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.
Margherita Pieraccini and Tonia Novitz (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781529201000
- eISBN:
- 9781529201048
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529201000.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
This important volume steps beyond conventional legal approaches to sustainability to provide fresh insights into perhaps one of the most critical global challenges of our time.
Offering analysis of ...
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This important volume steps beyond conventional legal approaches to sustainability to provide fresh insights into perhaps one of the most critical global challenges of our time.
Offering analysis of sustainability at land and sea alongside trade, labour and corporate governance perspectives, this book articulates important debates about the role of law. From impacts on local societies to domestic sustainable development policies and major international goals, it considers multiple jurisdictional levels.
With original, interdisciplinary research from experts in their legal fields, this is a rounded assessment of the complex interplay of law and sustainability—both as it is now and as it should be in the future.Less
This important volume steps beyond conventional legal approaches to sustainability to provide fresh insights into perhaps one of the most critical global challenges of our time.
Offering analysis of sustainability at land and sea alongside trade, labour and corporate governance perspectives, this book articulates important debates about the role of law. From impacts on local societies to domestic sustainable development policies and major international goals, it considers multiple jurisdictional levels.
With original, interdisciplinary research from experts in their legal fields, this is a rounded assessment of the complex interplay of law and sustainability—both as it is now and as it should be in the future.
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780814794845
- eISBN:
- 9780814784655
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814794845.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
This book uses the ecological model of child development together with ethnographic and comparative studies of two small villages, in Italy and the US, as its framework for examining the well-being ...
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This book uses the ecological model of child development together with ethnographic and comparative studies of two small villages, in Italy and the US, as its framework for examining the well-being of children in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Global forces, far from being distant and abstract, are revealed as wreaking havoc in children’s environments even in economically advanced countries of the OECD. Falling birth rates, deteriorating labor conditions, fraying safety nets, rising rates of child poverty and a surge in racism and populism are explored in the dish of the village as well as data-based studies. Globalism’s discontents—unrestrained capitalism and technological change, rising inequality, mass migration, and the juggernaut of climate change--are rapidly destabilizing and degrading the social and physical environments necessary to our collective survival and well-being. This crisis demands a radical restructuring of our macrosystemic value systems. Rejecting metrics such as GDP, Efficiency and Bigness, this book proposes instead an ecogenerist theory that asks whether our policies and politics foster environments in which children and families can flourish. It proposes, as a benchmark, the family supportive human rights principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The author uses stories from actual children’s lives, in both small and urban settings, to explore the ecology of childhood and illustrate children’s rights principles in action. The book closes by highlighting ways individuals can work at the local and regional levels to create more just and sustainable worlds that are truly fit for children.Less
This book uses the ecological model of child development together with ethnographic and comparative studies of two small villages, in Italy and the US, as its framework for examining the well-being of children in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Global forces, far from being distant and abstract, are revealed as wreaking havoc in children’s environments even in economically advanced countries of the OECD. Falling birth rates, deteriorating labor conditions, fraying safety nets, rising rates of child poverty and a surge in racism and populism are explored in the dish of the village as well as data-based studies. Globalism’s discontents—unrestrained capitalism and technological change, rising inequality, mass migration, and the juggernaut of climate change--are rapidly destabilizing and degrading the social and physical environments necessary to our collective survival and well-being. This crisis demands a radical restructuring of our macrosystemic value systems. Rejecting metrics such as GDP, Efficiency and Bigness, this book proposes instead an ecogenerist theory that asks whether our policies and politics foster environments in which children and families can flourish. It proposes, as a benchmark, the family supportive human rights principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The author uses stories from actual children’s lives, in both small and urban settings, to explore the ecology of childhood and illustrate children’s rights principles in action. The book closes by highlighting ways individuals can work at the local and regional levels to create more just and sustainable worlds that are truly fit for children.
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.
