Michael Redclift - Böcker

Argues that environmental problems need to be looked at internationally, in terms of the global economic system, and that the degradation of the environment is not natural', but an historical process which is intrinsically linked and shaped by economic and political systems.

We live in a society as dominated by food preference as by sexual preference, as obsessed with eating too much as with eating too little. In this accessible, cross-disciplinary text, David Goodman and Michael Redclift look at the development of the modern food system, integrating different bodies of knowledge and debate concerning food, agriculture, the environment and the household. They link changes in our diet and concern with the environment to many of the problems afflicting developing countries: food shortages, poor nutrition and wholesale environmental destruction.

This book marks a watershed in the social sciences. The qualitative, critical perspective of sociology and allied disciplines challenges the technocentric `managerialism' which dominates environmental policy, its discourse and its impact.The authors explore the relationship between social theory and sustainability in an attempt to transend technical rhetoric and embrace a broader understanding of `nature'.

The concept of sustainability is traditionally viewed in exclusively environmental terms. Sustainability: Life Chances and Livelihoods links peoples livelihoods and life chances to the concept of sustainability by examining the way in which social and economic processes complement and compound environmental change. Looking at the main ingredients of sustainable development - health, economic policy, land use, ethics and education, in both the north and south, this book demonstrates the way in which the life chances of individuals both effect and are affected by, their environments.Sustainability: Life Chances and Livelihoods shows that the scope of sustainability thinking needs to be widened to embrace public policies and experiences in both developed and developing countries.By providing a comparative focus, both spatially and temporally, the contributors demonstrate how the environmental concerns of the northern developed world are culturally translated into the south, often into immediate survival questions.

The concept of sustainability is traditionally viewed in exclusively environmental terms. Sustainability: Life Chances and Livelihoods links peoples livelihoods and life chances to the concept of sustainability by examining the way in which social and economic processes complement and compound environmental change. Looking at the main ingredients of sustainable development - health, economic policy, land use, ethics and education, in both the north and south, this book demonstrates the way in which the life chances of individuals both effect and are affected by, their environments.Sustainability: Life Chances and Livelihoods shows that the scope of sustainability thinking needs to be widened to embrace public policies and experiences in both developed and developing countries.By providing a comparative focus, both spatially and temporally, the contributors demonstrate how the environmental concerns of the northern developed world are culturally translated into the south, often into immediate survival questions.

First published in 1984, Michael Redclift’s book makes the global environmental crisis a central concern of political economy and its structural causes a central concern of environmentalism.Michael Redclift argues that a close analysis of the environmental crisis in the South reveals the importance of the share of resources obtained by different social groups. The development strategies based on the experiences and interests of Western capitalist countries fail to recognise that environmental degradation in the South is a product of inequalities in both global and local economic relations and cannot be solved simply by applying solutions borrowed from environmentalism in the North. The key to understanding the South’s environmental problems lies in the recognition that structural processes – markets, technology, state intervention – are also a determining influence upon the way natural resources are used.Through his review of Europe’s Green Movement, contemporary breakthroughs in biotechnology and information systems and recent feminist discourse, Michael Redclift has enlarged the compass of the environmental debate and produced a book which should serve as a benchmark in future discussions of development and the environment. It will be of importance to students in a range of disciplines, within development studies, geography, ecology and the social sciences.

Are established economic, social and political practices capable of dealing with the combined crises of climate change and the global economic system? Will falling back on the wisdoms that contributed to the crisis help us to find ways forward or simply reconfigure risk in another guise? This volume argues that the combination of global environmental change and global economic restructuring require a re-thinking of the priorities, processes and underlying values that shape contemporary development aspirations and policy.This volume brings together leading scholars to address these questions from several disciplinary perspectives: environmental sociology, human geography, international development, systems thinking, political sciences, philosophy, economics and policy/management science. The book is divided into four sections that examine contemporary development discourses and practices. It bridges geographical and disciplinary divides and includes chapters on innovative governance that confront unsustainable economic and environmental relations in both developing and developed contexts. It emphasises the ways in which dominant development paths have necessarily forced a separation of individuals from nature, but also from society and even from ‘self’. These three levels of alienation each form a thread that runs through the book. There are different levels and opportunities for a transition towards resilience, raising questions surrounding identity, governance and ecological management. This places resilience at the heart of the contemporary crisis of capitalism, and speaks to the relationship between the increasingly global forms of economic development and the difficulties in framing solutions to the environmental problems that carbon-based development brings in its wake.. Existing social science can help in not only identifying the challenges but also potential pathways for making change locally and in wider political, economic and cultural systems, but it must do so by identifying transitions out of carbon dependency and the kind of political challenges they imply for reflexive individuals and alternative community approaches to human security and wellbeing. Climate Change and the Crisis of Capitalism contains contributions from leading scholars to produce a rich and cohesive set of arguments, from a range of theoretical and empirical viewpoints. It analyses the problem of resilience under existing circumstances, but also goes beyond this to seek ways in which resilience can provide a better pathway and template for a more sustainable future. This volume will be of interest to both undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Human Geography, Environmental Policy, and Politics.

