitude: greater inequalities result in more environmental degradation. Democratization - movement toward a more equitable distribution of power - therefore is not only a worthwhile objective in its own right, but also an important means toward the social goals of environmental protection and sustainable development. Combining theoretical analysis with empirical evidence from around the world, James K. Boyce demonstrates that changes in our relationship with nature ultimately require changes in our relationships with each other. He maintains that a more democratic and environmentally sustainable future is possible, but warns that it is not inevitable. This book will appeal to students, scholars, policymakers and other readers interested in the environment, economics and public policy.

If you're interested in the cutting-edge of the very best thinking on economics and the environment, it's right here. Boyce has done a masterful job integrating issues of equity and ecological thinking into economics, and presenting deep and important ideas accessibly with the latest research to back them up. Not just recommended, but essential.' - Juliet Schor, Boston College, US and author of True Wealth: How and Why Millions of Americans are Creating a Time-rich, Ecologically-light, Small-scale, High-satisfaction Economy 'A colleague of mine puts it best: when thinking about the fundamentals of the economy and the environment, there is Pigou, Coase, and Boyce. Boyce adds to traditional economics the critical understanding that social power is a determinant of the extent and spatial scale of environmental degradation. In these essays, on subjects ranging from housing and credit markets to agriculture and globalization, Boyce mixes a data-driven picture of unequal environmental protection with a keen and useful discussion of the many forms of social power that can help right the scales.' - Eban Goodstein, Bard College, US This fascinating volume has at its heart a simple but powerful premise: that a clean and safe environment is not a commodity to be allocated on the basis of purchasing power, nor a privilege to be allocated through political power, but rather a basic human right. Building upon this premise, James K. Boyce explores the many ways in which economics can be refashioned into an instrument for advancing human well-being and environmental health. Comprising a decade's worth of essays written since the publication of the author's pathbreaking book, The Political Economy of the Environment (2002), this volume discusses a number of diverse environmental issues through an economist's lens. Topics covered include environmental justice, disaster response, globalization and the environment, industrial toxins and other pollutants, cap-and-dividend climate policies, and agricultural biodiversity. The first economics book to explore the idea that the environment belongs in equal measure to us all, this pioneering volume will hold great interest for students, professors and researchers of both economics and environmental studies. Contents: 1. The Environment as Our Common Heritage 2. Is Inequality Bad for the Environment? 3. In the Wake of the Storm: Disasters and Environmental Justice 4. Justice in the Air: Tracking America's Industrial Toxics 5. Where Credit is Due 6. Cap and Dividend: Carbon Revenue as Common Wealth 7. A Chinese Sky Trust 8. A Future for Small Farms 9. Globalization and Our Environmental Future Index

If you're interested in the cutting-edge of the very best thinking on economics and the environment, it's right here. Boyce has done a masterful job integrating issues of equity and ecological thinking into economics, and presenting deep and important ideas accessibly with the latest research to back them up. Not just recommended, but essential.' - Juliet Schor, Boston College, US and author of True Wealth: How and Why Millions of Americans are Creating a Time-rich, Ecologically-light, Small-scale, High-satisfaction Economy 'A colleague of mine puts it best: when thinking about the fundamentals of the economy and the environment, there is Pigou, Coase, and Boyce. Boyce adds to traditional economics the critical understanding that social power is a determinant of the extent and spatial scale of environmental degradation. In these essays, on subjects ranging from housing and credit markets to agriculture and globalization, Boyce mixes a data-driven picture of unequal environmental protection with a keen and useful discussion of the many forms of social power that can help right the scales.' - Eban Goodstein, Bard College, US This fascinating volume has at its heart a simple but powerful premise: that a clean and safe environment is not a commodity to be allocated on the basis of purchasing power, nor a privilege to be allocated through political power, but rather a basic human right. Building upon this premise, James K. Boyce explores the many ways in which economics can be refashioned into an instrument for advancing human well-being and environmental health. Comprising a decade's worth of essays written since the publication of the author's pathbreaking book, The Political Economy of the Environment (2002), this volume discusses a number of diverse environmental issues through an economist's lens. Topics covered include environmental justice, disaster response, globalization and the environment, industrial toxins and other pollutants, cap-and-dividend climate policies, and agricultural biodiversity. The first economics book to explore the idea that the environment belongs in equal measure to us all, this pioneering volume will hold great interest for students, professors and researchers of both economics and environmental studies. Contents: 1. The Environment as Our Common Heritage 2. Is Inequality Bad for the Environment? 3. In the Wake of the Storm: Disasters and Environmental Justice 4. Justice in the Air: Tracking America's Industrial Toxics 5. Where Credit is Due 6. Cap and Dividend: Carbon Revenue as Common Wealth 7. A Chinese Sky Trust 8. A Future for Small Farms 9. Globalization and Our Environmental Future Index

This study analyzes aid after negotiated settlements to civil wars, drawing on recent experiences in Bosnia, Cambodia, El Salvador, and Guatemala. It focuses on the potential for peace conditionality, linking aid to steps to implement accords and consolidate the peace. The study explores how aid can encourage domestic investment in peace-related needs; how to reconcile long-run peacebuilding objectives with short-run humanitarian imperatives; and the obstacles that donors' usual priorities and procedures pose to effective aid for peace. Investing in peace, the author concludes, requires not only the reconstruction of war-torn societies but also the reconstruction of aid itself.

