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Reinventing Prosperity: Managing Economic Growth to Reduce Unemployment, Inequality and Climate Change
by Jorgen Randers David Suzuki Graeme MaxtonThe biggest challenges facing human wellbeing today are widening income inequality, continuing global poverty, and environmental degradation. Luckily, these problems are simple to solve - in theory.In practice, however, they are much harder to solve, because we are required to come up with solutions that are acceptable to a political majority in the rich world. Most of the commonly proposed "solutions" are simply not acceptable to most people. Many of these proposed solutions - like stopping the use of fossil fuels - require a sacrifice today in order to obtain an uncertain advantage in the far future. Therefore they are politically infeasible in the modern world, which is marked by relatively short term thinking.In Reinventing Prosperity, Graeme Maxton and Jorgen Randers provide a new approach altogether through thirteen recommendations which are both politically acceptable and which can be implemented in the current period of slow economic growth around the world. Reinventing Prosperity solves the forty year old growth/no-growth standoff, by providing a solution to income inequality, continuing global poverty and climate change, a solution that will provide for economic growth but with a declining ecological footprint.Reinventing Prosperity shows us how to live better on our finite planet - and in ways we can agree on.
Reinventing the Spoon
by Cricket MediaThe Bakeys company uses a simple recipe to make edible spoons in the hopes of cutting down on plastic trash.
The Reinvention of Mexico in Contemporary Spanish Travel Writing
by Jane HanleyThe long history of transatlantic movement in the Spanish-speaking world has had a significant impact on present-day concepts of Mexico and the implications of representing Mexico and Latin America more generally in Spain, Europe, and throughout the world. In addition to analyzing texts that have received little to no critical attention, this book examines the connections between contemporary travel, including the local dynamics of encounters and the global circulation of information, and the significant influence of the history of exchange between Spain and Mexico in the construction of existing ideas of place. To frame the analysis of contemporary travel writing, author Jane Hanley examines key moments in the history of Mexican-Spanish relations, including the origins of narratives regarding Spaniards' sense of Mexico's similarity to and difference from Spain. This history underpins the discussion of the role of Spanish travelers in their encounters with Mexican peoples and places and their reflection on their own role as communicators of cultural meaning and participants in the tourist economy with its impact—both negative and positive—on places.
Reisenotizen: 57 Episoden über Ansichten, Absichten und Hirngespinste
by Wolfgang WicklerEin Buch für neugierige Leser. Geschildert werden im Laufe von 60 Jahren angehäufte Erlebnisse des forschenden Autors auf allen Kontinenten und dadurch ausgelöste Nachgedanken über die Fortpflanzung der Lebewesen, kulturelle Praktiken, kuriose Traditionen, gepflegte Irrtümer und unzumutbare Glaubensinhalte. Jede harmoniesüchtige Weltanschauung kontrastiert mit der auf Konkurrenz und Konflikt angelegten Schöpfung und führt zu negativ nachhaltigem technischem und religiösem Missionieren. Stimmt es, dass der Mensch aus Erfahrung lernt?
Relational and Critical Perspectives on Education for Sustainable Development: Belonging and Sensing in a Vanishing World (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Margaretha Häggström Catarina SchmidtThis volume focuses on the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), education, to look at sustainability from various angles with the purpose of challenging preconceptions about what sustainable education might entail and how it should be conducted. To this end, the book assembles scholars from various research fields and disciplines, who are willing to be at the cutting edge regarding sustainability and education on all levels with students in the ages of 6-15. Through this approach, the text points towards a “wild pedagogy” in line with post-sustainable thinking. This involves agency and the role of nature itself as a co-educator, and promotes cultural changes, and explorative processes of finding “the wild” – the unknown, and complexity in nature – and thus of challenging the human need for control. This approach is also, in line with the 2030 Agenda, an attempt to move from advocating predetermined behavioural change to embracing a pluralistic perspective on sustainability, based on holistic views on education. Such views include curiosity, wonderment, compassion and agency as guiding lights. The book is structured into three sections, based on three interrelated strands. These strands are, in various ways, dependent on one another and further engaged with bringing education theory and practice together. These strands are 1) Belonging and sensing, 2) Critical thinking, social justice and action competence, and 3) Creating hope in a vanishing world. These strands aim to increase our access to and understanding of the ways in which sustainability can be integrated into education and why. The purpose of the text is to encourage educators of all kinds and levels, as well as scholars in different fields, to explore new perspectives on education for sustainable development. The book examines probes in diverse academic fields and focuses on how to combine different approaches and content, and therefore everyone interested in interdisciplinary and cross-curricular teaching and learning should find this work enlightening.