This Handbook gives a comprehensive, international and cutting-edge overview of Sustainable Development. It integrates the key imperatives of sustainable development, namely institutional, environmental, social and economic, and calls for greater participation, social cohesion, justice and democracy as well as limited throughput of materials and energy. The nature of sustainable development and the book’s theorization of the concept underline the need for interdisciplinarity in the discourse as exemplified in each chapter of this volume.The Handbook employs a critical framework that problematises the concept of sustainable development and the struggle between discursivity and control that has characterised the debate. It provides original contributions from international experts coming from a variety of disciplines and regions, including the Global South.Comprehensive in scope, it covers, amongst other areas: Sustainable architecture and designBiodiversitySustainable business Climate changeConservationSustainable consumptionDe-growthDisaster managementEco-system servicesEducationEnvironmental justiceFood and sustainable developmentGovernanceGenderHealthIndicators for sustainable developmentIndigenous perspectivesUrban transport The Handbook offers researchers and students in the field of sustainable development invaluable insights into a contested concept and the alternative worldviews that it has fostered.

First published in 1984, Michael Redclift’s book makes the global environmental crisis a central concern of political economy and its structural causes a central concern of environmentalism.Michael Redclift argues that a close analysis of the environmental crisis in the South reveals the importance of the share of resources obtained by different social groups. The development strategies based on the experiences and interests of Western capitalist countries fail to recognise that environmental degradation in the South is a product of inequalities in both global and local economic relations and cannot be solved simply by applying solutions borrowed from environmentalism in the North. The key to understanding the South’s environmental problems lies in the recognition that structural processes – markets, technology, state intervention – are also a determining influence upon the way natural resources are used.Through his review of Europe’s Green Movement, contemporary breakthroughs in biotechnology and information systems and recent feminist discourse, Michael Redclift has enlarged the compass of the environmental debate and produced a book which should serve as a benchmark in future discussions of development and the environment. It will be of importance to students in a range of disciplines, within development studies, geography, ecology and the social sciences.

In Chewing Gum, Michael Redclift deftly chronicles the growing popularity of gum in the U.S. alongside a fascinating history of peasant revolution led by charismatic Indians in the jungles of southern Mexico.

This Handbook gives a comprehensive, international and cutting-edge overview of Sustainable Development. It integrates the key imperatives of sustainable development, namely institutional, environmental, social and economic, and calls for greater participation, social cohesion, justice and democracy as well as limited throughput of materials and energy. The nature of sustainable development and the book’s theorization of the concept underline the need for interdisciplinarity in the discourse as exemplified in each chapter of this volume.The Handbook employs a critical framework that problematises the concept of sustainable development and the struggle between discursivity and control that has characterised the debate. It provides original contributions from international experts coming from a variety of disciplines and regions, including the Global South.Comprehensive in scope, it covers, amongst other areas: Sustainable architecture and designBiodiversitySustainable business Climate changeConservationSustainable consumptionDe-growthDisaster managementEco-system servicesEducationEnvironmental justiceFood and sustainable developmentGovernanceGenderHealthIndicators for sustainable developmentIndigenous perspectivesUrban transport The Handbook offers researchers and students in the field of sustainable development invaluable insights into a contested concept and the alternative worldviews that it has fostered.

Argues that environmental problems need to be looked at internationally, in terms of the global economic system, and that the degradation of the environment is not natural', but an historical process which is intrinsically linked and shaped by economic and political systems.

This book marks a watershed in the social sciences. The qualitative, critical perspective of sociology and allied disciplines challenges the technocentric `managerialism' which dominates environmental policy, its discourse and its impact.The authors explore the relationship between social theory and sustainability in an attempt to transend technical rhetoric and embrace a broader understanding of `nature'.

