Product Description

This ground-breaking collection brings together a diverse range of perspectives on the philosophy, design and experience of participatory approaches within education and the environment, health and sustainability. Chapters address participatory work with children, youth and adults in both formal and non-formal settings. Authors combine reflections on experience, models and case studies of participatory education with commentary on key debates and issues. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers and advanced students with interests in learning, research and key concepts in environmental education, health education, and education for sustainable development, and professionals and practitioners engaged in planning and evaluation.

Book Description
Now in paperback, Green Development analyzes the evolution of the concept of "sustainable development," and assesses how this can be applied in the real world. William Adams questions the established understanding of the problems of environment and development, stressing the inadequacy of a narrow view of environmental impacts and a limited response based on traditional conservation measures. He bridges the gap between environmentalism and development studies and argues that the central focus of "green development" should be on the needs of the poor, and their capacity for control, power, and self-determination. ... Read more

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We are the first generation capable of determining the habitability of the planet for humans and other species,writes Anthony Cortese in the Foreword.Teachers at every level can play an important role in helping us find a sustainable path. One educator is fond of saying that,The stone age didn t end because of a lack of rocks While there was certainly an abundance of rocks available, stone age peple moved on to a new era because it became possible for them to envision and create a different and more useful way of organizing life. Many believe that we are currently at a similar juncture and can begin to imagine and construct new ways to live on our planet.All who work with sustainability issues realize that it is a community project. We must decide collectively about the earth and its future. As a community be it a geographic, social, academic, or professional community we need to know where to begin, how to collaboratively work, and where to find resources.Most of us belong to communities that are concerned about sustainability issues, but do not have that as their primary mandate, such as a business, a history class, or a civic group. These groups have a tremendous opportunity to incorporate sustainability awareness into their activities. And this volume will help find those opportunities and make the best use of group resources. ... Read more

Book Description
Environmental sustainability and social, or distributive, justice are both widely regarded as desirable social objectives.But can we assume that they are compatible with each other?In this path-breaking study, Professor Dobson, a leading expert on environmental politics, analyses the complex relationship between these two pressing objectives.Environmental sustainability is taken to be a contested idea, and three distinct conceptions of it are described and explored. These conceptions are then examined in the context of fundamental distributive questions such as: Among whom or what should distribution take place?What should be distributed?What should the principle of distribution be? The author critically examines the claims of the `environmental justice' and `sustainable development' movements that social justice and environmental sustainability are points on the same virtuous circle, and concludes that radical environmental demands are only incompletely served by couching them in terms of justice. ... Read more

Book Description
What is a sustainable community? The pressing need to answer this simple question is what prompted John Pierce and Ann Dale to gather the essays in this volume. Communities, Development, and Sustainability across Canada is a timely synthesis of work on how Canadian communities can achieve sustainable development. It bridges the gap between theory and praxis and brings together academics, policy makers, and community activists, all of whom have argued for increased local participation in sustainable community development. Communities have become the weak link in efforts to refashion relations between the environment and the economy. The goal of this book is not simply to describe problems but also to suggest answers, not simply to offer theory but also to promote action, so that Canadian communities can better achieve sustain-able development.

The twelve essays are organized into four sections: Vision, Connections, Action, and Assessing Progress. The first and last sections discuss local sustainable development within the context of increasing globalization. The second section approaches sustainable development from the perspective of social evolution and urban systems. The third section, the heart of the book, is comprised of three community case studies, an assessment of the Pacific salmon fishery, and four general discussions of sustainable development. The conclusion reiterates the need to make communities stronger links in sustainable development.

The message of Communities, Development, and Sustainability across Canada is clear: it is time for communities themselves to act if they are to achieve sustainable development. This provocative and persuasive book will prove to be a valuable guide to taking the first steps. ... Read more

Book Description
Now in paperback, Green Development analyzes the evolution of the concept of ``sustainable development,'' and assesses how this can be applied in the real world. William Adams questions the established understanding of the problems of environment and development, stressing the inadequacy of a narrow view of environmental impacts and a limited response based on traditional conservation measures. He bridges the gap between environmentalism and development studies and argues that the central focus of ``green development'' should be on the needs of the poor, and their capacity for control, power, and self-determination. ... Read more

Book Description
In many areas of the world, environmental degradation in and around human settlements is undermining prospects for both socioeconomic justice and ecological sustainability. To explore the issues involved in this worldwide problem, Keith Pezzoli focuses on a dramatic instance of conflict that grew out of the unauthorized penetration of human settlements into the Ajusco greenbelt zone, a vital part of Mexico City's ecological reserve.

