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A comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the conceptual tools used to explore real-world environmental problems.
Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction, third edition demonstrates how theoretical approaches such as environmental ethics, political economy, and social construction work as conceptual tools to identify and clarify contemporary environmental issues. Assuming no background knowledge in the subject, this reader-friendly textbook uses clear language and engaging examples to first describe nine key conceptual tools, and then apply them to a variety of familiar objects – from bottled water and French fries to trees, wolves, and carbon dioxide. Throughout the text, highly accessible chapters provide insight into the relationship between the environment and present-day society.
Divided into two parts, the text begins by explaining major theoretical approaches for interpreting the environment-society relationship and discussing different perspectives about environmental problems. Part II examines a series of objects, each viewed through a sample of the theoretical tools from Part I, helping readers think critically about critical environmental topics such as deforestation, climate change, the global water supply, and hazardous e-waste. This fully revised third edition stresses a wider range of competing ways of thinking about environmental issues and features additional cases studies, up-to-date conceptual understandings, and new chapters in Part I on racializd environments and feminist approaches. Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction:
- Covers theoretical lenses such as commodities, environmental ethics, and risks and hazards, and applies them to touchstone environment-society objects like wolves, tuna, trees, and carbon dioxide
- Uses a conversational narrative to explain key historical events, topical issues and policies, and scientific concepts
- Features substantial revisions and updates, including new chapters on feminism and race, and improved maps and illustrations
- Includes a wealth of in-book and online resources, including exercises and boxed discussions, chapter summaries, review questions, references, suggested readings, an online test bank, and internet links
- Provides additional instructor support such as suggested teaching models, full-colour PowerPoint slides, and supplementary teaching material
Covers theoretical lenses such as commodities, environmental ethics, and risks and hazards, and applies them to touchstone environment-society objects like wolves, tuna, trees, and carbon dioxide Uses a conversational narrative to explain key historical events, topical issues and policies, and scientific concepts Features substantial revisions and updates, including new chapters on feminism and race, and improved maps and illustrations Includes a wealth of in-book and online resources, including exercises and boxed discussions, chapter summaries, review questions, references, suggested readings, an online test bank, and internet links Provides additional instructor support such as suggested teaching models, full-color PowerPoint slides, and supplementary teaching material
Retaining the innovative approach of its predecessors, Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction, Third Edition remains the ideal textbook for courses in environmental issues, environmental science, and nature and society theory.
List of Figures x
List of Tables xv
List of Boxes xvi
Acknowledgments xvii
About the Companion Website xviii
1. Introduction: The View from a Human-Made Wild 1
Part I Approaches and Perspectives 13
2. Population and Scarcity 15
3. Markets and Commodities 33
4. Institutions and “The Commons” 51
5. Environmental Ethics 67
6. Risks and Technology 83
7. Political Economy 99
8. Social Construction of Nature 118
9 Feminism and the Environment 136
10. Racialized Environments 156
Part II Objects of Concern 175
11. Carbon Dioxide 177
12. Trees 200
13. Wolves 222
14. Uranium 242
15. Tuna 264
16. Lawns 283
17. Bottled Water 298
18. French Fries 318
19. E-Waste 341
Glossary 362
Index 372
Paul Robbins is a Professor and Director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison. His research focuses on human-environment systems, the influence non-human factors have on human behaviour and organization, and the implications these interactions hold for ecosystem health, local communities, and social justice. He is the author of Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edition (Wiley Blackwell, 2012).
John Hintz is an Associate Professor of Environmental, Geographic, and Geological Sciences at the Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on land use conflicts, environmental policy, and the US environmental movement.
Sarah A. Moore is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her research focuses on urban development politics, urban environmental issues, and environmental justice in the United States and Latin America.
