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The Age of Loneliness: Essays
by Laura MarrisIn this debut essay collection, Laura Marris reframes environmental degradation by setting aside the conventional, catastrophic framework of the Anthropocene in favor of that of the Eremocene, the age of loneliness, marked by the dramatic thinning of wildlife populations and by isolation between and among species. She asks: how do we add to archives of ecological memory? How can we notice and document what's missing in the landscapes closest to us?Filled with equal parts alienation and wonder, each essay immerses readers in a different strange landscape of the Eremocene. Among them are the Buffalo airport with its snowy owls and the purgatories of commuter flights, layovers, and long-distance relationships; a life-size model city built solely for self-driving cars; the coasts of New England and the ever-evolving relationship between humans and horseshoe crabs; and the Connecticut woods Marris revisits for the first time after her father’s death, where she participates in the annual Christmas Bird Count and encounters presence and absence in turn.Vivid, keenly observed, and driven by a lively and lyrical voice, The Age of Loneliness is a moving examination of the dangers of loneliness, the surprising histories of ecological loss, and the ways that community science—which relies on the embodied evidence of “ground truth”—can help us recognize, and maybe even recover, what we’ve learned to live without.
The Age of Melt: What Glaciers, Ice Mummies, and Ancient Artifacts Teach Us about Climate, Culture, and a Future without Ice
by Lisa BarilA thought-provoking scientific narrative investigating ice patch archaeology and the role of glaciers in the development of human culture. Glaciers figure prominently in both ancient and contemporary narratives around the world. They inspire art and literature. They spark both fear and awe. And they give and take life. In The Age of Melt, environmental journalist Lisa Baril explores the deep-rooted cultural connection between humans and ice through time. Thousands of organic artifacts are emerging from patches of melting ice in mountain ranges around the world. Archaeologists are in a race against time to find them before they disappear forever. In entertaining and enlightening prose, Baril travels from the Alps to the Andes, investigating what these artifacts teach us about climate and culture. But this is not a chronicle of loss. The Age of Melt explores what these artifacts reveal about culture, wilderness, and what we gain when we rethink our relationship to the world and its most precious and ephemeral substance—ice.
The Age of Missing Information
by Bill Mckibben"Highly personal and original . . . McKibben goes beyond Marshall McLuhan's theory that the medium is the message."----The New York Times Imagine watching an entire day's worth of television on every single channel. Acclaimed environmental writer and culture critic Bill McKibben subjected himself to this sensory overload in an experiment to verify whether we are truly better informed than previous generations. Bombarded with newscasts and fluff pieces, game shows and talk shows, ads and infomercials, televangelist pleas and Brady Bunch episodes, McKibben processed twenty-four hours of programming on all ninety-three Fairfax, Virginia, cable stations. Then, as a counterpoint, he spent a day atop a quiet and remote mountain in the Adirondacks, exploring the unmediated man and making small yet vital discoveries about himself and the world around him. As relevant now as it was when originally written in 1992-and with new material from the author on the impact of the Internet age-this witty and astute book is certain to change the way you look at television and perceive media as a whole."By turns humorous, wise, and troubling . . . a penetrating critique of technological society."-Cleveland Plain Dealer"Masterful . . . a unique, bizarre portrait of our life and times."-Los Angeles Times"Do yourself a favor: Put down the remote and pick up this book."-Houston Chronicle
The Age of Missing Information
by Bill Mckibben"Highly personal and original . . . McKibben goes beyond Marshall McLuhan's theory that the medium is the message."----The New York Times Imagine watching an entire day's worth of television on every single channel. Acclaimed environmental writer and culture critic Bill McKibben subjected himself to this sensory overload in an experiment to verify whether we are truly better informed than previous generations. Bombarded with newscasts and fluff pieces, game shows and talk shows, ads and infomercials, televangelist pleas and Brady Bunch episodes, McKibben processed twenty-four hours of programming on all ninety-three Fairfax, Virginia, cable stations. Then, as a counterpoint, he spent a day atop a quiet and remote mountain in the Adirondacks, exploring the unmediated man and making small yet vital discoveries about himself and the world around him. As relevant now as it was when originally written in 1992-and with new material from the author on the impact of the Internet age-this witty and astute book is certain to change the way you look at television and perceive media as a whole."By turns humorous, wise, and troubling . . . a penetrating critique of technological society."-Cleveland Plain Dealer"Masterful . . . a unique, bizarre portrait of our life and times."-Los Angeles Times"Do yourself a favor: Put down the remote and pick up this book."-Houston Chronicle
The Age of Reptiles
by Edwin H. ColbertConcise detailed review -- amply illustrated -- of the astonishing creatures that ruled the earth for some 180 million years, with particular emphasis on the tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates that lived during the years of reptilian dominance). Also examines interrelationships between amphibians and reptiles, birds and mammals, and between these creatures and their environments.