The heart of the book is the story of what happened when residents of the Ajusco settlements fought relocation by proposing that the areas be transformed into productive ecology settlements. Pezzoli draws upon urban and regional planning theory and practice to examine biophysical as well as ethical and social sides of the story, and he uses the Mexican experience to identify planning strategies to link economy, ecology, and community in sustainable development. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Regional Development
Pezzoli's book offers an insightful and applicable understanding of sustainable development through regional activism.This book is appropriate for scholars, academics, activists, and developers but iseasily readable by all peoples. ... Read more

Book Description
People and the Earth examines the numerous ways in which this planet enhances and limits our lifestyles. Written with wit and remarkable insight, and illustrated with numerous case histories, it provides a balanced view of the complex environmental issues facing our civilization. The authors look at the geologic restrictions on our ability to withdraw resources--food, water, energy, and minerals--from the earth, the effect human activity has on the earth, and the lingering damage caused by natural disasters. People and the Earth examines the basic components of our interaction with this planet, provides a lucid, scientific discussion of each issue, and speculates on what the future may hold. It provides the fundamental concepts that will enable us to make wise and conscientious choices on how to live our day-to-day lives. People and the Earth is an ideal introductory textbook and will also appeal to anyone concerned with our evolving relationship to the earth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Some Good Discussions, Often Poorly Illustrated
The book contains some good discussions on overpopulation, food supplies, water pollution and other environmental issues. However, more detailed introductions are required on plate tectonics and soils so that novice readers may better understand earthquakes and food production, respectively. Each chapter contains a number of useful math problems and thought questions. There are also numerous tables of data, which are interesting, but may overwhelm some students. Some of these data may be more understandable if they were graphed. All of the photographs are in black and white, but are usually satisfactory. However, many of the illustrations are only rough sketches and do not adequately illustrate important concepts for beginning undergraduates (as examples: plate margins [Figure 3.3, p. 75] and active and passive coastlines [Figure 3.21, p. 109]). ... Read more

Book Description

"Carl Frankel has produced a challenging thought-piece which weaves the many facets of the business/sustainability prism into an integrated system of light appealing to both the head and the heart." - Beth Beloff, Director, Institute for Corporate Environmental Management.

In recent years, people have looked more and more to the business world to take their share of responsibility for the fast-deteriorating state of the Earth. But exactly how businesses should go about this task has remained something of a puzzle. Now, with In Earth's Company: Business, Environment, and the Challenge of Sustainability, well-known business and environment writer Carl Frankel deftly gathers the pieces of the puzzle together into a single, comprehensive volume.

Frankel describes the history and meaning of the term 'sustainable development' as the effective balancing of economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity, and outlines key contributors to the concept -such as the Green consumer movement, the Brundtland Report, and the Earth Summit. He goes on to analyze how corporations have attempted to integrate environmental concerns into their operations through public environmental reporting, ISO 14000, and Total Quality Management, as well as current corporate trends such as zero waste, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Critical of current techniques for measuring environmental performance, Frankel then discusses emerging corporate strategies for improving the business record on the environment, as well as strategies for making the entire industrial system more sustainable, such as 'Factor 10,' industrial ecology, The Natural Step, and environmental accounting. Concluding that the business record to date regarding sustainability is at best uneven, Frankel calls for greater emphasis on collaboration, process and quality in all dimensions of business practice, as well as a 'new humanism' requiring corporations to be more sensitive to the full range of human concerns and to include social equity into the calculation of the 'bottom line.'

Lucid and authoritative, In Earth's Company offers provocative guidance and an intriguing glimpse into an area of key importance for the future. It will be of equal interest to business executives, environmentalists, and to ordinary citizens concerned about the state of the Earth.

Customer Reviews (2)

Thoughtful and informative
Whether you believe the greening of business is hype and greenwash, or that businesses are starting to play an important role in hastening thecoming ecological age, In Earth's Company provides a good overview of thesuccesses, failures, and challenges of corporate environmentalism.

AuthorCarl Frankel is the North American editor for Tomorrow magazine, a slickglossy publication from Sweden that is one of the better periodicalscovering developments in business and the environment. Frankel makes gooduse of his broad knowledge of current events in environmental managementand his book is full of stories and examples that go beyond the usualextremes of either finger pointing or hero worship.

Frankel does notattempt to demonstrate the overwhelming decline in global life supportsystems. He accepts that this has been well documented in many other placesand focuses on how businesses have reacted to this overwhelming drivingforce.

Why are major corporations now starting to consider integratingsustainability into their strategies and operations? To answer thisquestion requires an understanding of the four eras of corporateenvironmentalism

The first era of corporate environmentalism was the eraof barebones regulatory compliance. Simply complying with the growing arrayof environmental laws developed in the 1960s and 70s kept corporateenvironmental management fully occupied.

After environmental catastrophessuch as the release of 57,000 litres of methyl isocyanate from a UnionCarbide plant into the air in Bhopal, India that killed and injuredthousands, companies felt extreme pressure to disclose more to theirstakeholders. The second era of increased disclosure began.

Out ofincreased disclosure, public accountability increased and companies beganto make voluntary commitments to go "beyond compliance," thedefining characteristic of the current third era of corporateenvironmentalism.

The fourth era of corporate environmentalism is justbeginning. To achieve it, bigger, more creative, higher-level thinking -systems-level thinking - is required. Businesses have generally taken anarrow view of the nature and implications of sustainable development.Frankel believes that this needs to change before corporations can developtruly effective sustainability strategies. The key challenge is educational- a matter of changing mental models.

