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Political Responsibility for Climate Change: Ethical Institutions and Fact-Sensitive Theory (Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research)
by Theresa Birgitta ScaveniusThis book offers new perspectives on how social and political institutions can respond more effectively to climate change. Theresa Scavenius presents a concept of moral responsibility that does not address the obligations of individual citizens, but instead assesses the moral responsibility of institutionalised actors, such as governments, parliaments, and other governmental agencies. This focus on political responsibility is something that up until now has largely been neglected by moral theory, but Scavenius argues in this book that accountability must be assigned to institutionalised group agents. With this new research, she outlines building blocks for a new agenda of climate studies by offering an innovative approach to climate governance and democratic climate action at a time when many political initiatives have failed and crucially outlines the necessity of approaching moral dilemmas from a fact sensitive political theoretical approach. Written in a clear and engaging style, this volume will be an invaluable reference for researchers interested in moral philosophy, climate change, environmental politics and policy, and institutional theory.
Political Spirituality in an Age of Eco-Apocalypse
by James W. PerkinsonThis book 'hunts and gathers' across different historical epochs and situations, juxtaposing biblical materials and hip-hop, Christian colonialism and vodou, personal experience and racial politics, poetics and high theory. It is compelled by a desire to challenge the current crisis of sustainability from the point of view of indigenous communities and deep ancestry. Author James W. Perkinson ably synthesizes material from a diverse range of fields, including anarcho-primitivism, biblicalstudies, and history of religions in order to argue for a 'turn to indigeneity. ' The book's motive force is a deep concern for humanity's future in the face of eco-disasters like climate change and population overshoot as well as the compounding problems brought on by political economy calamities. Given the growing trend toward a turn away from institutionalized religious commitment and toward a more generalized and post-modern mix of practices and interests typically styled as 'spiritual,' the work proposes 'political spirituality' as a theme for investigation. Throughout the book, Perkinson raises the question: What does it really meant to be a human being? This query is posed not merely as a philosophical inquiry or existential musing, but as a personal and political conundrum arising from the overwhelming crises now engulfing our global reality. The book constitutes a poetic 'walk about' across quite different historical epochs and disparate contexts. Creatively foraging for indigenous memories and insurgent energies to help us live and cope in our modern state of unsustainability, the work aims to re-animate love of the wild and 'interspecies listening' for the sake of survival. The text articulates a deep suspicion toward our growing fascination with a kind of 'techno-messianism,' while nonetheless exploring some of the artistic innovations and meanings emerging from industrialization and digitalization.
Political Spirituality in the Face of Climate Collapse: Of Monsters, Megaliths, Mules, and Muck
by James W. PerkinsonThis book takes its motive force from our contemporary climate crisis. It seeks to reorient human (and especially Christian) understanding, towards a more ecologically-focused, indigenously-informed way-of-living. James W. Perkinson argues that our current eco-climatic and socio-political emergency is the culmination of a 5,000-year history of supremacist “settlement,” in which city-states first emergent in Mesopotamia and Egypt not only begin coercively organizing labor into surplus production and ecosystems into inordinate and destructive yields of “goods,” but in the process, also simultaneously “deform” the Spirit-World “haloing” of natural phenomenon into outsized service of imperial reach. Perkinson recognizes globalized humanity as an emerging monstrosity destroying both human culture and the world. How we re-envision and revalue, at our critical juncture, our inescapable interdependence with the more-than-human world as peer and teacher and even “elder,” is the central theme that throbs below the surface of the very disparate topics commanding attention in each chapter.
A Political Theology of Climate Change
by Michael S. NorthcottMuch current commentary on climate change, both secular and theological, focuses on the duties of individual citizens to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels. In A Political Theology of Climate Change, however, Michael Northcott discusses nations as key agents in the climate crisis.Against the anti-national trend of contemporary political theology, Northcott renarrates the origins of the nations in the divine ordering of history. In dialogue with Giambattista Vico, Carl Schmitt, Alasdair MacIntyre, and other writers, he argues that nations have legal and moral responsibilities to rule over limited terrains and to guard a just and fair distribution of the fruits of the earth within the ecological limits of those terrains.As part of his study, Northcott brilliantly reveals how the prevalent nature-culture divide in Western culture, including its notion of nature as "private property," has contributed to the global ecological crisis. While addressing real difficulties and global controversies surrounding climate change, Northcott presents substantial and persuasive fare in his Political Theology of Climate Change.