The Relationship Between FDI and the Natural Environment
by Pasquale PazienzaThis work examines in depth the relationship between foreign direct investment and the environment. Over the last few decades, increasing levels of environmental degradation have been recorded and have been claimed to be particularly attributable to globalization and the widespread increase of economic activities, in particular foreign direct investments (FDIs). However, the environmental implications of FDIs are not easily identified and contradictory views and arguments have been presented. This work contributes to the debate by closely analyzing the specific literature produced over the last three decades, and by presenting and discussing recent trends and prospects with regard to the FDI phenomenon.
Relationships and the Course of Social Events During Mineral Exploration: An Applied Sociology Approach (SpringerBriefs in Geoethics)
by Jan BoonThis book provides the results of nine case studies of the course of social events in mineral exploration projects (mostly in Latin America). The author concluded that, while each case is sui generis, the underlying sociological processes are the same. This made it possible to develop a generalized model for the course of social events during mineral exploration. It consists of seven stages: (i) arrival of the project; (ii) initial meanings, interpretations and decisions; (iii) real dialogue; (iv) building relationships; (v) change processes; (vi) new relationships and social structures and (vii) the course of social events and perceived benefits and harms. Stages (iii) => (iv) => (v) => (iii) form a continuous iterative cycle. Dialogue and relationships are at the heart of the model. The text describes five of the nine case studies in some detail and illustrates how sociology explains the sociological processes in these projects. These examples, together with the final chapter that discusses the implications, provide many practical pointers for all actors involved: industry, communities, NGOs, home governments and host governments.
Relative Fidelity Processing of Seismic Data: Methods and Applications
by Xiwen WangThis book presents a comprehensive overview of relative fidelity preservation processing methods and their applications within the oil and gas sector. Four key principles for wide-frequency relative fidelity preservation processing are illustrated throughout the text. Seismic broadband acquisition is the basis for relative fidelity preservation processing and the influence of seismic acquisition on data processing is also analyzed. The methods and principles of Kirchhoff integral migration, one-way wave equation migration and reverse time migration are also introduced and illustrated clearly. Current research of relative amplitude preservation migration algorithms is introduced, and the corresponding numerical results are also shown. RTM (reverse time migration) imaging methods based on GPU/CPU systems for complicated structures are represented. This includes GPU/CPU high performance calculations and its application to seismic exploration, two-way wave extrapolation operator and boundary conditions, imaging conditions and low frequency noise attenuation, and GPU/CPU system based RTM imaging algorithms. Migration velocity model building methods in depth domain for complicated structures are illustrated in this book. The research status and development of velocity model building are introduced. And the impacting factors are also discussed. Several different velocity model building methods are also represented and analyzed. The book also provides the reader with several case studies of field seismic data imaging in different kinds of basins to show the methods used in practice.
Relativistic Dynamics of a Charged Sphere: Updating the Lorentz-Abraham Model
by Arthur D. YaghjianIn addition to expanding and clarifying a number of sections of the first edition, it generalizes the analysis that eliminates the noncausal pre-acceleration so that it applies to removing any pre-deceleration as well. It also introduces a robust power series solution to the equation of motion that produces an extremely accurate solution to problems such as the motion of electrons in uniform magnetic fields.
Relativistic Fluid Dynamics In and Out of Equilibrium: And Applications to Relativistic Nuclear Collisions (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics)
by Paul Romatschke Ulrike RomatschkeThe past decade has seen unprecedented developments in the understanding of relativistic fluid dynamics in and out of equilibrium, with connections to astrophysics, cosmology, string theory, quantum information, nuclear physics and condensed matter physics. Romatschke and Romatschke offer a powerful new framework for fluid dynamics, exploring its connections to kinetic theory, gauge/gravity duality and thermal quantum field theory. Numerical algorithms to solve the equations of motion of relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics as well as applications to various systems are discussed. In particular, the book contains a comprehensive review of the theory background necessary to apply fluid dynamics to simulate relativistic nuclear collisions, including comparisons of fluid simulation results to experimental data for relativistic lead-lead, proton-lead and proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The book is an excellent resource for students and researchers working in nuclear physics, astrophysics, cosmology, quantum many-body systems and string theory.
