Graham Bullock
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036429
- eISBN:
- 9780262340984
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036429.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
A debate has emerged recently about the role of information in environmental politics. Much of this debate has focused on the emergence and effectiveness of product eco-labels and corporate ...
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A debate has emerged recently about the role of information in environmental politics. Much of this debate has focused on the emergence and effectiveness of product eco-labels and corporate sustainability ratings as a new form of environmental governance. “Information optimists” believe that the provision of information can be an effective strategy to protect the environment, while “information pessimists” are concerned that information-based approaches serve as a distraction from more effective forms of governance that rely on the rule of law. This book advances a third position of “information realism,” which acknowledges both the contributions and limitations of information -based governance initiatives. It asserts that these initiatives must develop into more mature governance initiatives for them to overcome their current weaknesses and produce long-lasting and substantial environmental benefits.
The book uses a series of in-depth case studies and an original dataset on 245 cases of environmental certifications and ratings to discuss their contributions and limitations and highlight their best and worst practices. These include programs such as ENERGY STAR and USDA Organic, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council, and LEED and Green Globes. Each chapter is organized around a different component of the information value chain that is at the heart of these initiatives, and applies concepts such as legitimacy, validity, and usability to analyze how they are both constructed and perceived. The book concludes with a set of recommendations for policymakers, designers and users of these initiatives that can improve their long-term effectiveness as a form of environmental governance.Less
A debate has emerged recently about the role of information in environmental politics. Much of this debate has focused on the emergence and effectiveness of product eco-labels and corporate sustainability ratings as a new form of environmental governance. “Information optimists” believe that the provision of information can be an effective strategy to protect the environment, while “information pessimists” are concerned that information-based approaches serve as a distraction from more effective forms of governance that rely on the rule of law. This book advances a third position of “information realism,” which acknowledges both the contributions and limitations of information -based governance initiatives. It asserts that these initiatives must develop into more mature governance initiatives for them to overcome their current weaknesses and produce long-lasting and substantial environmental benefits.
The book uses a series of in-depth case studies and an original dataset on 245 cases of environmental certifications and ratings to discuss their contributions and limitations and highlight their best and worst practices. These include programs such as ENERGY STAR and USDA Organic, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council, and LEED and Green Globes. Each chapter is organized around a different component of the information value chain that is at the heart of these initiatives, and applies concepts such as legitimacy, validity, and usability to analyze how they are both constructed and perceived. The book concludes with a set of recommendations for policymakers, designers and users of these initiatives that can improve their long-term effectiveness as a form of environmental governance.
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger and Ashfaq Khalfan
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199276707
- eISBN:
- 9780191699900
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199276707.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
This chapter discusses several observations which are made with regard to the case studies of integrated instruments canvassed already in previous chapters. In the first case study, Sustainability ...
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This chapter discusses several observations which are made with regard to the case studies of integrated instruments canvassed already in previous chapters. In the first case study, Sustainability Impact Assessment procedures provide an example of an integrated sustainable development legal tool which emerged from the environmental law field, and can be applied both internationally and at the domestic levels. In the second case study, several Regional Integration Agreements are surveyed. It is found that each accord uses different strategies to address environmental concerns through their links to economic integration arrangements. Finally, the third case study focuses on the role of human rights law in sustainable development law. It demonstrates the utility of cross-fertilization between human rights, and economic and environmental regimes, and shows how social, economic, and cultural rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are relevant and can strengthen international treaties relating to the environment and the economy.Less
This chapter discusses several observations which are made with regard to the case studies of integrated instruments canvassed already in previous chapters. In the first case study, Sustainability Impact Assessment procedures provide an example of an integrated sustainable development legal tool which emerged from the environmental law field, and can be applied both internationally and at the domestic levels. In the second case study, several Regional Integration Agreements are surveyed. It is found that each accord uses different strategies to address environmental concerns through their links to economic integration arrangements. Finally, the third case study focuses on the role of human rights law in sustainable development law. It demonstrates the utility of cross-fertilization between human rights, and economic and environmental regimes, and shows how social, economic, and cultural rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are relevant and can strengthen international treaties relating to the environment and the economy.
James Miller
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780231175869
- eISBN:
- 9780231544535
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231175869.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
How can Daoism, China's indigenous religion, give us the aesthetic, ethical, political, and spiritual tools to address the root causes of our ecological crisis and construct a sustainable future? In ...