The Age of Resilience: Reimagining Existence on a Rewilding Earth
by Jeremy RifkinA sweeping new interpretation of the history of civilization and a transformative vision of how our species will thrive on an unpredictable Earth.The viruses keep coming, the climate is warming, and the Earth is rewilding. Our human family has no playbook to address the mayhem unfolding around us. If there is a change to reckon with, argues the renowned economic and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin, it’s that we are beginning to realize that the human race never had dominion over the Earth and that nature is far more formidable than we thought, while our species seems much smaller and less significant in the bigger picture of life on Earth, undermining our long-cherished worldview. The Age of Progress, once considered sacrosanct, is on a deathwatch while a powerful new narrative, the Age of Resilience, is ascending.In The Age of Resilience, Rifkin takes us on a new journey beginning with how we reconceptualize time and navigate space. During the Age of Progress, efficiency was the gold standard for organizing time, locking our species into the quest to optimize the expropriation, commodification, and consumption of the Earth’s bounty, at ever-greater speeds and in ever-shrinking time intervals, with the objective of increasing the opulence of human society, but at the expense of the depletion of nature. Space, observes Rifkin, became synonymous with passive natural resources, while a principal role of government and the economy was to manage nature as property. This long adhered to temporal-spatial orientation, writes Rifkin, has taken humanity to the commanding heights as the dominant species on Earth and to the ruin of the natural world.In the emerging era, says Rifkin, efficiency is giving way to adaptivity as the all-encompassing temporal value while space is perceived as animated, self-organizing, and fluid. A younger generation, in turn, is pivoting from growth to flourishing, finance capital to ecological capital, productivity to regenerativity, Gross Domestic Product to Quality of Life Indicators, hyper-consumption to eco-stewardship, globalization to glocalization, geopolitics to biosphere politics, nation-state sovereignty to bioregional governance, and representative democracy to citizen assemblies and distributed peerocracy.Future generations, suggests Rifkin, will likely experience existence less as objects and structures and more as patterns and processes and come to understand that each of us is literally an ecosystem made up of the microorganisms and elements that comprise the hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The autonomous self of the Age of Progress is giving way to the ecological self of the Age of Resilience. The now worn scientific method that underwrote the Age of Progress is also falling by the wayside, making room for a new approach to science called Complex Adaptive Systems modeling. Likewise, detached reason is losing cachet while empathy and biophilia become the norm.At a moment when the human family is deeply despairing of the future, Rifkin gives us a window into a promising new world and a radically different future that can bring us back into nature’s fold, giving life a second chance to flourish on Earth.
The Age of Sustainability: Just Transitions in a Complex World (Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development)
by Mark SwillingWith transitions to more sustainable ways of living already underway, this book examines how we understand the underlying dynamics of the transitions that are unfolding. Without this understanding, we enter the future in a state of informed bewilderment. Every day we are bombarded by reports about ecosystem breakdown, social conflict, economic stagnation and a crisis of identity. There is mounting evidence that deeper transitions are underway that suggest we may be entering another period of great transformation equal in significance to the agricultural revolution some 13,000 years ago or the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago. This book helps readers make sense of our global crisis and the dynamics of transition that could result in a shift from the industrial epoch that we live in now to a more sustainable and equitable age. The global renewable energy transition that is already underway holds the key to the wider just transition. However, the evolutionary potential of the present also manifests in the mushrooming of ecocultures, new urban visions, sustainability-oriented developmental states and new ways of learning and researching. Shedding light on the highly complex challenge of a sustainable and just transition, this book is essential reading for anyone concerned with establishing a more sustainable and equitable world. Ultimately, this is a book about hope but without easy answers.