Political Theology of the Earth: Our Planetary Emergency and the Struggle for a New Public (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)
by Catherine KellerAmid melting glaciers, rising waters, and spreading droughts, Earth has ceased to tolerate our pretense of mastery over it. But how can we confront climate change when political crises keep exploding in the present? Noted ecotheologian and feminist philosopher of religion Catherine Keller reads the feedback loop of political and ecological depredation as secularized apocalypse. Carl Schmitt’s political theology of the sovereign exception sheds light on present ideological warfare; racial, ethnic, economic, and sexual conflict; and hubristic anthropocentrism. If the politics of exceptionalism are theological in origin, she asks, should we not enlist the world’s religious communities as part of the resistance?Keller calls for dissolving the opposition between the religious and the secular in favor of a broad planetary movement for social and ecological justice. When we are confronted by populist, authoritarian right wings founded on white male Christian supremacism, we can counter with a messianically charged, often unspoken theology of the now-moment, calling for a complex new public. Such a political theology of the earth activates the world’s entangled populations, joined in solidarity and committed to revolutionary solutions to the entwined crises of the Anthropocene.
Political Transition and Inclusive Development in Malawi: The democratic dividend (Routledge Studies in African Development)
by Dan Banik Blessings ChinsingaMalawi is among the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa that has witnessed significant improvements in relation to meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. It exhibits some of the main challenges facing African democracies while they attempt to consolidate the benefits of democratisation. Political Transition and Inclusive Development in Malawi critically analyses opportunities and constraints related to the impact of democracy on development in one of the world’s poorest countries. The book explores how, and to what extent, processes related to democratic and economic governance can be strengthened in order to make political and administrative authorities more responsive to development needs. It also considers characteristics of successful implementation of public policy and the effective and timely delivery of basic services in local contexts; increased citizen participation and dialogue with local government authorities; factors that enable civil society organisations to hold political and administrative officials to account; and better utilisation of academic research for improved evidence-based policy formulation and implementation. This volume will be of great interest to scholars in development studies, African studies, politics, law and anthropology, as well as policymakers and those interested in democracy, governance, human rights and the implementation of anti-poverty programmes, development administration and decentralisation.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change (The\politically Incorrect Guides)
by Marc MoranoLess freedom. More regulation. Higher costs. Make no mistake: those are the surefire consequences of the modern global warming campaign waged by political and cultural elites, who have long ago abandoned fact-based science for dramatic fearmongering in order to push increased central planning. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change gives a voice -- backed by statistics, real-life stories, and incontrovertible evidence -- to the millions of "deplorable" Americans skeptical about the multibillion dollar "climate change" complex, whose claims have time and time again been proven wrong.
Politicization of Ecological Issues: From Environmental Forms to Environmental Motives
by Gabrielle BouleauThe legitimacy of environmental policies is an issue of increasing concern for analysts. Ecological stakes are deemed to be global, but global public decisions are rare and implemented with difficulty. Dissensus prevails on environmental ethics and there is little evidence of any greening of policy tools. The global framing of the environment fails to account for how people relate to the ecological realities which surround them. Rather than placing the environment at a distance, Politicization of Ecological Issues advocates for building legitimacy from people’s perceptions of singular forms and patterns in their environment. Based on scholarly literature in political ecology and empirical cases of water policy in Europe, the book shows how the qualification of environmental realities has been politicized and translated into motives for public action. Similarly, it argues that theoretical debates addressing the ecological crisis are not only dealing with ideas, but rather advocating for specific environmental forms that are deemed to be motives of hope or worry.