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How can Daoism, China's indigenous religion, give us the aesthetic, ethical, political, and spiritual tools to address the root causes of our ecological crisis and construct a sustainable future? In China's Green Religion, James Miller shows how Daoism orients individuals toward a holistic understanding of religion and nature. Explicitly connecting human flourishing to the thriving of nature, Daoism fosters a "green" subjectivity and agency that transforms what it means to live a flourishing life on earth. Through a groundbreaking reconstruction of Daoist philosophy and religion, Miller argues for four key, green insights: a vision of nature as a subjective power that informs human life; an anthropological idea of the porous body based on a sense of qi flowing through landscapes and human beings; a tradition of knowing founded on the experience of transformative power in specific landscapes and topographies; and an aesthetic and moral sensibility based on an affective sensitivity to how the world pervades the body and the body pervades the world. Environmentalists struggle to raise consciousness for their cause, Miller argues, because their activism relies on a quasi-Christian concept of "saving the earth." Instead, environmentalists should integrate nature and culture more seamlessly, cultivating through a contemporary intellectual vocabulary a compelling vision of how the earth materially and spiritually supports human flourishing.Less
How can Daoism, China's indigenous religion, give us the aesthetic, ethical, political, and spiritual tools to address the root causes of our ecological crisis and construct a sustainable future? In China's Green Religion, James Miller shows how Daoism orients individuals toward a holistic understanding of religion and nature. Explicitly connecting human flourishing to the thriving of nature, Daoism fosters a "green" subjectivity and agency that transforms what it means to live a flourishing life on earth. Through a groundbreaking reconstruction of Daoist philosophy and religion, Miller argues for four key, green insights: a vision of nature as a subjective power that informs human life; an anthropological idea of the porous body based on a sense of qi flowing through landscapes and human beings; a tradition of knowing founded on the experience of transformative power in specific landscapes and topographies; and an aesthetic and moral sensibility based on an affective sensitivity to how the world pervades the body and the body pervades the world. Environmentalists struggle to raise consciousness for their cause, Miller argues, because their activism relies on a quasi-Christian concept of "saving the earth." Instead, environmentalists should integrate nature and culture more seamlessly, cultivating through a contemporary intellectual vocabulary a compelling vision of how the earth materially and spiritually supports human flourishing.
A. Whitney Sanford
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813168630
- eISBN:
- 9780813168951
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813168630.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
How can we live together in ways that are healthy and sustainable for people and the planet? This book tells the story of people attempting to live intentionally and sustainably by practicing ideals ...
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How can we live together in ways that are healthy and sustainable for people and the planet? This book tells the story of people attempting to live intentionally and sustainably by practicing ideals of nonviolence, participatory democracy, and voluntary simplicity. Between 2011 and 2015, I conducted ethnographic research in over twenty intentional communities, which can be broadly defined as residential communities organized around shared values, around the US. These communities understand themselves as demonstration communities, developing and testing, but not imposing, new patterns of living, eating, and communicating. Communities in this book include ecovillages, cohousing communities, and Catholic worker houses and farms, located in urban, rural, and suburban regions. The initial chapters of the book explore why people come to these communities, who comes, and what they do when they get there, including growing food, creating governance systems, and building community. Each faced similar sets of challenges that are familiar to us: most people are ambivalent in our attitudes towards authority, regulation, and community. The final chapters suggest ways to apply what these communities have learned in the context of our own lives and regions. Food co-ops, pocket neighborhoods, and cohousing, for example, offer some benefits of intentional communities such as control over food but require fewer drastic lifestyle changes.Less
How can we live together in ways that are healthy and sustainable for people and the planet? This book tells the story of people attempting to live intentionally and sustainably by practicing ideals of nonviolence, participatory democracy, and voluntary simplicity. Between 2011 and 2015, I conducted ethnographic research in over twenty intentional communities, which can be broadly defined as residential communities organized around shared values, around the US. These communities understand themselves as demonstration communities, developing and testing, but not imposing, new patterns of living, eating, and communicating. Communities in this book include ecovillages, cohousing communities, and Catholic worker houses and farms, located in urban, rural, and suburban regions. The initial chapters of the book explore why people come to these communities, who comes, and what they do when they get there, including growing food, creating governance systems, and building community. Each faced similar sets of challenges that are familiar to us: most people are ambivalent in our attitudes towards authority, regulation, and community. The final chapters suggest ways to apply what these communities have learned in the context of our own lives and regions. Food co-ops, pocket neighborhoods, and cohousing, for example, offer some benefits of intentional communities such as control over food but require fewer drastic lifestyle changes.
Peter Evans and Angelika Krüger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781447305910
- eISBN:
- 9781447307754
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447305910.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Communities and Organizations
The current economic crisis with its gloomy implications for lost generations leaves many disadvantaged young people with ever diminishing opportunities. Violent youth protests in many countries have ...