Relativistic Geodesy: Foundations and Applications (Fundamental Theories of Physics #196)
by Dirk Puetzfeld Claus LämmerzahlDue to steadily improving experimental accuracy, relativistic concepts – based on Einstein’s theory of Special and General Relativity – are playing an increasingly important role in modern geodesy. This book offers an introduction to the emerging field of relativistic geodesy, and covers topics ranging from the description of clocks and test bodies, to time and frequency measurements, to current and future observations. Emphasis is placed on geodetically relevant definitions and fundamental methods in the context of Einstein’s theory (e.g. the role of observers, use of clocks, definition of reference systems and the geoid, use of relativistic approximation schemes). Further, the applications discussed range from chronometric and gradiometric determinations of the gravitational field, to the latest (satellite) experiments. The impact of choices made at a fundamental theoretical level on the interpretation of measurements and the planning of future experiments is also highlighted. Providing an up-to-the-minute status report on the respective topics discussed, the book will not only benefit experts, but will also serve as a guide for students with a background in either geodesy or gravitational physics who are interested in entering and exploring this emerging field.
Relativistische Quantenmechanik
by Georg WolschinDieses Buch richtet sich an Studierende der Physik, die bereits über Grundkenntnisse der Quantenmechanik verfügen und relativistische Wellengleichungen kennenlernen möchten. Im Hauptteil des Buchs behandelt der Autor die Klein-Gordon-Gleichung und die Dirac-Gleichung, wobei er deren Lösungen und ihre Bedeutung hervorhebt. Die Invarianzen der Dirac-Gleichung in Bezug auf Paritätstransformation, Ladungskonjugation und Zeitumkehr werden diskutiert, mit dem Klein’schen Paradoxon wird dem Leser eine interessante Anwendung näher gebracht und mit der Weyl-Gleichung ihr Spezialfall für masselose Fermionen dargestellt. Neben diesen Schwerpunkten werden die Entwicklungen thematisiert, die zur Aufstellung der relativistischen Wellengleichungen durch Schrödinger, Klein, Gordon und Dirac führten und somit auch auf den wissenschaftshistorisch interessanten Hintergrund verweisen. Ebenfalls erläutert ist die Verbindung zur Galilei-invarianten nicht-relativistischen Quantenmechanik. Zuletzt werden kurz die Grundzüge der Quantenelektrodynamik und Elemente der relativistischen Streutheorie erläutert.Anhand von Testaufgaben am Ende des Buchs wird der Leser dazu motiviert, den Stoff selbst beispielhaft nachzurechnen und das Gelernte zu festigen. Die Mehrzahl der Lösungen lassen sich im jeweiligen Kapitel finden.Die vorliegende zweite Auflage wurde vollständig durchgesehen, an vielen Stellen verbessert, ergänzt und überarbeitet. Ein neues Schlusskapitel über relativistische Schwerionenkollisionen wurde hinzugefügt.
Releasing the Commons: Rethinking the futures of the commons (Routledge Studies in Human Geography)
by Ash Amin and Philip HowellThis book moves beyond seeing the commons in the past tense, an entity passed over from the public into the private, to reimagine the commons as a process, a contest of force, a reconstitution, and a site of convening practices. It highlights new spaces of gathering opening up, such as the digital commons, and new practices of being in common, such as community economies and solidarity networks. The commons is seen as a contested domain of the collective and as a changing way of being in common, with the balance poised in the tensile play between political economy and social innovation. The book focuses on the possibility of recovering a future in which more can be held by the many, focusing on three concepts: nation and nature as a commons, publics and rights, and bodies, concerning the management of lives and livelihoods. Across these three passage points, the book finds evidence of a commons under attack but also defended in fragile though promising ways. With contributions from leading scholars, this thought provoking book will be of great interest to students and scholars in geography, environmental studies, politics, anthropology, and cultural studies.
Reliability-Based Design in Soil and Rock Engineering: Enhancing Partial Factor Design Approaches
by Bak Kong LowThis book contains probabilistic analyses and reliability-based designs (RBDs) for the enhancement of Eurocode 7 (EC7) and load and resistance factor design (LRFD) methods. An intuitive perspective and efficient computational procedure for the first-order reliability method (FORM, which includes the Hasofer–Lind reliability index) is explained, together with discussions on the similarities and differences between the design point of EC7/LRFD and RBD-via-FORM. Probability-based designs with respect to the ultimate and serviceability limit states are demonstrated for soil and rock engineering, including shallow and deep foundations, earth-retaining structures, soil slopes, 2D rock slopes with discontinuities, 3D rock slopes with wedge mechanisms, and underground rock excavations. Renowned cases in soil and rock engineering are analyzed both deterministically and probabilistically, and comparisons are made with other probabilistic methods. This book is ideal for practitioners, graduate students and researchers and all who want to deepen their understanding of geotechnical RBD accounting for uncertainty and overcome some limitations and potential pitfalls of the evolving LRFD and EC7. Solutions for the book’s examples are available online and are helpful to acquire a hands-on appreciation: https://www.routledge.com/9780367631390.