The Age of Sustainable Development
by Jeffrey D. SachsJeffrey D. Sachs has shown himself to be one of the world's most perceptive and original analysts of global development in his groundbreaking books, including The End of Poverty and Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet. Now, in this major new work he presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can address the seemingly intractable worldwide problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and political-economic injustice. Sachs outlines the holistic way forward: sustainable development. This provocative work offers readers, students, activists, environmentalists, and policy makers the tools, metrics, and practical pathways they need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Far more than a rhetorical exercise, this book is designed to inform, inspire, and spur action. Based on Sachs's twelve years as director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, his thirteen years advising the United Nations secretary-general on the Millennium Development Goals, and his recent presentation of these ideas in a popular online course, The Age of Sustainable Development is a landmark publication and a clarion call for all who care about our planet and global justice.
The Age of Sustainable Development
by Jeffrey D. SachsJeffrey D. Sachs is one of the world's most perceptive and original analysts of global development. In this major new work he presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can use a holistic way forward to address the seemingly intractable worldwide problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and political-economic injustice: sustainable development. <P><P>Sachs offers readers, students, activists, environmentalists, and policy makers the tools, metrics, and practical pathways they need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Far more than a rhetorical exercise, this book is designed to inform, inspire, and spur action. Based on Sachs's twelve years as director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, his thirteen years advising the United Nations secretary-general on the Millennium Development Goals, and his recent presentation of these ideas in a popular online course, The Age of Sustainable Development is a landmark publication and clarion call for all who care about our planet and global justice.
The Age of Wind Energy: Progress and Future Directions from a Global Perspective (Innovative Renewable Energy)
by Ali Sayigh David MilborrowThis unique volume on wind energy features contributions from the world’s leading research and development pioneers in the field of renewable energy. It discusses advances in offshore wind technology, grid-connected systems, grid stabilization and wind turbine design and highlights. Written from an international perspective, chapters focus on the status of wind energy in various regions and countries across the globe, outlining the positive impact its implementation has had on delaying the catastrophic effects of climate change.
Ageing, Wellbeing and Climate Change in the Arctic: An interdisciplinary analysis (Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research)
by Shahnaj Begum Marjaana Seppänen Paivi NaskaliThe Arctic and its unique natural resources have become objects of increasing concern. Rapid climate change and ageing of the population are transforming the living conditions in the region. This translates into an urgent need for information that will contribute to a better understanding of these issues. Ageing, Wellbeing and Climate Change in the Arctic addresses the important intersection of ageing, wellbeing and climate change in the Arctic region, making a key interdisciplinary contribution to an area of research on which little has been written, and limited sources of information are currently available. The book explores three key areas of discussion. First, various political issues that are currently affecting the Arctic, such as the social categorisation of elderly people. Second, the living conditions of the elderly in relation to Arctic climate change. Third, the wellbeing of elderly people in terms of traditional knowledge and lifestyles. The book also features contributions from a number of key researchers in the field which examine a broad range of case studies, including the impact of climate change on health in Lapland and elderly people and geographical mobility in Norway. This book will be of great interest to scholars of climate change, gerontology and social policy.
Agency in Earth System Governance
by Michele M. Betsill Tabitha M. Benney Andrea K. GerlakThe modern era is facing unprecedented governance challenges in striving to achieve long-term sustainability goals and to limit human impacts on the Earth system. This volume synthesizes a decade of multidisciplinary research into how diverse actors exercise authority in environmental decision making, and their capacity to deliver effective, legitimate and equitable Earth system governance. Actors from the global to the local level are considered, including governments, international organizations and corporations. Chapters cover how state and non-state actors engage with decision-making processes, the relationship between agency and structure, and the variations in governance and agency across different spheres and tiers of society. Providing an overview of the major questions, issues and debates, as well as the theories and methods used in studies of agency in earth system governance, this book provides a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers, as well as practitioners and policy makers working in environmental governance.