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The current economic crisis with its gloomy implications for lost generations leaves many disadvantaged young people with ever diminishing opportunities. Violent youth protests in many countries have been widely reported and different approaches called for. The Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme (YEPP) is a fully evaluated on-going international programme, funded by a consortium of American and European foundations, that has been operating and developing for over 10 years. The first phase - YEPP I – had a strong focus on evaluating the impact of YEPP in order to determine whether this approach would work in an international context. As a result YEPP's concept of change and structure were implemented in six European countries. YEPP aims to empower young people and the communities in which they live by making them central to new decision-making processes involving partnerships between public, private and independent sectors. Learning from the YEPP I evaluation, YEPP II implemented several measures to improve the approach and methodology and expanded YEPP in more than eight European countries with 18 Local Programme Sites stressing the strengthening of partnerships, sustainability and policy advocacy. Youth and community empowerment in Europe provides the theoretical context for this programme and gives a full account of the process and outcomes of over ten years of joint effort in its unique development and research process. The book also reflects upon the lessons learnt for future policy, including developing effective evaluation strategies. It will appeal to practitioners, researchers, policymakers and decision-makers in foundations.Less
The current economic crisis with its gloomy implications for lost generations leaves many disadvantaged young people with ever diminishing opportunities. Violent youth protests in many countries have been widely reported and different approaches called for. The Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme (YEPP) is a fully evaluated on-going international programme, funded by a consortium of American and European foundations, that has been operating and developing for over 10 years. The first phase - YEPP I – had a strong focus on evaluating the impact of YEPP in order to determine whether this approach would work in an international context. As a result YEPP's concept of change and structure were implemented in six European countries. YEPP aims to empower young people and the communities in which they live by making them central to new decision-making processes involving partnerships between public, private and independent sectors. Learning from the YEPP I evaluation, YEPP II implemented several measures to improve the approach and methodology and expanded YEPP in more than eight European countries with 18 Local Programme Sites stressing the strengthening of partnerships, sustainability and policy advocacy. Youth and community empowerment in Europe provides the theoretical context for this programme and gives a full account of the process and outcomes of over ten years of joint effort in its unique development and research process. The book also reflects upon the lessons learnt for future policy, including developing effective evaluation strategies. It will appeal to practitioners, researchers, policymakers and decision-makers in foundations.
David Sarokin and Jay Schulkin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034920
- eISBN:
- 9780262336253
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034920.001.0001
- Subject:
- Information Science, Library Science
Missed Information explores three themes about information and modern society:
(1) We are neglecting information. Even in our Information Age, we pay more attention to information technology -- the ...
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Missed Information explores three themes about information and modern society:
(1) We are neglecting information. Even in our Information Age, we pay more attention to information technology -- the means of storing, moving, protecting information -- than to information itself. "Information" is still the thing we get about other subjects, but rarely is the subject in its own right.
(2) Information, on its own, is a powerful agent of change.The old adage, "Information is power", has never been more true. Neglecting information quality can lead to system collapse, as happened in the Soviet Union and came close to happening in the subprime mortgage crisis.
(3) Better information and improved information access increases the efficiency of all society's major systems. The benefits of doing so are substantial: more citizen participation, stronger economic performance, better environmental protection and improved government and consumer services. Ultimately, better information allows society's systems to respond more effectively to our collective concerns about global sustainability, such as child labor, climate change, and chemical pollution.
The authors examine these themes in depth, not only from the perspective of broad economic, social and technological principles, but with an eye to practical innovations. The book proposes mechanisms for improving information and decision-making in health care, financial reporting, government systems and consumer purchasing, and explores the benefits to be realized once the changes are made.Less
Missed Information explores three themes about information and modern society:
(1) We are neglecting information. Even in our Information Age, we pay more attention to information technology -- the means of storing, moving, protecting information -- than to information itself. "Information" is still the thing we get about other subjects, but rarely is the subject in its own right.
(2) Information, on its own, is a powerful agent of change.The old adage, "Information is power", has never been more true. Neglecting information quality can lead to system collapse, as happened in the Soviet Union and came close to happening in the subprime mortgage crisis.
(3) Better information and improved information access increases the efficiency of all society's major systems. The benefits of doing so are substantial: more citizen participation, stronger economic performance, better environmental protection and improved government and consumer services. Ultimately, better information allows society's systems to respond more effectively to our collective concerns about global sustainability, such as child labor, climate change, and chemical pollution.
The authors examine these themes in depth, not only from the perspective of broad economic, social and technological principles, but with an eye to practical innovations. The book proposes mechanisms for improving information and decision-making in health care, financial reporting, government systems and consumer purchasing, and explores the benefits to be realized once the changes are made.