Politicized Enforcement in Argentina
by Matthew AmengualCountries throughout the world have passed regulations that promise protection for workers and the environment, but violations of these policies are more common than compliance. All too often, limitations of state capacity and political will intertwine hindering enforcement. Why do states enforce regulations in some places, and in some industries, but not in others? In Politicized Enforcement in Argentina, Amengual develops a framework for analyzing enforcement in middle-income and developing countries, showing how informal linkages between state officials and groups within society allow officials to gain the operational resources and political support necessary for enforcement. This analysis builds on state-society approaches in comparative politics, but in contrast to theories that emphasize state autonomy, it focuses on key differences in the way states are porous to political influence.
The Politics and Economics of Britain's Foreign Aid: The Pergau Dam Affair (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
by Tim LankesterThe Pergau dam in Malaysia was the most controversial project in the history of British aid. Because of its high cost, it was a poor candidate for aid funding. It was provided in part to honour a highly irregular promise of civil aid in connection with a major arms deal. After two parliamentary inquiries and intense media coverage, in a landmark judgement the aid for Pergau was declared unlawful. Tim Lankester offers a detailed case study of this major aid project and of government decision-making in Britain and Malaysia. Exposing the roles played by key politicians and other stakeholders on both sides, he analyses the background to the aid/arms linkage, and the reasons why the British and Malaysian governments were so committed to the project, before exploring the response of Britain’s Parliament, and its media and NGOs, and the resultant legal case. The main causes of the Pergau debacle are carefully drawn out, from conflicting policy agendas within the British government to the power of the business lobby and the inability of Parliament to provide any serious challenge. Finally, Lankester asks whether, given what was known at the time and what we know now, he and his colleagues in Britain’s aid ministry were correct in their objections to the project. Pergau is still talked about as a prime example of how not to do aid. Tim Lankester, a key figure in the affair, is perfectly placed to provide the definitive account. At a time when aid budgets are under particular scrutiny, it provides a cautionary tale.
The Politics of Adapting to Climate Change
by Leigh Glover Mikael GranbergThis book examines the political themes and policy perspectives related to, and influencing, climate change adaptation. It provides an informed primer on the politics of adaptation, a topic largely overlooked in the current scholarship and literature, and addresses questions such as why these politics are so important, what they mean, and what their implications are. The book also reviews various political texts on adaptation.
The Politics of Bioeconomy and Sustainability: Lessons from Biofuel Governance, Policies and Production Strategies in the Emerging World
by Mairon G. Bastos LimaThis book addresses the underexposed political dimensions of bioeconomy promotion. Who wins and who loses? How are institutions being shaped, and by whom? Drawing from experiences since the earlier days of biofuels promotion, it explores in unprecedented detail the global drive away from fossil fuels and towards a biomass-based economy.Multipurpose agriculture gains ever more traction as countries create new bio-based value chains – or, rather, value webs. Governance, in this regard, proves to be key for steering developments towards inclusive agri-food-biomass systems instead of fueling just a handful of “flex crops” ridden with social equity and other environmental issues.Based on a rich global-level analysis of bioeconomy promotion and three in-depth case studies of key emerging economies (Brazil, India and Indonesia), the book also innovatively examines sustainability politics in Global South democracies.Ultimately, this book is about finding the politics for a fairer bioeconomy in the years and decades to come.
The Politics of Carbon Markets (Routledge Studies in Environmental Policy)
by Benjamin Stephan Richard LaneThe carbon markets are in the middle of a fundamental crisis - a crisis marked by collapsing prices, fleeing actors, and ever increasing greenhouse gas levels. Yet carbon trading remains at the heart of global attempts to respond to climate change. Not only this, but markets continue to proliferate - particularly in the Global South. The Politics of Carbon Markets helps to make sense of this paradox and brings two urgently needed insights to the analysis of carbon markets. First, the markets must be understood in relation to the politics involved in their development, maintenance and opposition. Second, this politics is multiform and pervasive. Implementation of new techniques and measuring tools, policy development and contestation, and the structuring context of institutional settings and macro-social forces all involve a variety of political actors and create new forms of political agency. The contributions study the total extent of the carbon markets, from their prehistory to their contemporary expansion and wider impacts. This wide-ranging political perspective on the carbon markets is invaluable to those studying and interested in ecological markets, climate change governance and environmental politics.