An Agenda for Sustainable Development Research (World Sustainability Series)
by Walter Leal Filho Amanda Lange Salvia Claudio Ruy Portela de VasconcelosThis book involves establishing a set of priorities and a roadmap that can guide scholarly and practical efforts towards sustainability goals. It encourages collaboration across disciplines to address complex sustainability issues that span social, economic, and environmental domains. It also supports the development of robust methodologies for conducting research, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. But despite the importance of and the need for an agenda for sustainable development research, many efforts are isolated and thematically disconnected. Also, it is difficult to find information on how sustainability research is being undertaken and on the wide range of methods being used. Against this backdrop and in order to facilitate a broad discussion on the contribution of sustainable development research, this book is being produced. The book gathers inputs from universities and research organisations working on matters related to sustainable development research in a variety of contexts. It also provides a platform for the dissemination of information on the latest initiatives, paving the way for technology transfer and networking. Furthermore, the book intends to provide a fertile basis upon which universities, research centres, and practitioners may cooperate more closely in this key area. Last but not least, a further aim of the book is to present methodological approaches and experiences deriving from case studies and projects, which aim to show how sustainability research may be implementing across a range of disciplines. Thanks to its scope and interdisciplinarity, this books makes an excellent reading to everyone interested on sustainability research.
Agent-Based Modeling of Environmental Conflict and Cooperation
by Todd BenDor Jürgen ScheffranConflict is a major facet of many environmental challenges of our time. However, growing conflict complexity makes it more difficult to identify win-win strategies for sustainable conflict resolution. Innovative methods are needed to help predict, understand, and resolve conflicts in cooperative ways.Agent-Based Modeling of Environmental Conflict and Cooperation examines computer modeling techniques as an important set of tools for assessing environmental and resource-based conflicts and, ultimately, for finding pathways to conflict resolution and cooperation. This book has two major goals. First, it argues that complexity science can be a unifying framework for professions engaged in conflict studies and resolution, including anthropology, law, management, peace studies, urban planning, and geography. Second, this book presents an innovative framework for approaching conflicts as complex adaptive systems by using many forms of environmental analysis, including system dynamics modeling, agent-based modeling, evolutionary game theory, viability theory, and network analysis. Known as VIABLE (Values and Investments from Agent-Based interaction and Learning in Environmental systems), this framework allows users to model advanced facets of conflicts—including institution building, coalition formation, adaptive learning, and the potential for future conflict—and conflict resolution based on the long-term viability of the actors’ strategies.Written for scholars, students, practitioners, and policy makers alike, this book offers readers an extensive introduction to environmental conflict research and resolution techniques. As the result of decades of research, the text presents a strong argument for conflict modeling and reviews the most popular and advanced techniques, including system dynamics modeling, agent-based modeling, and participatory modeling methods. This indispensable guide uses NetLogo, a widely used and free modeling software package, to implement the VIABLE modeling approach in three case study applications around the world. Readers are invited to explore, adapt, modify, and expand these models to conflicts they hope to better understand and resolve.
Agent-Based Modeling of Sustainable Behaviors (Understanding Complex Systems)
by Juan Manuel Corchado Javier Bajo Amparo Alonso-Betanzos Noelia Sánchez-Maroño Oscar Fontenla-Romero J. Gary Polhill Tony CraigUsing the O. D. D. (Overview, Design concepts, Detail) protocol, this title explores the role of agent-based modeling in predicting the feasibility of various approaches to sustainability. The chapters incorporated in this volume consist of real case studies to illustrate the utility of agent-based modeling and complexity theory in discovering a path to more efficient and sustainable lifestyles. The topics covered within include: households' attitudes toward recycling, designing decision trees for representing sustainable behaviors, negotiation-based parking allocation, auction-based traffic signal control, and others. This selection of papers will be of interest to social scientists who wish to learn more about agent-based modeling as well as experts in the field of agent-based modeling.