Anne M. Rademacher and K. Sivaramakrishnan (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9789888139767
- eISBN:
- 9789888180714
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139767.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Essays follow rapidly proliferating and resource-intensive Indian urbanism in everyday environments. Case studies on nature conservation in cities, urban housing and slum development, waste ...
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Essays follow rapidly proliferating and resource-intensive Indian urbanism in everyday environments. Case studies on nature conservation in cities, urban housing and slum development, waste management, urban planning, and contestations over the quality of air, water, and sanitation in Delhi and Mumbai illuminate urban ecology per-spectives throughout the twentieth century. The collection highlights how struggles over the environment and one's quality of life in urban centers are increasingly framed in terms of their future place in a landscape of global sustainability. The text brings historical particularity and ethnographic nuance to questions of urban ecology and offers novel insight into theoretical and practical debates on urbanism and sustainability.Less
Essays follow rapidly proliferating and resource-intensive Indian urbanism in everyday environments. Case studies on nature conservation in cities, urban housing and slum development, waste management, urban planning, and contestations over the quality of air, water, and sanitation in Delhi and Mumbai illuminate urban ecology per-spectives throughout the twentieth century. The collection highlights how struggles over the environment and one's quality of life in urban centers are increasingly framed in terms of their future place in a landscape of global sustainability. The text brings historical particularity and ethnographic nuance to questions of urban ecology and offers novel insight into theoretical and practical debates on urbanism and sustainability.
Barbara K. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781683401049
- eISBN:
- 9781683401728
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9781683401049.003.0002
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
By failing to assign nature value in our current Anthropocene, the opportunity costs of diminishing biodiversity are not recognized in the marketplace, leading to significant negative consequences ...
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By failing to assign nature value in our current Anthropocene, the opportunity costs of diminishing biodiversity are not recognized in the marketplace, leading to significant negative consequences for both nature and humanity. Polluting water, destroying habitats, or exterminating species should each lessen nature’s value, but if nature has never been assigned a value, that loss is not recognized and development becomes the default. The words “wild capital” remind us that nature should be viewed as an asset like any other, and that in doing so we are better equipped to appreciate its long-term worth. Since the ecosystem services model (ES) ties together the ecological, social, and economic needs of human well-being, it is well situated to assign nature value and from that make a case for nature as natural capital. To assist in policy decisions, ES has offered a path based on the language of economics, making it appealing to economists, while to conservationists, it has turned an argument about the negative effects of development on wildlife into a more fruitful dialogue about how beneficial conservation is for human well-being. ES is also compatible with efforts at sustainability and the goals of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.Less
By failing to assign nature value in our current Anthropocene, the opportunity costs of diminishing biodiversity are not recognized in the marketplace, leading to significant negative consequences for both nature and humanity. Polluting water, destroying habitats, or exterminating species should each lessen nature’s value, but if nature has never been assigned a value, that loss is not recognized and development becomes the default. The words “wild capital” remind us that nature should be viewed as an asset like any other, and that in doing so we are better equipped to appreciate its long-term worth. Since the ecosystem services model (ES) ties together the ecological, social, and economic needs of human well-being, it is well situated to assign nature value and from that make a case for nature as natural capital. To assist in policy decisions, ES has offered a path based on the language of economics, making it appealing to economists, while to conservationists, it has turned an argument about the negative effects of development on wildlife into a more fruitful dialogue about how beneficial conservation is for human well-being. ES is also compatible with efforts at sustainability and the goals of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Edella Schlager
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231172783
- eISBN:
- 9780231540766
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172783.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Schlager urges a broader conceptualization of essential resources that focuses not only on demand – access to and the allocation of scarce essential resources -- but also on supply. Potable water ...
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Schlager urges a broader conceptualization of essential resources that focuses not only on demand – access to and the allocation of scarce essential resources -- but also on supply. Potable water depends on lakes and watersheds, that is, on environmental infrastructures rather than human-made institutions. Ensuring the maintenance of this infrastructure is critical for the sustainability of essential resources. The tragedy of exclusion is actually a twin crisis of the failure to prevent over-usage of a common pool resource and to protect the supply of environmental services. Quantitative restrictions on resource extraction alone are insufficient for avoiding this twin crisis. Instead, a shift towards considering how many different usages and/or users shall be recognized and protected is required.Less
Schlager urges a broader conceptualization of essential resources that focuses not only on demand – access to and the allocation of scarce essential resources -- but also on supply. Potable water depends on lakes and watersheds, that is, on environmental infrastructures rather than human-made institutions. Ensuring the maintenance of this infrastructure is critical for the sustainability of essential resources. The tragedy of exclusion is actually a twin crisis of the failure to prevent over-usage of a common pool resource and to protect the supply of environmental services. Quantitative restrictions on resource extraction alone are insufficient for avoiding this twin crisis. Instead, a shift towards considering how many different usages and/or users shall be recognized and protected is required.