Reliability of Geotechnical Structures in ISO2394
by K.K. Phoon and J.V. RetiefThe latest 4th edition of the international standard on the principles of reliability for load bearing structures (ISO2394:2015) includes a new Annex D dedicated to the reliability of geotechnical structures. The emphasis in Annex D is to identify and characterize critical elements of the geotechnical reliability-based design process. This book contains a wealth of data and information to assist geotechnical engineers with the implementation of semi-probabilistic or full probabilistic design approaches within the context of established geotechnical knowledge, principles, and experience. The introduction to the book presents an overview on how reliability can play a complementary role within prevailing norms in geotechnical practice to address situations where some measured data and/or past experience exist for limited site-specifi c data to be supplemented by both objective regional data and subjective judgment derived from comparable sites elsewhere. The principles of reliability as presented in ISO2394:2015 provides the common basis for harmonization of structural and geotechnical design. The balance of the chapters describes the uncertainty representation of geotechnical design parameters, the statistical characterization of multivariate geotechnical data and model factors, semi-probabilistic and direct probability-based design methods in accordance to the outline of Annex D. This book elaborates and reinforces the goal of Annex D to advance geotechnical reliability-based design with geotechnical needs at the forefront while complying with the general principles of reliability given by ISO2394:2015. It serves as a supplementary reference to Annex D and it is a must-read for designing geotechnical structures in compliance with ISO2394:2015.
Relict Species
by Jan Christian Habel Thorsten AssmannThis book provides an overview of the importance of research on relict species and presents conclusions and findings on the conservation of these species. There are relict species and populations from nearly all plant and animal groups and they contribute substantially to biodiversity across the globe. Current diversity patterns are influenced by both historic and recent ecological conditions. Relict species are of particular importance, as they usually suffer more severely from human activities than do non-relict populations; the situation is also potentially critical, as many relict species and populations have the potential to colonize large areas when the climate changes. The more than 27 contributions in this book highlight the history and status of today's relict species and populations and apply molecular genetics, morphometry, modelling and conservation biology to describe the past and present situations and to predict future trends of relict species' distribution.
Religion and Development in the Asia-Pacific: Sacred places as development spaces (Routledge Research in Religion and Development)
by Matthew Clarke Anna HalafoffCommunity development is most effective and efficient when it is situated and led at the local level and considers the social behaviours, needs and worldviews of local communities. With more than eight out of ten people globally self-reporting religious belief, Religion and Development in the Asia-Pacific: Sacred places as development spaces argues that the role and impact of religions on community development needs to be better understood. It also calls for greater attention to be given to the role of sacred places as sites for development activities, and for a deeper appreciation of the way in which sacred stories and teachings inspire people to work for the benefit of others in particular locations. The book considers theories of ‘place’ as a component of successful development interventions and expands this analysis to consider the specific role that sacred places – buildings and social networks – have in planning, implementing and promoting sustainable development. A series of case studies examine various sacred places as sites for development activities. These case studies include Christian churches and disaster relief in Vanuatu; Muslim shrines and welfare provision in Pakistan; a women’s Buddhist monastery in Thailand advancing gender equity; a Jewish aid organisation providing language training to Muslim Women in Australia; and Hawaiian sacred sites located within a holistic retreat centre committed to ecological sustainability. Religion and Development in the Asia-Pacific demonstrates the important role that sacred spaces can play in development interventions, covering diverse major world religions, interfaith and spiritual contexts, and as such will be of considerable interest for postgraduate students and researchers in development studies, religious studies, sociology of religion and geography.
Religion and Ecology: Developing a Planetary Ethic
by Whitney BaumanMoving beyond identity politics while continuing to respect diverse entities and concerns, Whitney A. Bauman builds a planetary politics that better responds to the realities of a pluralistic world. Calling attention to the historical, political, and ecological influences shaping our understanding of nature, religion, humanity, and identity, Bauman collapses the boundaries separating male from female, biology from machine, human from more than human, and religion from science, encouraging readers to embrace hybridity and the inherent fluctuations of an open, evolving global community.As he outlines his planetary ethic, Bauman concurrently develops an environmental ethic of movement that relies not on place but on the daily connections we make across the planet. He shows how both identity politics and environmental ethics fail to realize planetary politics and action, limited as they are by foundational modes of thought that create entire worlds out of their own logic. Introducing a postfoundational vision not rooted in the formal principles of "nature" or "God" and not based in the idea of human exceptionalism, Bauman draws on cutting-edge insights from queer, poststructural, and deconstructive theory and makes a major contribution to the study of religion, science, politics, and ecology.