Agents and Implications of Landscape Pattern: Working Models for Landscape Ecology
by Dean L UrbanThis is an ecology textbook focused on key principles that underpin research and management at the landscape scale. It covers (1) agents of pattern (the physical template, biotic processes, and disturbance regimes); (2) scale and pattern (why scale matters, how to ‘scale’ with data, and inferences using landscape pattern metrics); and (3) implications of pattern (for metapopulations, communities and biodiversity, and ecosystem processes). The last two chapters address emerging issues: urban landscapes, and adapting to climate change. This book stems from two graduate-level courses in Landscape Ecology taught at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. The subject has evolved over time, from a concepts-based overview of what landscape ecology is, to a more applied practicum on how one does landscape ecology. As landscape ecology has matured as a discipline, its perspectives on spatial heterogeneity and scale have begun to permeate into a wide range of other fields including conservation biology, ecosystem management, and ecological restoration. Thus, this textbook will bring students from diverse backgrounds to a common level of understanding and will prepare them with the practical knowledge for a career in conservation and ecosystem management.
Agnes Chase#s First Book of Grasses: The Structure of Grasses Explained for Beginners, Fourth Edition
by Lynn G. Clark Richard W. PohlFor almost seventy-five years, Agnes Chase's First Book of Grasses has been the classic guide to the structure of this complex group of plants. Clearly written and copiously illustrated with line drawings, the book is accessible to those with little or no botanical training, yet it also is respected by botanists as an authoritative introduction to agrostology.Last updated in 1959, the book now has been thoroughly revised to reflect current scientific knowledge, nomenclature, and classification. Divided into twelve lessons, the guide first surveys the basic vegetative and reproductive parts of a grass plant, then in succeeding lessons takes up increasingly more complex modifications. Formally recognized groups of grasses are discussed in a taxonomic context, with the principal focus on grass structures, particularly those of inflorescences and spikelets. Virtually all of the species discussed are illustrated with detailed line drawings. With the addition in this edition of a lesson on bamboos, coverage now extends to tropical regions and encompasses all major groups of grasses. The book also includes a short biography of Agnes Chase in the foreword and, for the first time in this edition, a glossary accompanies the appendices on grass classification.
Agrarholz – Schnellwachsende Bäume in der Landwirtschaft: Biologie - Ökologie - Management
by Christian Böhm Maik VesteDas Buch bietet eine umfassende aktuelle Zusammenfassung und Bewertung der bisherigen Forschungserfahrungen zum Thema Agrarholz und berücksichtigt sowohl Plantagenwirtschaft als auch agroforstliche Nutzungsformen. Es greift die verschiedenen Aspekte der Etablierung von Agrarholz in der Landwirtschaft aus Sicht der Pflanzenökologie und der Ökosystemforschung auf und diskutiert diese im Kontext mit der Produktivität und dem Agrarholz-Management. Zudem werden auch Aspekte der historischen Landnutzung, der Landschaftsplanung und des praktischen Flächenmanagements behandelt und wesentliche Grundlagen zur Biologie, Genetik, (Landschafts-)Ökologie, und der Nutzung von Agrarholz vermittelt. Zielgruppe sind Studierende und Lehrende der Agrar- und Forstwissenschaften, der (Landschafts)-Ökologie, der Umwelt-, Natur- und Landschaftsplanung, des Umwelt- und Ressourcenschutzes sowie Wissenschaftler, Vertreter von Fachbehörden und -verbänden, Naturschützer, Land- und Forstwirte und Anwender angrenzender Fachbereiche.