Yvonne Rydin
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781447308416
- eISBN:
- 9781447312062
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447308416.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
The planning system has always sought to support greater prosperity in local areas, but has achieved mixed success. Inequality, social deprivation and environmental injustice remain persistent ...
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The planning system has always sought to support greater prosperity in local areas, but has achieved mixed success. Inequality, social deprivation and environmental injustice remain persistent features of urban and rural areas. This has been true even in more nationally buoyant economic times but now the planning system is faced with the prospect of operating through years of economic stagnation. The existing approach which is dependent on market-based economic growth to achieve social benefits in localities is unlikely to work. Yet government policy is responding by proposing a presumption in favour of sustainable development - understood clearly to be market-led development. It is time to re-examine this approach and consider alternatives. This book provides a timely critique of existing assumptions about planning’s relationship to economic demand and its role in relation to market-led development. It proposes an alternative approach based on a mix of protection of community and low-value assets and land uses with ways of promoting development and use of the built and natural environment that meet community needs. It builds on the arguments of the last chapter in The Purpose of Planning (Policy Press, 2010), and feeds into contemporary debates about public policy, planning and sustainability.Less
The planning system has always sought to support greater prosperity in local areas, but has achieved mixed success. Inequality, social deprivation and environmental injustice remain persistent features of urban and rural areas. This has been true even in more nationally buoyant economic times but now the planning system is faced with the prospect of operating through years of economic stagnation. The existing approach which is dependent on market-based economic growth to achieve social benefits in localities is unlikely to work. Yet government policy is responding by proposing a presumption in favour of sustainable development - understood clearly to be market-led development. It is time to re-examine this approach and consider alternatives. This book provides a timely critique of existing assumptions about planning’s relationship to economic demand and its role in relation to market-led development. It proposes an alternative approach based on a mix of protection of community and low-value assets and land uses with ways of promoting development and use of the built and natural environment that meet community needs. It builds on the arguments of the last chapter in The Purpose of Planning (Policy Press, 2010), and feeds into contemporary debates about public policy, planning and sustainability.
Mark Featherstone (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447339526
- eISBN:
- 9781447339571
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447339526.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
In recent years, and particularly since the global economic crash, the issue of debt has moved centre stage in social, political, and economic thought. Although processes of financialisation have ...
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In recent years, and particularly since the global economic crash, the issue of debt has moved centre stage in social, political, and economic thought. Although processes of financialisation have meant that extreme indebtedness has been a latent global problem since the 1980s, it was only in the wake of the crash that debt became a manifest systemic issue. This was because it was no longer possible to endlessly defer repayment into the future on the basis of a fantasy of ceaseless growth because it suddenly became clear that the financial system was not good for the debts it had distributed across the globe. Given this crisis, endless finance and repayment projected into the distant future has been transformed into ‘the dead weight of debt’ and led to the emergence of a new class system based upon creditors and debtors. The emergence of this new situation challenges sociologists and policy-makers to think about possible solutions to the socio-economic horror of debt bondage that threatens to destroy the future of not only deeply indebted individuals and their families, but also generations to come who currently stand to inherit a decrepit society that seems hopelessly trapped between a fantasy of endless growth based in financial speculation and a dim recognition of the need for sustainability that finds violent rearticulation in austerity and common sense narratives about the need to balance the books. In this book key thinkers on the topic of debt debate the social, political, and economic, meanings of the state of indebtedness.Less
In recent years, and particularly since the global economic crash, the issue of debt has moved centre stage in social, political, and economic thought. Although processes of financialisation have meant that extreme indebtedness has been a latent global problem since the 1980s, it was only in the wake of the crash that debt became a manifest systemic issue. This was because it was no longer possible to endlessly defer repayment into the future on the basis of a fantasy of ceaseless growth because it suddenly became clear that the financial system was not good for the debts it had distributed across the globe. Given this crisis, endless finance and repayment projected into the distant future has been transformed into ‘the dead weight of debt’ and led to the emergence of a new class system based upon creditors and debtors. The emergence of this new situation challenges sociologists and policy-makers to think about possible solutions to the socio-economic horror of debt bondage that threatens to destroy the future of not only deeply indebted individuals and their families, but also generations to come who currently stand to inherit a decrepit society that seems hopelessly trapped between a fantasy of endless growth based in financial speculation and a dim recognition of the need for sustainability that finds violent rearticulation in austerity and common sense narratives about the need to balance the books. In this book key thinkers on the topic of debt debate the social, political, and economic, meanings of the state of indebtedness.