Religion and Nature Conservation: Global Case Studies (Routledge Studies in Conservation and the Environment)
by Radhika Borde Alison A Ormsby Stephen M Awoyemi Andrew G GoslerThis book presents a broad array of global case studies exploring the interaction between religion and the conservation of nature, from the viewpoints of the religious practitioners themselves. With conservation and religion often being championed as allies in the quest for a sustainable world where humans and nature flourish, this book provides a much-needed compendium of detailed examples where religion and conservation science have been brought together. Case studies cover a variety of religions, faiths and practices, including traditional, Indigenous, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism. Importantly, this volume gives voice to the religious practitioners and adherents themselves. Beyond an exercise in anthropology, ethnobiology and comparative religion, the book is an applied work, seeking the answer to how in a world of nearly eight billion people, we might help our own species to prevent the extinction of life. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of nature conservation, environment and religion, cultural geography and ethnobiology, as well as practitioners and professionals working in conservation.
Religion and Urbanism: Reconceptualising sustainable cities for South Asia (Routledge Research in Religion and Development)
by Yamini NarayananConceptions of 'sustainable cities' in the pluralistic and multireligious urban settlements of developing nations need to develop out of local cultural, religious and historical contexts to be inclusive and accurately respond to the needs of the poor, ethnic and religious minorities, and women. Religion and Urbanism contributes to an expanded understanding of 'sustainable cities' in South Asia by demonstrating the multiple, and often conflicting ways in which religion enables or challenges socially equitable and ecologically sustainable urbanisation in the region. In particular, this collection focuses on two aspects that must inform the sustainable cities discourse in South Asia: the intersections of religion and urban heritage, and religion and various aspects of informality. This book makes a much-needed contribution to the nexus between religion and urban planning for researchers, postgraduate students and policy makers in Sustainable Development, Development Studies, Urban Studies, Religious Studies, Asian Studies, Heritage Studies and Urban and Religious Geography.
Religion, Heritage and the Sustainable City: Hinduism and urbanisation in Jaipur (Routledge Research in Religion and Development)
by Yamini NarayananThe speed and scale of urbanisation in India is unprecedented almost anywhere in the world and has tremendous global implications. The religious influence on the urban experience has resonances for all aspects of urban sustainability in India and yet it remains a blind spot while articulating sustainable urban policy. This book explores the historical and on-going influence of religion on urban planning, design, space utilisation, urban identities and communities. It argues that the conceptual and empirical approaches to planning sustainable cities in India need to be developed out of analytical concepts that define local sense of place and identity. Examining how Hindu religious heritage, beliefs and religiously influenced planning practices have impacted on sustainable urbanisation development in Jaipur and Indian cities in general, the book identifies the challenges and opportunities that ritualistic and belief resources pose for sustainability. It focuses on three key aspects: spatial segregation and ghettoisation; gender-inclusive urban development; and the nexus between religion, nature and urban development. This cutting-edge book is one of the first case studies linking Hindu religion, heritage, urban development, women and the environment in a way that responds to the realities of Indian cities. It opens up discussion on the nexus of religion and development, drawing out insightful policy implications for the sustainable urban planning of many cities in India and elsewhere in South Asia and the developing world.
Religion, Materialism and Ecology (Routledge Environmental Humanities)
by Sigurd Bergmann, Kate Rigby and Peter Manley ScottThis timely collection of essays by leading international scholars across religious studies and the environmental humanities advances a lively discussion on materialism in its many forms. While there is little agreement on what ‘materialism’ means, it is evident that there is a resurgence in thinking about matter in more animated and active ways. The volume explores how debates concerning the new materialisms impinge on religious traditions and the extent to which religions, with their material culture and beliefs in the Divine within the material, can make a creative contribution to debates about ecological materialisms. Spanning a broad range of themes, including politics, architecture, hermeneutics, literature and religion, the book brings together a series of discussions on materialism in the context of diverse methodologies and approaches. The volume investigates a range of issues including space and place, hierarchy and relationality, the relationship between nature and society, human and other agencies, and worldviews and cultural values. Drawing on literary and critical theory, and queer, philosophical, theological and social theoretical approaches, this ground-breaking book will make an important contribution to the environmental humanities. It will be a key read for postgraduate students, researchers and scholars in religious studies, cultural anthropology, literary studies, philosophy and environmental studies.