The Politics of Climate Change and Uncertainty in India (Pathways to Sustainability)
by Lyla MehtaThis book brings together diverse perspectives concerning uncertainty and climate change in India. Uncertainty is a key factor shaping climate and environmental policy at international, national and local levels. Climate change and events such as cyclones, floods, droughts and changing rainfall patterns create uncertainties that planners, resource managers and local populations are regularly confronted with. In this context, uncertainty has emerged as a "wicked problem" for scientists and policymakers, resulting in highly debated and disputed decision-making. The book focuses on India, one of the most climatically vulnerable countries in the world, where there are stark socio-economic inequalities in addition to diverse geographic and climatic settings. Based on empirical research, it covers case studies from coastal Mumbai to dryland Kutch and the Sundarbans delta in West Bengal. These localities offer ecological contrasts, rural–urban diversity, varied exposure to different climate events, and diverse state and official responses. The book unpacks the diverse discourses, practices and politics of uncertainty and demonstrates profound differences through which the "above", "middle" and "below" understand and experience climate change and uncertainty. It also makes a case for bringing together diverse knowledges and approaches to understand and embrace climate-related uncertainties in order to facilitate transformative change. Appealing to a broad professional and student audience, the book draws on wide-ranging theoretical and conceptual approaches from climate science, historical analysis, science, technology and society studies, development studies and environmental studies. By looking at the intersection between local and diverse understandings of climate change and uncertainty with politics, culture, history and ecology, the book argues for plural and socially just ways to tackle climate change in India and beyond.
The Politics of Contaminated Sites Management
by Johann Dupuis Peter KnoepfelBy the end of the 1970s, contaminated sites had emerged as one of the most complex and urgent environmental issues affecting industrialized countries. The authors show that small and prosperous Switzerland is no exception to the pervasive problem of sites contamination, the legacy of past practices in waste management having left some 38,000 contaminated sites throughout the country. This book outlines the problem, offering evidence that open and polycentric environmental decision-making that includes civil society actors is valuable. They propose an understanding of environmental management of contaminated sites as a political process in which institutions frame interactions between strategic actors pursuing sometimes conflicting interests. In the opening chapter, the authors describe the influences of politics and the power relationships between actors involved in decision-making in contaminated sites management, which they term a "wicked problem. " Chapter Two offers a theoretical framework for understanding institutions and the environmental management of contaminated sites. The next five chapters present a detailed case study on environmental management and contaminated sites in Switzerland, focused on the Bonfol Chemical Landfill. The study and analysis covers the establishment of the landfill under the first generation of environmental regulations, its closure and early remediation efforts, and the gambling on the remediation objectives, methods and funding in the first decade of the 21st Century. The concluding chapter discusses the question of whether the strength of environmental regulations, and the type of interactions between public, private, and civil society actors can explain the environmental choices in contaminated sites management. Drawing lessons from research, the authors debate the value of institutional flexibility for dealing with environmental issues such as contaminated sites.
The Politics of Cultural Development: Trade, cultural policy and the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity (Routledge Studies in Culture and Sustainable Development)
by Ben GarnerThere is a growing recognition of the role that culture can play in sustainable development strategies. This development has generally been welcomed, but also raises a number of questions: What are the implications in policy and practice? Who are the most influential voices in promoting a global agenda for culture and development, and to what extent has the creation of new international policy instruments reflected a consensus? More fundamentally, what is meant by "culture" in these discussions and who has the power to give particular definitions political and legal authority? The Politics of Cultural Development seeks to provide a theoretically and historically informed response to such questions, illustrated by reference to case studies (including the European Union, the Caribbean and China). Particular attention is paid to the formation of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, a landmark instrument in debates about culture and development. The book goes on to explore some of the practical implications that this international treaty is beginning to have for the ways that culture is (and is not) being integrated into contemporary development policy and practice. This book will be useful for students, academics and policymakers in the fields of international development, international relations, international political economy, cultural policy and cultural theory.