Cláudia Perrone-Moisés
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249602
- eISBN:
- 9780823250752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249602.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
As the former President of Bovespa, the Brazilian stock exchange, Raymundo Magliano Filho established model programs in corporate social responsibility that establish Brazil for how to imagine a ...
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As the former President of Bovespa, the Brazilian stock exchange, Raymundo Magliano Filho established model programs in corporate social responsibility that establish Brazil for how to imagine a capitalist economy without the excesses and crises that threaten capitalism around the world. Filho tells of the importance of Hannah Arendt in his own thinking. In his professional life, he says, he has been guided by Arendt's observation that power can never be a single individual’s property; rather, it lies at the basis of, and derives its legitimacy from, group action.Less
As the former President of Bovespa, the Brazilian stock exchange, Raymundo Magliano Filho established model programs in corporate social responsibility that establish Brazil for how to imagine a capitalist economy without the excesses and crises that threaten capitalism around the world. Filho tells of the importance of Hannah Arendt in his own thinking. In his professional life, he says, he has been guided by Arendt's observation that power can never be a single individual’s property; rather, it lies at the basis of, and derives its legitimacy from, group action.
Sarah Robertson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824325
- eISBN:
- 9781496824370
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824325.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter examines the varying strains of environmentalism and/or activism that run throughout the work of southern writers including Janisse Ray, Larry Brown, Dorothy Allison, Mary Hood, Ann ...
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This chapter examines the varying strains of environmentalism and/or activism that run throughout the work of southern writers including Janisse Ray, Larry Brown, Dorothy Allison, Mary Hood, Ann Pancake, Silas House, and Denise Giardina. It explores the relationship between environmentalism and poverty as it discusses waste, throw-away culture, recycling and sustainability. It argues for a move from regionalism/nationalism to localism/globalism and questions the false dichotomy between the Global North and Global South. The chapter turns to Appalachia to consider the impact of Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), and it interrogates both the economics that often drive the poor to undertake environmentally destructive jobs and the activism that exists within poor communities.Less
This chapter examines the varying strains of environmentalism and/or activism that run throughout the work of southern writers including Janisse Ray, Larry Brown, Dorothy Allison, Mary Hood, Ann Pancake, Silas House, and Denise Giardina. It explores the relationship between environmentalism and poverty as it discusses waste, throw-away culture, recycling and sustainability. It argues for a move from regionalism/nationalism to localism/globalism and questions the false dichotomy between the Global North and Global South. The chapter turns to Appalachia to consider the impact of Mountaintop removal mining (MTR), and it interrogates both the economics that often drive the poor to undertake environmentally destructive jobs and the activism that exists within poor communities.
David Sarokin and Jay Schulkin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034920
- eISBN:
- 9780262336253
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034920.003.0007
- Subject:
- Information Science, Library Science
Introducing sustainability information for consumer products can be accomplished through regulation, international agreements or by the marketplace itself. Large-scale purchasers, like Walmart or the ...
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Introducing sustainability information for consumer products can be accomplished through regulation, international agreements or by the marketplace itself. Large-scale purchasers, like Walmart or the federal government, have enough market leverage to bring forward sustainability information. Once it is available, the information will help make the global market more efficient and more responsive to important human values.Less
Introducing sustainability information for consumer products can be accomplished through regulation, international agreements or by the marketplace itself. Large-scale purchasers, like Walmart or the federal government, have enough market leverage to bring forward sustainability information. Once it is available, the information will help make the global market more efficient and more responsive to important human values.
Robin Hickman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447329558
- eISBN:
- 9781447329602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447329558.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
This chapter considers the application of cost-benefit analysis in the UK transport planning process, asking whether a reliance on narrow economic criteria, and a centralised decision-making process, ...
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This chapter considers the application of cost-benefit analysis in the UK transport planning process, asking whether a reliance on narrow economic criteria, and a centralised decision-making process, helps us to progress sufficiently against wide-ranging sustainability goals. A case study of the proposed Merseytram is examined, a project that remains unimplemented from the early 2000s.Less
This chapter considers the application of cost-benefit analysis in the UK transport planning process, asking whether a reliance on narrow economic criteria, and a centralised decision-making process, helps us to progress sufficiently against wide-ranging sustainability goals. A case study of the proposed Merseytram is examined, a project that remains unimplemented from the early 2000s.