Agrarian Capitalism, War and Peace in Colombia: Beyond Dispossession (Routledge Studies in Global Land and Resource Grabbing)
by Jacobo GrajalesBased on extensive research conducted in Colombia since 2009, this book addresses the connection between land grabbing and agrarian capitalism, as well as the unfulfilled promises of peace and justice. While land remains a key resource at the core of many contemporary civil wars, the impact of high-intensity armed violence on the formation of agrarian capitalism is seldom discussed. Drawing on nearly 200 interviews, archival research, and geographical data, this book examines land grabbing and the role of violence in capital with a particular focus on one key actor in the Colombian civil war: paramilitary militias. This book demonstrates how the intricate ties between armed conflict and economy formation are obscured by the widespread belief that violence is a radical form of action, breaking with the normal course of society and disconnected from the legal economy. Under this view, dispossession is perceived as diametrically opposed to capitalist accumulation. This belief is enormously influential in precisely those bureaucratic agencies that are in charge of peacebuilding, both domestically and internationally. However, this narrow view of the relationship between armed violence and capitalism belies the close ties between plunder and lawful profit, and obscures the continuity between violent dispossession and the free market. By the same token, it legitimizes post-war inequality in the name of capitalist development. The book concludes by arguing that the promotion of radical democracy in the government of land and rural development emerges as the only reasonable path for pacifying a violent polity. The book is essential reading for students, scholars, and development aid practitioners interested in land and resource grabbing, agrarian capitalism, civil wars, and conflict resolution.
An Agrarian Republic
by Adam Wesley DeanThe familiar story of the Civil War tells of a predominately agricultural South pitted against a rapidly industrializing North. However, Adam Wesley Dean argues that the Republican Party's political ideology was fundamentally agrarian. Believing that small farms owned by families for generations led to a model society, Republicans supported a northern agricultural ideal in opposition to southern plantation agriculture, which destroyed the land's productivity, required constant western expansion, and produced an elite landed gentry hostile to the Union. Dean shows how agrarian republicanism shaped the debate over slavery's expansion, spurred the creation of the Department of Agriculture and the passage of the Homestead Act, and laid the foundation for the development of the earliest nature parks.Spanning the long nineteenth century, Dean's study analyzes the changing debate over land development as it transitioned from focusing on the creation of a virtuous and orderly citizenry to being seen primarily as a "civilizing" mission. By showing Republicans as men and women with backgrounds in small farming, Dean unveils new connections between seemingly separate historical events, linking this era's views of natural and manmade environments with interpretations of slavery and land policy.
Agribusiness and the Neoliberal Food System in Brazil: Frontiers and Fissures of Agro-neoliberalism (Earthscan Food and Agriculture)
by Antonio Augusto IorisDue to new production areas and persistent productivity gains, Brazil has consolidated its position as a global leader and even as a ‘model’ of commercial, integrated crop production. The country is now seen as an agricultural powerhouse that has a lot to offer in terms of reducing the prospect of a looming, increasingly global, food crisis. Agribusiness and the Neoliberal Food System in Brazil focuses on the intensification of Brazilian agribusiness as a privileged entry point into the politicised geography of globalised agri-food. Drawing on rich empirical analysis based around three fieldwork campaigns in the state of Mato Grosso, the book examines the connections between farming, markets and the apparatus of the state. The importance of agribusiness expansion within the wider politico-economic context of Brazilian neoliberalism is demonstrated, thus drawing broader conclusions about the main trends of agribusiness in the world today and providing recommendations for future research. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of agribusiness, neoliberalism and global food production, as well as those interested in Brazil and Latin America more generally.
Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change
by Christopher R. Bryant Mamadou A. Sarr Kénel DéluscaThis book deals with one of the major challenges facing human society and its governments, climate change and variability. The principal objective of the book is to explore how agricultural production through the actions primarily of farmers, including peasant farmers, adapt to these changing circumstances, what the limitations of adaptation are, how the process of adaptation varies between different territories (e. g. developed countries versus developing countries), and what are or can be the most effective roles for actors other than the farmers, including different levels of government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as professional associations of farmers and community organizations. The principal argument is threefold: 1) while there are significant differences between territories and countries in terms of the capacity of farmers (and the other actors) to engage in capacity building to be able to adapt effectively to climate change and variability, 2) the critical roles are those played out by the farmers themselves, but that 3) other actors can play an important role in accompanying farmers in their adaptation process, providing relevant and strategic information, counseling them and facilitating networking and meetings when appropriate. This effectively means that without engaging in the local adaptation processes governments can really only play effective roles by working with other actors at the local and regional levels. When it occurs, it can be very effective, but when it does not, farmers are left to their own devices (and even then, many are able to use their own creativity and local knowledge to survive and continue to develop). Essentially therefore, the secondary argument that is followed throughout the book is that adaptation is essentially a social process that requires an understanding of social processes and dynamics in each farming community and territory. It involves an understanding, for instance, of information diffusion processes in the different farming communities and territories, which provides a set of tools to promote and facilitate the adoption process in the context of adaptation to climate change and variability.