Are established economic, social and political practices capable of dealing with the combined crises of climate change and the global economic system? Will falling back on the wisdoms that contributed to the crisis help us to find ways forward or simply reconfigure risk in another guise? This volume argues that the combination of global environmental change and global economic restructuring require a re-thinking of the priorities, processes and underlying values that shape contemporary development aspirations and policy.This volume brings together leading scholars to address these questions from several disciplinary perspectives: environmental sociology, human geography, international development, systems thinking, political sciences, philosophy, economics and policy/management science. The book is divided into four sections that examine contemporary development discourses and practices. It bridges geographical and disciplinary divides and includes chapters on innovative governance that confront unsustainable economic and environmental relations in both developing and developed contexts. It emphasises the ways in which dominant development paths have necessarily forced a separation of individuals from nature, but also from society and even from ‘self’. These three levels of alienation each form a thread that runs through the book. There are different levels and opportunities for a transition towards resilience, raising questions surrounding identity, governance and ecological management. This places resilience at the heart of the contemporary crisis of capitalism, and speaks to the relationship between the increasingly global forms of economic development and the difficulties in framing solutions to the environmental problems that carbon-based development brings in its wake.. Existing social science can help in not only identifying the challenges but also potential pathways for making change locally and in wider political, economic and cultural systems, but it must do so by identifying transitions out of carbon dependency and the kind of political challenges they imply for reflexive individuals and alternative community approaches to human security and wellbeing. Climate Change and the Crisis of Capitalism contains contributions from leading scholars to produce a rich and cohesive set of arguments, from a range of theoretical and empirical viewpoints. It analyses the problem of resilience under existing circumstances, but also goes beyond this to seek ways in which resilience can provide a better pathway and template for a more sustainable future. This volume will be of interest to both undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Human Geography, Environmental Policy, and Politics.

We live in a society as dominated by food preference as by sexual preference, as obsessed with eating too much as with eating too little. In this accessible, cross-disciplinary text, David Goodman and Michael Redclift look at the development of the modern food system, integrating different bodies of knowledge and debate concerning food, agriculture, the environment and the household. They link changes in our diet and concern with the environment to many of the problems afflicting developing countries: food shortages, poor nutrition and wholesale environmental destruction.

In Chewing Gum, Michael Redclift deftly chronicles the growing popularity of gum in the U.S. alongside a fascinating history of peasant revolution led by charismatic Indians in the jungles of southern Mexico.

This collection of essays examine the problems currently facing farmers and agricultural products in the international market.

Sustainable development cannot be achieved solely at the international level. Without the creation of more sustainable livelihoods, it will remain a utopian and elusive goal. Yet given the huge differences in economic development and levels of consumption between North and South, how might this be brought about? Taking the 1992 Rio Summit as its point of departure, Wasted examines what we now need to know, and what we need to do, to live within sustainable limits. One of the key issues is how we use the environment: converting natural resources into human artifices, commodities and services. In the process of consuming, we also create sinks. Today, these sinks - the empty back pocket in the global biogeographical system - are no longer empty. The fate of the global environment is indissolubly linked to our consumption: particularly in the energy-profligate North. To understand and overcome environmental challenges, we need to build the outcomes of our present consumption rates into our future behavior: to accept sustainable development as a normative goal for societies; one that is bound up with our everyday social practices and actions. In this absorbing new book, Michael Redclift argues that the way we understand and think about the environment conditions our responses, and our ability to meet the challenge, and discusses tangible policies for increased sustainability that are grounded in recent research and practice.

Sustainable development cannot be achieved solely at the international level. Without the creation of more sustainable livelihoods, it will remain a utopian and elusive goal. Yet given the huge differences in economic development and levels of consumption between North and South, how might this bebrought about?Taking the 1992 Rio Summit as its point of departure, Wasted examines what we now need to know, and what we need to do, to live within sustainable limits. One of the key issues is how we use the environment: converting natural resources into human artifices, commodities and services. In the process of consuming,we also create sinks. Today, these sinks - the empty back pocket in the global biogeographical system - are no longer empty. The fate of the global environment is indissolubly linked to our consumption: particularly in the energy-profligate North.To understand and overcome environmental challenges, we need to build the outcomes of our present consumption rates into our future behaviour: to accept sustainable development as a normative goal for societies; one that is bound up with our everyday social practices and actions. In this absorbing book, Michael Redclift argues that the way we understand and think about the environn1ent conditions our responses, and our ability to meet the challenge, and discusses tangible policies for increased sustainability that are grounded in recent research and practice.MICHAEL RedcliftIs Professor of International Environmental Policy at the Department of Geography, King's College London. He was previously Professor of International Environmental Policy at the University of Keele and before that Professor of Environmental Sociology at Wye College, University of London, and Director of the ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme. He is author and editor of numerous books, including Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions (1987), Social Theory and the Global Environment (1994) and Sustainability: Life Chances and Lifestyles (1999).Originally published in 1996