This book analyzes the provision of aid to countries that have undergone negotiated settlements to civil wars, drawing on recent experiences in Bosnia, Cambodia, El Salvador, and Guatemala. It focuses on the potential for peace conditionality, linking aid to steps to implement accords and consolidate the peace. The book explores how aid can encourage domestic investment in peace-related needs; the reconciliation of long-run peacebuilding objectives with short-run humanitarian imperatives; and the obstacles that donors' priorities and procedures pose to effective aid for peace. It concludes that investing in peace requires not only the reconstruction of war-torn societies but also the reconstruction of aid itself.

Economic activities that degrade the environment do not simply pit humans against nature. They also pit some humans against others. Some benefit from these activities; others bear net costs from pollution and resource depletion. In a provocative and original analysis, James K. Boyce examines the dynamics of environmental degradation in terms of the balances of power between the winners and the losers. He provides evidence that inequalities of power and wealth affect not only the distribution of environmental costs, but also their overall magnitude: greater inequalities result in more environmental degradation. Democratization - movement toward a more equitable distribution of power - therefore is not only a worthwhile objective in its own right, but also an important means toward the social goals of environmental protection and sustainable development. Combining theoretical analysis with empirical evidence from around the world, James K. Boyce demonstrates that changes in our relationship with nature ultimately require changes in our relationships with each other. He maintains that a more democratic and environmentally sustainable future is possible, but warns that it is not inevitable. This book will appeal to students, scholars, policymakers and other readers interested in the environment, economics and public policy.

Honoring Keith Griffin's more than 40 years of fundamental contributions to the discipline of economics, the papers in this volume reflect his deep commitment to advancing the well-being of the world's poor majority and his unflinching willingness to question conventional wisdom as to how this should be done. Four overarching themes recur in Keith Griffin's work and this book: the need to both eradicate poverty and redress inequalities in the distribution of wealth within and among nations; the impact of growth on inequality, and conversely inequality's impact on growth; the political economy of policy-making; and the need for openness to heterogeneity in both analytic tools and in policy recommendations. The volume begins with an introduction by the editors followed by a paper by Keith Griffin. In succeeding chapters the contributors explore strategies for reducing poverty and inequality, and provide perspectives on issues such as human development, the rural/urban divide in China, and biodiversity and sustainability. Students, researchers, policymakers and NGO analysts exploring issues in development economics, development studies, alternative economic systems, globalization, environmental sustainability, inequality and well-being will find this book of great interest.

Honoring Keith Griffin's more than 40 years of fundamental contributions to the discipline of economics, the papers in this volume reflect his deep commitment to advancing the well-being of the world's poor majority and his unflinching willingness to question conventional wisdom as to how this should be done. Four overarching themes recur in Keith Griffin's work and this book: the need to both eradicate poverty and redress inequalities in the distribution of wealth within and among nations; the impact of growth on inequality, and conversely inequality's impact on growth; the political economy of policy-making; and the need for openness to heterogeneity in both analytic tools and in policy recommendations. The volume begins with an introduction by the editors followed by a paper by Keith Griffin. In succeeding chapters the contributors explore strategies for reducing poverty and inequality, and provide perspectives on issues such as human development, the rural/urban divide in China, and biodiversity and sustainability. Students, researchers, policymakers and NGO analysts exploring issues in development economics, development studies, alternative economic systems, globalization, environmental sustainability, inequality and well-being will find this book of great interest.

A quiet violence today stalks the villages and shanty towns of the Third World, the violence of needless hunger. In this book, two Bengali-speaking Americans take the reader to a Bangladesh village where they lived for nine months. There, the reader meets some of the world's poorest people - peasants, sharecroppers and landless labourers - and some of the not-so-poor people who profit from their misery. The villagers' poverty is not fortuitous, a result of divine dispensation or individual failings of character. Rather, it is the outcome of a long history of exploitation, culminating in a social order which today benefits a few at the expense of many.

In the aftermath of violent conflict, how do the economic challenges of state building intersect with the political challenges of peace building? How can the international community help lay the fiscal foundations for a sustainable state and a durable peace? ""Peace and the Public Purse"" examines these questions, lifting the curtain that often has separated economic policy from peace implementation. Drawing on recent experiences in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cambodia, East Timor, Guatemala, Palestine, and Uganda, the authors bring to life a key dimension of how both peace and states are built. The book explores how the economic challenges of state building intersect with the political challenges of peace building in the aftermath of violent conflict.