The Politics of Deforestation and REDD+ in Indonesia: Global Climate Change Mitigation (Routledge Studies in Political Ecology)
by David Aled WilliamsThis book reflects on Indonesia’s recent experience with REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), all set within a broader discussion of neoliberal environmentalism, hyper-capitalism, and Indonesian carbon politics. Drawing on the author’s political ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Jakarta, Central Sulawesi, and Oslo, where the author examined Norway’s interests and role in implementing REDD+, this book discusses the long evolution of the idea that foreign state and private financing can be used to protect tropical forests and the carbon stored within them, resulting in both local economic development and global climate benefits. It shows how neoliberal environmental approaches to climate change, of which REDD+ is a leading example, increase the severity of political contestations that must be overcome to reach global climate mitigation goals, and how recent incarnations of REDD+ have tended to forget earlier scholarly advice to couple anti-deforestation approaches with policies that reduce industrial carbon emissions. In Indonesia, tectonic political and economic forces are shown to have negatively impacted REDD+ implementation. Using a political ecology approach, the book links the literature on REDD+ with that covering Indonesia’s recent democratic regression, highlighting how the country’s environmental performance is inextricably linked to the timbre of its political governance. Given the severity of the political contestations that must be overcome to reach its stated goals, REDD+ cannot replace global policies that drastically reduce industrial carbon emissions. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of political ecology, deforestation, climate change, environmental politics, natural resource management, and environmental conservation.
The Politics of Ecosocialism: Transforming welfare (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)
by Kajsa Borgnäs Teppo Eskelinen Johanna Perkiö Rikard WarleniusAs the global economy seeks to recover from the financial crisis and warnings about the consequences of climate change abound, it is clear that we need a fundamentally new approach to tackle these issues. This innovative book offers a unique perspective, stressing the necessity of both ecological and social change as it discusses how to create a "red-green" or "eco-socialist" society. Examining the current crises of welfare capitalism as well as the challenges and conflicts of an eco-socialist society, the book proposes a new social order that would combine the ideals of egalitarianism and of environmental sustainability. It analyses the key social and ecological issues related to the welfare state, including green Keynesianism, ecological Marxism, the limits of growth and no-growth, capitalist barriers to a renewable energy transition, proposals for a universal basic income and the role of technology. Finally, the book outlines possible paths of transformation towards creating an eco-socialist society, drawing out lessons that can be applied internationally. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers in economics, environmental studies and political science.
The Politics of Energy Security: Critical Security Studies, New Materialism and Governmentality (Routledge Explorations in Energy Studies)
by Johannes KesterEnergy security is known for its ‘slippery’ nature and subsequent broad range of definitions. Instead of another attempt to grasp its essence, this book offers a critical reflection that problematizes the use of energy security itself. After a short historical and methodological analysis of the proliferation of energy security, The Politics of Energy Security unpacks three social practices that drive energy security. These include an analysis of the logics of security, a study of the relation between the materiality of sociotechnical (energy) systems and the knowledge people have over such systems, and a reflection on the power and politics behind (energy) security. Each of these are discussed and ultimately illustrated in the last chapter to show how energy security works, how it is shaped and what role it plays within political processes. Based on a novel performative reading of energy security with its focus on ontological politics and an in-depth look at the often implicitly accepted social practices that determine how people shape and are shaped by energy security, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy security and policy, political theory, international relations, critical security studies, and environmental studies more broadly.
The Politics of Environment: A Guide to Scottish Thought and Action (Routledge Library Editions: Scotland #28)
by Malcolm SlesserOriginally published in 1972 and ahead of its time in many respects this book was the first to take a constructive approach to the problems facing the human race in the 20th Century. It remains enduringly relevant today and discusses over-population, under-employment, atmospheric pollution, exhaustion of global resources and geo-politics. It shows how all these issues are inter-connected and therefore how conventional attempts to solve some of them merely exacerbate others. It asserts that the solution rests in the evolution of a realistic form of politics which puts the community first.
The Politics Of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization And The Policy Process
by Maarten A. HajerDr Hajer's path-breaking study opens the way for a better understanding of the environmental conflict, showing how language can be seen to shape our view of what environmental politics is really about and how those perceptions can differ between countries. The author identifies the emergence and increasing political importance of 'ecological modernization' as a new concept in the language of environmental politics. This concept, which has come to replace the antagonistic debates of the 1970s, stresses the opportunities of environmental policy for modernizing the economy and stimulating the technological innovation. Combining abstract social theory with detailed empirical analysis, Martin Hajer illustrates the social and political dynamics of ecological modernization in a detailed analysis of the acid rain controversies in Great Britain and the Netherlands. He concludes by reflecting on the institutional challenge of the environmental politics in the years to come.