Nina Boeger
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781529201000
- eISBN:
- 9781529201048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529201000.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Environmental and Energy Law
This chapter traces two conceptual perspectives on sustainability through current reform proposals for more sustainable corporate law and governance. From the viewpoint of ‘sustainable capitalism’, ...
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This chapter traces two conceptual perspectives on sustainability through current reform proposals for more sustainable corporate law and governance. From the viewpoint of ‘sustainable capitalism’, these reforms require adaptation of existing economic and corporate systems and their operating principles to ensure sustainable economic growth and socially embedded global markets. This perspective assumes that, much like we might trim a hedge or tree to adjust it to its environment, so we must regulate our established (corporate) systems to align them with political concerns for greater sustainability. A ‘sustainable systems’ perspective, on the other hand, insists that the scope and urgency of sustainability challenges today require more fundamental systemic revisions, including of the growth objective itself. In other words, rather than trimming a hedge or tree – a process of curbing excess through intervention – this view encourages that we should sow, and grow, alternative seeds (operating principles) that will yield alternative corporate organisms (systems). The chapter argues that while express linkages between corporate governance and sustainability are a relatively recent phenomenon, these conceptual distinctions are central to the framing of sustainable corporate governance reform.Less
This chapter traces two conceptual perspectives on sustainability through current reform proposals for more sustainable corporate law and governance. From the viewpoint of ‘sustainable capitalism’, these reforms require adaptation of existing economic and corporate systems and their operating principles to ensure sustainable economic growth and socially embedded global markets. This perspective assumes that, much like we might trim a hedge or tree to adjust it to its environment, so we must regulate our established (corporate) systems to align them with political concerns for greater sustainability. A ‘sustainable systems’ perspective, on the other hand, insists that the scope and urgency of sustainability challenges today require more fundamental systemic revisions, including of the growth objective itself. In other words, rather than trimming a hedge or tree – a process of curbing excess through intervention – this view encourages that we should sow, and grow, alternative seeds (operating principles) that will yield alternative corporate organisms (systems). The chapter argues that while express linkages between corporate governance and sustainability are a relatively recent phenomenon, these conceptual distinctions are central to the framing of sustainable corporate governance reform.
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.
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780814794845
- eISBN:
- 9780814784655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814794845.003.0012
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
Chapter twelve calls for a renewal of the “small is beautiful” movement and explores how the benefits of growing up in a village can be recreated in urban settings. The author presents E. F. ...
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Chapter twelve calls for a renewal of the “small is beautiful” movement and explores how the benefits of growing up in a village can be recreated in urban settings. The author presents E. F. Schumacher’s 1973 book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, and its relationship to contemporary concepts, such as sustainability and the circular economy. that focus on sustaining human-scaled communities rather than on growing the GDP. The author describes and compares two initiatives that mobilize the strength of collaborative community to benefit at risk children and youth.
The first is set in the city of Naples, in southern Italy, where a parish priest named Antonio Loffredo tapped the energy and aspirations of young people to build a collaborative community cooperative in an inner city neighbourhood called La Sanita’, as an alternative to the lure of organized crime. The second is the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), founded in the historically black neighbourhood of New York City by Geoffrey Canada, to prove that black children, given a fair start, could achieve the American dream. While similar in many ways, each initiative was shaped by and reflects the macrosystemic values of the surrounding culture.Less
Chapter twelve calls for a renewal of the “small is beautiful” movement and explores how the benefits of growing up in a village can be recreated in urban settings. The author presents E. F. Schumacher’s 1973 book Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, and its relationship to contemporary concepts, such as sustainability and the circular economy. that focus on sustaining human-scaled communities rather than on growing the GDP. The author describes and compares two initiatives that mobilize the strength of collaborative community to benefit at risk children and youth.
The first is set in the city of Naples, in southern Italy, where a parish priest named Antonio Loffredo tapped the energy and aspirations of young people to build a collaborative community cooperative in an inner city neighbourhood called La Sanita’, as an alternative to the lure of organized crime. The second is the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), founded in the historically black neighbourhood of New York City by Geoffrey Canada, to prove that black children, given a fair start, could achieve the American dream. While similar in many ways, each initiative was shaped by and reflects the macrosystemic values of the surrounding culture.
Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780814794845
- eISBN:
- 9780814784655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814794845.003.0013
- Subject:
- Law, Comparative Law
Chapter thirteen focuses on small world strategies for building a new macrosystem. It proposes specific ways in which each individual can engage in positive action beginning at the local levels of ...
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Chapter thirteen focuses on small world strategies for building a new macrosystem. It proposes specific ways in which each individual can engage in positive action beginning at the local levels of family, community, municipality and region. After reviewing some big ideas that shaped this grassroots approach, including vulnerability theory, developmental equality theory, and environmental principles of sustainability and the circular economy, the author highlights six specific forms of action and illustrates them with real world examples: (1) promoting a culture of respect for children’s voices; (2) building support for a children’s rights approach; (3) building child-friendly cities, towns and communities; (4) building support for combatting climate change; (5) working to repopulate villages and farming communities one family at a time; and (6) mobilizing our individual civil rights to vote, march and litigate for change.Less
Chapter thirteen focuses on small world strategies for building a new macrosystem. It proposes specific ways in which each individual can engage in positive action beginning at the local levels of family, community, municipality and region. After reviewing some big ideas that shaped this grassroots approach, including vulnerability theory, developmental equality theory, and environmental principles of sustainability and the circular economy, the author highlights six specific forms of action and illustrates them with real world examples: (1) promoting a culture of respect for children’s voices; (2) building support for a children’s rights approach; (3) building child-friendly cities, towns and communities; (4) building support for combatting climate change; (5) working to repopulate villages and farming communities one family at a time; and (6) mobilizing our individual civil rights to vote, march and litigate for change.
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.
Martin Emanuel
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447345152
- eISBN:
- 9781447345640
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345152.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Different motives to engage in bicycle lobbying may often be mutually strengthening. However, sometimes they clash. The case of the Øresund Bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen is one such example. ...
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Different motives to engage in bicycle lobbying may often be mutually strengthening. However, sometimes they clash. The case of the Øresund Bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen is one such example. Opened to traffic in 2000, the bridge was not equipped with bicycle lanes. This chapter traces the process that led to the building of the Øresund bridge, focussing in particular on how the cycling organisations on both sides (Sweden and Denmark) fought for bicycle lanes or not. Not only was the Danish organization considerably more active than the Swedish. The Danish Cyclists' Federation was divided in two fractions. One that based on environmental arguments thought the organisation should resist the bridge being built in the first place. The second considered that battle already lost and thought, from the perspective of equal rights to infrastructure, it made more sense to fight for bicycle lanes on the bridge rather than fighting the bridge as such. The case is thus an example in which different motives for bicycle promotion did not have a win-win-relationship but clashed. The chapter is also a reminder, or a warning against treating organisations such as lobby groups as monolithic with one single and easily defined goal.Less
Different motives to engage in bicycle lobbying may often be mutually strengthening. However, sometimes they clash. The case of the Øresund Bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen is one such example. Opened to traffic in 2000, the bridge was not equipped with bicycle lanes. This chapter traces the process that led to the building of the Øresund bridge, focussing in particular on how the cycling organisations on both sides (Sweden and Denmark) fought for bicycle lanes or not. Not only was the Danish organization considerably more active than the Swedish. The Danish Cyclists' Federation was divided in two fractions. One that based on environmental arguments thought the organisation should resist the bridge being built in the first place. The second considered that battle already lost and thought, from the perspective of equal rights to infrastructure, it made more sense to fight for bicycle lanes on the bridge rather than fighting the bridge as such. The case is thus an example in which different motives for bicycle promotion did not have a win-win-relationship but clashed. The chapter is also a reminder, or a warning against treating organisations such as lobby groups as monolithic with one single and easily defined goal.
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.