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger and Ashfaq Khalfan
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199276707
- eISBN:
- 9780191699900
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199276707.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
This chapter provides practical case studies of law and policy instruments at the various degrees of integration, illustrating challenges, and innovative methodologies that have been implemented over ...
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This chapter provides practical case studies of law and policy instruments at the various degrees of integration, illustrating challenges, and innovative methodologies that have been implemented over recent years. These case studies provide examples of international legal instruments and regimes at the various degrees of integration. Three case studies are presented. The first case study, of Sustainability Impact Assessment, is examined as an example of an integrated tool of sustainable development law, describing stakeholder participation strategies and recent innovations in integrated assessment procedures. The second case study surveys Regional Integration Agreements in the Americas for the use of innovative instruments to address environmental and social concerns in diverse economic integration arrangements, with notes on mechanisms to ensure increased openness. Finally, a third case study focuses on the application of international human rights instruments relating to economic, social, and cultural rights in order to address international economic and environmental concerns.Less
This chapter provides practical case studies of law and policy instruments at the various degrees of integration, illustrating challenges, and innovative methodologies that have been implemented over recent years. These case studies provide examples of international legal instruments and regimes at the various degrees of integration. Three case studies are presented. The first case study, of Sustainability Impact Assessment, is examined as an example of an integrated tool of sustainable development law, describing stakeholder participation strategies and recent innovations in integrated assessment procedures. The second case study surveys Regional Integration Agreements in the Americas for the use of innovative instruments to address environmental and social concerns in diverse economic integration arrangements, with notes on mechanisms to ensure increased openness. Finally, a third case study focuses on the application of international human rights instruments relating to economic, social, and cultural rights in order to address international economic and environmental concerns.
Daniel Barber
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199394012
- eISBN:
- 9780190274467
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199394012.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, Political History
A House in the Sun describes experiments in solar house heating in American architectural, engineering, political, economic, and corporate contexts from the beginning of World War II until the late ...
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A House in the Sun describes experiments in solar house heating in American architectural, engineering, political, economic, and corporate contexts from the beginning of World War II until the late 1950s. Solar houses were built across the United States, and also proposed for sites in India, South Africa, and Morocco. These experiments developed parallel to transformations in the discussion of modern architecture, relying on new materials and design ideas for both energy efficiency and claims to cultural relevance. These experiments also developed as part of a wider analysis of the globe as an interconnected geophysical system. Perceived resource limitations in the immediate postwar period led to new understandings of the relationships among energy, technology, and economy. The solar house—both as a charged object in the milieu of suburban expansion, and as a means to raise the standard of living in developing economies—became an important site for social, technological, and design experimentation. A House in the Sun argues that this mid-century solar discourse was one of the first episodes in which resource limitations were seen as an opportunity for design to attain new relevance. Furthermore, discussion of and experimentation in solar technology established both an intellectual framework and a funding structure for the articulation of global environmental concerns in subsequent decades. In presenting evidence of resource tensions at the beginning of the Cold War, the book presents a new perspective on the histories of architecture, technology, and environmentalism, one more fully engaged with geopolitical and geophysical pressures.Less
A House in the Sun describes experiments in solar house heating in American architectural, engineering, political, economic, and corporate contexts from the beginning of World War II until the late 1950s. Solar houses were built across the United States, and also proposed for sites in India, South Africa, and Morocco. These experiments developed parallel to transformations in the discussion of modern architecture, relying on new materials and design ideas for both energy efficiency and claims to cultural relevance. These experiments also developed as part of a wider analysis of the globe as an interconnected geophysical system. Perceived resource limitations in the immediate postwar period led to new understandings of the relationships among energy, technology, and economy. The solar house—both as a charged object in the milieu of suburban expansion, and as a means to raise the standard of living in developing economies—became an important site for social, technological, and design experimentation. A House in the Sun argues that this mid-century solar discourse was one of the first episodes in which resource limitations were seen as an opportunity for design to attain new relevance. Furthermore, discussion of and experimentation in solar technology established both an intellectual framework and a funding structure for the articulation of global environmental concerns in subsequent decades. In presenting evidence of resource tensions at the beginning of the Cold War, the book presents a new perspective on the histories of architecture, technology, and environmentalism, one more fully engaged with geopolitical and geophysical pressures.
Courtney Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781469648590
- eISBN:
- 9781469648613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469648590.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
Eastern Band citizens have shown that privately owned American Indian small businesses can have a positive and substantial impact on the development and economic stability of their entire Nation, ...