This book analyzes the Philippine economy from the 1960s to the 1980s. During this period, the benefits of economic growth conspicuously failed to "trickle down". Despite rising per capita income, broad sectors of the Filipino population experienced deepening poverty.;Professor Boyce traces this outcome to the country's economic and political structure and focuses on three elements of the government's development strategy: the "green revolution" in rice agriculture, the primacy accorded to export agriculture and forestry, and massive external borrowing.;James Boyce is the author of "Agrarian Impasse in Bengal" and co-author of "A Quiet Violence: View from a Bangladesh Village".

"Un ouvrage d'avant-garde qui devrait etre lu par tous soucieux de l'Afrique. D'une maniere magistrale, mais facilement comprehensible et approfondie, les auteurs demolissent le mythe selon lequel les pays africains ont recu d'importants flux nets de capitaux etrangers. Ce livre devrait modifier radicalement la pensee et la politique." - John Weeks, Professeur emerite, SOAS, Universite de Londres, Royaume-Uni. "C'est probablement le livre le plus important sur l'Afrique de ces dernieres annees, une lecture capitale pour quiconque a un interet dans les affaires africaines... Enrageant, eclairant et encourageant dans une egale mesure, ce livre conjugue passion et excellence en recherche: un reel tour de force." - John Christensen, Directeur, Tax Justice Network, Etats-Unis. Dans La dette odieuse de l'Afrique, Leonce Ndikumana et James K. Boyce revelent le fait choquant que, contrairement a la perception populaire comme quoi l'Afrique ponctionne les ressources financieres de l'Occident, le continent est en fait un creancier net du reste du monde. Au cours des quatre dernieres decennies, plus de 700 milliards de dollars ont fui les pays africains. Toutefois, les actifs de l'Afrique detenus a l'etranger sont prives et caches, tandis que ses dettes exterieures sont publiques, dus par les peuples africains a travers leurs gouvernements. Ndikumana et Boyce montrent les liens intimes entre les prets etrangers et la fuite des capitaux. Plus de la moitie de l'argent emprunte par les gouvernements africains dans les dernieres decennies a fui dans la meme annee, une partie importante etant deposee dans des comptes prives dans les memes banques qui ont fourni les prets. Entre temps, le service de la dette continue a drainer les ressources rares de l'Afrique, reduisant ainsi les fonds disponibles pour la sante publique et d'autres besoins de base. De facon provocatrice, les auteurs proposent que les gouvernements africains devraient repudier ces "dettes odieuses" dont leur peuple n'a tire aucun avantage, et que la communaute internationale devrait aider dans cet effort. Un livre indispensable pour quiconque s'interesse a l'Afrique, son avenir et ses relations avec du monde.

In Africa's Odious Debts, Boyce and Ndikumana reveal the shocking fact that, contrary to the popular perception of Africa being a drain on the financial resources of the West, the continent is actually a net creditor to the rest of the world. The extent of capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable: more than $700 billion in the past four decades. But Africa's foreign assets remain private and hidden, while its foreign debts are public, owed by the people of Africa through their governments. Leonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce reveal the intimate links between foreign loans and capital flight. Of the money borrowed by African governments in recent decades, more than half departed in the same year, with a significant portion of it winding up in private accounts at the very banks that provided the loans in the first place. Meanwhile, debt-service payments continue to drain scarce resources from Africa, cutting into funds available for public health and other needs. Controversially, the authors argue that African governments should repudiate these 'odious debts' from which their people derived no benefit, and that the international community should assist in this effort. A vital book for anyone interested in Africa, its future and its relationship with the West.

In Reclaiming Nature, leading environmental thinkers from across the globe explore the relationship between the natural world and human activities. The authors draw inspiration and lessons from diverse experiences, from community-based fishery and forestry management to innovative strategies for combating global warming. They advance a compelling new vision of environmentalism, founded on the link between the struggle to reclaim nature and the struggle for social justice.

In 'Reclaiming Nature', leading environmental thinkers from across the globe explore the relationship between human activities and the natural world. The authors draw inspiration and lessons from diverse experiences ranging from community-based fishery and forestry management to innovative strategies for combating global warming. They advance a compelling new vision of environmentalism, founded on the link between the struggle to reclaim nature and the struggle for social justice. This book advances three core propositions: first, humans can and do have positive as well as negative effects on the natural environment. By restoring degraded ecosystems and engaging in co-evolutionary processes, people can add value to nature's wealth. Second, every person has an inalienable right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment. These are not privileges to be awarded on the basis of political power, nor commodities to be allocated on the basis of purchasing power -- they are fundamental human rights. Third, low-income communities are not the root of the problem. Rather they are the heart of the solution. In cities and the countryside across the world, ordinary people are forging a vibrant new environmentalism that is rooted in the defense of their lives and livelihoods.