The Politics of Environmental Reform: Controlling Kentucky Strip Mining (Routledge Revivals)
by Marc Karnis LandyThe Politics of Environmental Reform demonstrates how environmental laws affect local governments with Kentucky strip mining as its core example. Originally published in 1976, Landy’s research into environmental legislation in a state whose economy relies on the coal industry can easily be applied to all forms of government shedding light on issues such as policy initiation, federal-state relations and regulatory performance. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies and professionals.
The Politics of Food Provisioning in Colombia: Agrarian Movements and Negotiations with the State (Earthscan Food and Agriculture)
by Felipe Roa-ClavijoThis book explores food provisioning in Colombia by examining the role and impact of the agrarian negotiations which took place in the aftermath of the 2013–2014 national strikes. Most of the research in the field of agrarian studies in Colombia has focused on inequalities in land distribution, the impacts of violent conflict, and most recently, the first phase of the peace agreement implementation. This book links and complements these literatures by critically engaging with an original framework that uncovers the conflicts and politics of food provisioning: who produces what and where, and with what socio-economic effects. This analytical lens is used to explain the re-emergence of national agrarian movements, their contestation of the dominant development narratives and their engagement in discussions about food sovereignty with the state. The analysis incorporates a wide range of voices from high-level government representatives and leaders from national agrarian movements. Their narratives of food provisioning and the broader role of the food industry are reviewed and the key findings show an underlying conflict within food provisioning based on the struggle of marginalised smallholders to develop alternative agri-food systems that can be included in the local and domestic food markets in the context of a state dominated by an export and import approach. Overall, the book argues that the battle ground of agrarian conflicts has moved to the fi eld of food provisioning and using this approach has the potential to reframe the debate about the future of food and agriculture in Colombia and beyond. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food and agriculture, rural development, peasant studies, and Latin American Studies.
The Politics of Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Their Reform
by Jakob Skovgaard Harro Van AsseltFossil fuel subsidies strain public budgets, and contribute to climate change and local air pollution. Despite widespread agreement among experts about the benefits of reforming fossil fuel subsidies, repeated international commitments to eliminate them, and valiant efforts by some countries to reform them, they continue to persist. This book helps explain this conundrum, by exploring the politics of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform. Bringing together scholars and practitioners, the book offers new case studies both from countries that have undertaken subsidy reform, and those that have yet to do so. It explores the roles of various intergovernmental and non-governmental institutions in promoting fossil fuel subsidy reform at the international level, as well as conceptual aspects of fossil fuel subsidies. This is essential reading for researchers and practitioners, and students of political science, international relations, law, public policy, and environmental studies. This title is also available as Open Access.
The Politics of Fracking: Regulatory Policy and Local Community Responses to Environmental Concerns (Routledge Research in Public Administration and Public Policy)
by Sarmistha R. MajumdarOver the last decade, the oil and gas industry has garnered a lot of support from the United States federal and state governments in the name of energy independence and economic prosperity. More specifically, hydraulic fracturing or fracking is said to not only make the production of affordable energy possible but also reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by substituting coal with natural gas in the utility sector. Behind the façade of many socio-economic and political benefits, the process of fracking causes serious environmental concerns. Dismissing the negative externalities of fracking simply raises the question, to what extent have communities close to fracking sites been adversely impacted by it? In this book, Sarmistha R. Majumdar studies four communities close to fracking well sites in Texas to help illustrate to what extent fracking regulations have been developed in Texas and how effective these regulations have been in safeguarding the interests of individuals in local communities amidst the lure of economic gains from the extraction of oil and natural gas from shale formations. Majumdar has developed a model to show stage by stage community actions to regain their quality of life and the consequences of their actions, if any, on state and local regulations and ordinances, and the oil and gas industry. This book will be an important resource for scholars of environmental and natural resource politics and policy in the United States.