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Eastern Band citizens have shown that privately owned American Indian small businesses can have a positive and substantial impact on the development and economic stability of their entire Nation, especially for instances of one industry reliance. But for American Indians on reservations, the distinct challenges to small- business owner-ship must be addressed. Because my research testifies to the extensive positive value of small, private businesses to reservations, it is my hope that other Native Nations will include, as the EBCI has recently begun to, a focus on new policies that support local small businesses as a means of strengthening their economies. To accomplish this, Native Nation leaders can take a proactive stance in creating environments (an “entrepreneurial culture”) that are conducive to small- business ownership, address the pragmatics of training, infrastructure, and financing (especially with issues of debt) for American Indians, and stay attuned to potential local issues, such as representation. In order to do so, it is vital to understand economic sovereignty as an aggregate, living action— both in the ways that the small- business sector supports its practice and in how Native Nations use it in crafting the type of stable and sustainably diverse economy.Less
Eastern Band citizens have shown that privately owned American Indian small businesses can have a positive and substantial impact on the development and economic stability of their entire Nation, especially for instances of one industry reliance. But for American Indians on reservations, the distinct challenges to small- business owner-ship must be addressed. Because my research testifies to the extensive positive value of small, private businesses to reservations, it is my hope that other Native Nations will include, as the EBCI has recently begun to, a focus on new policies that support local small businesses as a means of strengthening their economies. To accomplish this, Native Nation leaders can take a proactive stance in creating environments (an “entrepreneurial culture”) that are conducive to small- business ownership, address the pragmatics of training, infrastructure, and financing (especially with issues of debt) for American Indians, and stay attuned to potential local issues, such as representation. In order to do so, it is vital to understand economic sovereignty as an aggregate, living action— both in the ways that the small- business sector supports its practice and in how Native Nations use it in crafting the type of stable and sustainably diverse economy.
Tim Jackson and Robin Webster
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447332497
- eISBN:
- 9781447332534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447332497.003.0014
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy
Macro-economic policy should be evaluated and devised according to sustainability criteria alongside economic and social criteria. Economic goals, whether growth of GDP, productivity or ...
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Macro-economic policy should be evaluated and devised according to sustainability criteria alongside economic and social criteria. Economic goals, whether growth of GDP, productivity or competitiveness should not trump equity/justice or sustainability. But nor should environmental goals trump social goals. The urgent challenge addressed in this chapter is to develop a macroeconomic framework that supports ‘eco-social’ policies to pursue both goals simultaneously.Less
Macro-economic policy should be evaluated and devised according to sustainability criteria alongside economic and social criteria. Economic goals, whether growth of GDP, productivity or competitiveness should not trump equity/justice or sustainability. But nor should environmental goals trump social goals. The urgent challenge addressed in this chapter is to develop a macroeconomic framework that supports ‘eco-social’ policies to pursue both goals simultaneously.
Helena Chance
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781784993009
- eISBN:
- 9781526124043
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784993009.003.0009
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
From the 1950s until the end of the century, American architects and landscape architects were driving innovation in design for corporate clients, while in Britain differing economic and social ...
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From the 1950s until the end of the century, American architects and landscape architects were driving innovation in design for corporate clients, while in Britain differing economic and social conditions shaped some alternative strategies for designing office space. By the 1970s, with an increasing diversity and accessibility of leisure attractions outside the workplace, workplace recreation declined. In the twenty-first century digital age, the domesticated corporate garden of the early twentieth century industrial age has been reaffirmed; as companies strive to be socially responsible and sustainable, workplace gardens are promoted as sites for self-improvement. Providing gardens and physical exercise in the workplace is a response to the rapidity of technological change where nature’s redeeming powers become an antidote first to the machine age and then to the digital age and the corporate lives they construct. Corporate landscape design today has become a key factor in the promotion of responsible capitalism and at the same time, these landscapes play a vital role in the greening of our cities and suburbs and in embedding the principle that access to open green space is a human right.Less
From the 1950s until the end of the century, American architects and landscape architects were driving innovation in design for corporate clients, while in Britain differing economic and social conditions shaped some alternative strategies for designing office space. By the 1970s, with an increasing diversity and accessibility of leisure attractions outside the workplace, workplace recreation declined. In the twenty-first century digital age, the domesticated corporate garden of the early twentieth century industrial age has been reaffirmed; as companies strive to be socially responsible and sustainable, workplace gardens are promoted as sites for self-improvement. Providing gardens and physical exercise in the workplace is a response to the rapidity of technological change where nature’s redeeming powers become an antidote first to the machine age and then to the digital age and the corporate lives they construct. Corporate landscape design today has become a key factor in the promotion of responsible capitalism and at the same time, these landscapes play a vital role in the greening of our cities and suburbs and in embedding the principle that access to open green space is a human right.
