This title was first published in 2003. Until recently, planning and development in the Caribbean have been "top-down", "centre-out" and "expert-led". For a few years now, though, the region has bowed to the global trend and has experimented with participatory planning methods. Participatory planning is heralded by much of the development community as the most appropriate alternative strategy to the traditional approaches. In this volume, a range of experts drawn from the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and the United States review the current achievements and future prospects for genuinely participative planning in the Caribbean region at the beginning of the 21st Century. Bringing together a wide range of case studies from both the insular Caribbean as well as mainland Central and South America, the book examines issues such as protected area planning, sustainable development councils, gender and development, inner-city redevelopment and community empowerment.

Illustrated by case studies from both smaller nations - such as Carriacou, Barbados and St Lucia - and larger countries - including Cuba, Mexico and Jamaica - this volume brings together leading writers on environmental planning in the Caribbean to provide an interdisciplinary contemporary critical overview. They argue that context is central to the practice of environmental planning in this region. Rather than focusing on a deterministic colonial geography and history, the contributors propose that, whilst a wide range of foreign planning influences can be felt in different contexts, environmental planning emerges in specific settings, through the fluid interaction between local and global relations of power. A number of chapters explore the effects of external discourses upon the region, while others examine discourses on Western-style democracy and tourism. Other important themes covered include participatory planning, urban planning, physical development planning, pest management, sustainable development, water pollution, conservation and ecotourism.

Illustrated by case studies from both smaller nations - such as Carriacou, Barbados and St Lucia - and larger countries - including Cuba, Mexico and Jamaica - this volume brings together leading writers on environmental planning in the Caribbean to provide an interdisciplinary contemporary critical overview. They argue that context is central to the practice of environmental planning in this region. Rather than focusing on a deterministic colonial geography and history, the contributors propose that, whilst a wide range of foreign planning influences can be felt in different contexts, environmental planning emerges in specific settings, through the fluid interaction between local and global relations of power. A number of chapters explore the effects of external discourses upon the region, while others examine discourses on Western-style democracy and tourism. Other important themes covered include participatory planning, urban planning, physical development planning, pest management, sustainable development, water pollution, conservation and ecotourism.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Personal autonomy is often lauded as a key value in contemporary Western bioethics. Though the claim that there is an important relationship between autonomy and rationality is often treated as uncontroversial in this sphere, there is also considerable disagreement about how we should cash out the relationship. In particular, it is unclear whether a rationalist view of autonomy can be compatible with legal judgments that enshrine a patient's right to refuse medical treatment, regardless of whether the reasons underpinning the choice are known and rational, or indeed whether they even exist. Jonathan Pugh brings recent philosophical work on the nature of rationality to bear on the question of how we should understand personal autonomy in contemporary bioethics. In doing so, he develops a new framework for thinking about the concept of autonomy, one that is grounded in an understanding of the different roles that rational beliefs and rational desires have to play in it. Pugh's account allows for a deeper understanding of d the relationship between our freedom to act and our capacity to decide autonomously. His rationalist perspective is contrasted with other prominent accounts of autonomy in bioethics, and the revisionary implications it has for practical questions in biomedicine are also outlined.