Agricultural Commercialization, Gender Equality and the Right to Food: Insights from Ghana and Cambodia (Earthscan Food and Agriculture)
by Joanna Bourke Martignoni Christophe Gironde Christophe Golay Elisabeth Prügl Dzodzi TsikataThis volume explores agricultural commercialization from a gender equality and right to food perspective. Agricultural commercialization, involving not only the shift to selling crops and buying inputs but also the commodification of land and labour, has always been controversial. Strategies for commercialization have often reinforced and exacerbated inequalities, been blind to gender differences and given rise to violations of the human rights to food, land, work and social security. While there is a body of evidence to trace these developments globally, impacts vary considerably in local contexts. This book systematically considers these dynamics in two countries, Cambodia and Ghana. Profoundly different in terms of their history and location, they provide the basis for fruitful comparisons because they both transitioned to democracy in the early 1990s, made agricultural development a priority, and adopted orthodox policies of commercialization to develop the sector. Chapters illustrate how commercialization processes are gendered, highlighting distinctive gender, ethnic and class dynamics in rural Ghana and Cambodia and the different outcomes these generate. They also show the ways in which food cultures are changing and the often-problematic impact of these changes on the safety and quality of food. Specific policies and legal norms are examined, with chapters addressing the development and implementation of frameworks on the right to food and land administration. Overall, the volume brings into relief multiple dimensions shaping the outcomes of processes of commercialization, including gender orders, food cultures, policy translation, national and sub-national policies, corporate investments and programmes, and formal and informal legal norms. In doing so, it offers insight not only on our case countries, but also provides proposals to advance rights-based research on food security. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food security, agricultural development and economics, gender, human rights and sustainable development.
Agricultural Depression in the 1920's: Economic Fact or Statistical Artifact? (Routledge Library Editions: Agriculture #1)
by Thomas H. JohnsonFirst published in 1985. This study explores the agricultural depression in the United States of America in the 1920’s. The author examines overproduction, wartime optimism and the farm crisis, and continuity and change in agriculture during this period. This title will be of great interest to students of history, agriculture, and economics.
Agricultural Digitization and Zhongyong Philosophy: Creating a Sustainable Circular Economy (Routledge Focus on Environment and Sustainability)
by Yiyan Chen Hooi Hooi Lean Ye LiThis interdisciplinary book combines digital technology with Eastern philosophy to examine how the concept of Zhongyong in Confucianism can be used to coordinate digital technology with sustainable agriculture. Zhongyong comes from the connotation of moderate and sustainable in ancient Chinese culture. It is with this concept in mind that this book presents a novel collaboration between philosophy and computer technology to explain how Zhongyong can play an important part in realizing agricultural digitization within a circular economy in order to help solve the current food crisis. The book examines two popular, yet contradictory, digital technologies—blockchain and the green data center. It showcases how the use of traditional Chinese Zhongyong can promote the decentralization of blockchain and the centralization of the green data center and explains the advantages of using both technologies simultaneously. The book puts forward a digital circular agricultural framework that embeds both blockchain and the green data center through an actual case study. While this book specifically focuses on agriculture, it also provides readers with a new perspective for thinking further on how to break down the disciplinary barriers between the social sciences and natural sciences. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of agriculture, digital technologies, circular economy, sustainable development, and Eastern philosophy.