Rethinking Nature Challenging Disciplinary Boundaries

About this book

Contemporary ideas of nature were largely shaped by schools of thought from Western cultural history and philosophy until the present-day concerns with environmental change and biodiversity conservation. There are many different ways of conceptualising nature in epistemological terms, reflecting the tensions between the polarities of humans as masters or protectors of nature and as part of or outside of nature.

Rethinking Nature shows how nature is today the focus of numerous debates, calling for an approach which goes beyond the merely technical or scientific. It adopts a threefold – critical, historical and cross-disciplinary – approach in order to summarise the current state of knowledge. It includes contributions informed by the humanities (especially history, literature and philosophy) and social sciences, concerned with the production and circulation of knowledge about "nature" across disciplines and across national and cultural spaces. Rethinking Nature also demonstrates the ongoing reconfiguration of subject disciplines, as seen in the recent emergence of new interdisciplinary approaches and the popularity of the prefix "eco-" (e.g. ecocriticism, ecospirituality, ecosophy and ecofeminism, as well as subdivisions of ecology, including urban ecology, industrial ecology and ecosystem services). Each chapter provides a concise overview of its topic which will serve as a helpful introduction to students and a source of easy reference.

This text is also valuable reading for researchers interested in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, geography, ecology, politics and all their respective environmentalist strands.

Contents

Introduction: Rethinking the idea of nature
      Aurélie Choné, Isabelle Hajek & Philippe Hamman

Part I – Values and actions
1 Environmental ethics
      Catherine Larrère
2 Ecosophy
      Hicham-Stéphane Afeissa
3 Ecospirituality
      Aurélie Choné
4 Ecopsychology
      Dennis L. Merritt

Part II – Writings and representations
5 The aesthetics of nature
      Nathalie Blanc
6 Ecocriticism
      Emmanuelle Peraldo
7 Epistemocritical perspectives on nature
      Laurence Dahan

Part III – Movements, activism and societies
8 From Lebensreform to political ecology
      Catherine Repussard
9 Ecofeminism
      Margot Lauwers
10 From environmental sociology to ecosociologies
      Graham Woodgate
11 From anthropogeography to ethnoecology
      Éric Navet

Part IV – Renewed ecologies
12 Rethinking rural nature in the era of ecocide
      Owain Jones
13 Urban ecology
      Isabelle Hajek and Jean-Pierre Lévy
14 Nature, environment, health
      Lionel Charles
15 Sustainable urbanism
      Philippe Hamman
16 Industrial ecology
      Nicolas Buclet
17 The ecosystem services paradigm
      Roldan Muradian

Part V – Human–animal
18 Ecocide, ethnocide and civilizations
      Éric Navet
19 Animal studies
      Roland Borgards
20 Constructing an animal history
      Éric Baratay
21 Environmental humanities
      Sabine Wilke

Conclusion: How nature matters
      Aurélie Choné, Isabelle Hajek and Philippe Hamman

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Biography

Aurélie Choné is Associate Professor in German Cultural Studies at the Faculty of World Languages and Cultures, University of Strasbourg, France. Isabelle Hajek is Associate Professor in Sociology at the Institute for Urbanism and Regional Development, University of Strasbourg, France. Philippe Hamman is Professor of Sociology at the Institute for Urbanism and Regional Development, University of Strasbourg, France.