Religions and Development (Routledge Perspectives on Development)
by Emma TomalinReligion has been excluded from development studies for decades. Religious traditions have contributed greatly towards development work, yet major international players have tended to ignore its role. Recent years have shown a noticeable shift in development policy, practice and research to recognize religion as a relevant factor. This text provides a comprehensive insight into different approaches towards the understanding the relationships between religions and development studies, policy and practice. It guides readers through current debates, presenting, explaining and critically evaluating a broad range of literature and locating it within a theoretical context. The text explores the role of religion within development, from positive contributions, such as the important role that many ‘faith-based organizations’ play in education or health care, to more complicated and contested notions of impact, such as religiously inspired violence or gender inequality. The book begins with three background chapters, outlining the relevance of religions for development studies, policy and practice, and introducing the reader to the study of ‘development’ and of ‘religions’. Following these, the focus then shifts to examine a number of thematic areas, including religion, gender and development, and the implications of the ‘rise of religion’ for mainstream development studies, policy and practice in the 21st century. Each chapter contains a range of features to assist undergraduate learning, including learning objectives for each chapter, discussion of key concepts, summaries, discussion questions, further reading and websites. The book also contains over sixty boxed case studies to provide further definition, explanation, and examples of the interactions between religions and development globally. This innovative text presents religions as something that can both obstruct and aid development, encouraging readers to engage critically with the multiple ways that religion impacts on both the conceptualization of development as well the resulting project interventions. This will be of interest to undergraduate, postgraduate students and scholars interested in religious studies, development studies, and the broader study of societies and cultures.
Religious Environmental Activism: Emerging Conflicts and Tensions in Earth Stewardship (Routledge Studies in Religion and Environment)
by Jens Koehrsen Julia Blanc Fabian HuberThis volume explores how religious and spiritual actors engage for environmental protection and fight against climate change. Climate change and sustainability are increasingly prominent topics among religious and spiritual groups. Different faith traditions have developed "green" theologies, launched environmental protection projects and issued public statements on climate change. Against this background, academic scholarship has raised optimistic claims about the strong potentials of religions to address environmental challenges. Taking a critical stance with regard to these claims, the chapters in this volume show that religious environmentalism is an embattled terrain. Tensions are an inherent part of religious environmentalism. These do not necessarily manifest themselves in open clashes between different parties but in different actions, views, theologies, ambivalences, misunderstandings, and sometimes mistrust. Keeping below the surface, these tensions can create effective barriers for religious environmentalism. The chapters examine how tensions are manifested and dealt with through a range of empirical case studies in various world regions. Covering different religious and spiritual traditions, they reflect on intradenominational, interdenominational, interreligious, and religious-societal tensions. Thereby, this volume sheds new light on the problems that religions face when they seek to take an active role in today’s societal challenges.
Religious Responses to Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption Disasters (Routledge Studies in Hazards, Disaster Risk and Climate Change)
by John Duncan Angus Duncan David ChesterThis book argues that, although secular and religious perspectives on disasters have often conflicted, today there are grounds for believing that the world’s major faiths have much to contribute to the processes of post-disaster recovery and future disaster risk reduction (DRR).It seeks to demonstrate how contemporary dialogues between theologians, disaster scholars and policymakers are defining new ways of working together. These explore how the resources of religious communities, e.g. buildings, human resources and finance, may be used to foster successful policies of DRR, particularly in the aftermath of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Musing on the relationships between religion and disasters has occurred for millennia and has affected many societies worldwide. In societies where the world’s major religions – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Shinto – have been and remain dominant, attempting to find supernatural explanations for disasters has occurred throughout history and there have been many theologies seeking to explain why people suffer losses. It is argued that developments both within these traditions of faith and in how disasters are understood by the hazard research community of researchers and planners have allowed a new modus vivendi to emerge which emphasises both a recognition of religious worldviews by academic writers and disaster planners on the one hand, and a desire by people of faith and their leaders to be more fully committed to the goals of DRR.The book will appeal to those who are interested in the interface between disasters and theology across the principal religions of the world. This includes researchers and students in geology, geography, theology and religious studies. It will also be useful for specialist academic audience and the educated general reader.