Tracing the evolution of four erasof corporate environmentalism, Frankel concludes that the businesscommunity may be on a sustainability trajectory it isn't quite aware of. Ihope he is right. According to Frankel, the transition to the fourth era ofcorporate environmentalism is linked to the death of modernism and thetransition to a post-modern, post-industrial culture. Drawing parallels tothe dawn of the industrial age, we know something large and significant ishappening, we're just not sure what the outcome will be.

Frankel callsfor a new humanism - a new appreciation of the qualitative "depthdimension" of experience. The business axiom of "what getsmeasured gets managed" ignores the converse that what isn't measured(e.g. soulfulness, connectedness, meaning, artistry, etc.) gets discountedand ignored.

Frankel acknowledges the need for radical change. He tracesthe rise of green consumerism and the challenge of creating a consumermovement that puts sustained pressure on the corporate community to createmeaningful change. At the same time, he is disturbed that what were oncecalled "members of the public" or, better yet,"citizens," are now referred to as consumers. This is a symptomof a society whose underlying theme is "I buy, therefore I am."We need to become green citizens, not green consumers. The difference isone of underlying ideology versus passing issue.

Finally, Frankel arguesthat many of the concepts and technologies for creating a sustainablefuture have already been developed and are in place. He points to exampleslike zero waste design concepts that have produced fabric-dyeing factorieswhere the water effluent is cleaner than the water brought in. Someinnovative companies are leasing their products so that they sell a service(e.g. "cold beer") rather than a product (the refrigerator). Thischanges the cost of ownership drastically and more durable products andmany other environmental innovations become economic. Micro-credit can helpaddress some of the social justice and equity issues of sustainability.Other useful concepts include The Natural Step, and "Factor Four"that envisions a four-fold increase in material and energyefficiency.

According to Frankel, it is not a question of if we will makethe transition to a sustainable society but when? "Will we continue tolimp and stagger toward sustainability, with the cultural and politicalmainstream largely oblivious to the urgency of the challenge? Or will we atsome point, ... display the collective wit and will to commit massiveresources to accelerating the transition into a more sustainable industrialculture?"

In Earth's Company is a thoughtful and informative pieceabout the history and current status of environment and sustainabilitywithin the business world. It covers a lot of ground and provides anaccurate view of some of the key challenges facing those who see a role andopportunity for businesses in creating a more sustainable world.

With aforeword by leading author and environmentalist Paul Hawken as well asendorsements from a broad range of greeneratti including Hazel Henderson,David Korten and architect Bill McDonough, In Earth's Company is sure towin "must read" status within the corporate sustainability niche.It deserves to be read by a much broader audience and could make a solidcontribution to a richer and better informed dialogue involving business,governments and citizens.

Change the way you think about sustainability--PERMANENTLY
I am not in the green-business or even the business field, and this book blew my mind. It presents a brilliant, provocative view of sustainability as an idea and a practice in the very real world of business. Mr. Frankel'sperspective is illuminating both in its practical implications and its farreaching challenges to the way we live, think and create our future. Thisbook has permanently changed the way I think about sustainability in mylife and work. ... Read more

Book Description
A beautifully written memoir making a distinctive contribution to Australian literature concerning the immigrant experience.

Purita Echevarria de Gonzalez was born in Manila in the 1920s and describes an enchanted world, forever lost, with great poignancy and compelling immediacy. The reader suffers with her as this world is savagely destroyed by the outbreak of war, the Japanese occupation and the annihilation of the city by American saturation bombardment. The author is equally adept at describing without sentimentality, the halcyon pre-war time of her childhood and teens, and without sensationalism, the horrors of starvation and disease, brutality and massacre.

Manila: A Memoir of Love and Loss makes the past come alive, with its skilful blending of the personal, including a love story which runs through the narrative, and the historical (we briefly glimpse Marcos as a youthful partisan). Finely written, and inspiring in its portrayal of courage and compassion in the face of suffering, this memoir has a haunting quality which makes it impossible to put down. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must read for Filipinos
This book has been an excellent, excellent read. I particularly enjoyed the way in which the author (Purita) painted a picture of Manila before, during and after the war.

A friend of mine lent me a book and I am now buying it for my parents.


... Read more

Book Description
Acid Rain Science and Politics in Japan is a pioneering work in environmental and Asian history as well as an in-depth analysis of the influence of science on domestic and international environmental politics. Kenneth Wilkening's study also illuminates the global struggle to create sustainable societies.

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 ended Japan's era of isolation- created self-sufficiency and sustainability. The opening of the country to Western ideas and technology not only brought pollution problems associated with industrialization (including acid rain) but also scientific techniques for understanding and combating them. Wilkening identifies three pollution-related "sustainability crises" in modern Japanese history: copper mining in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which spurred Japan's first acid rain research and policy initiatives; horrendous post-World War II domestic industrial pollution, which resulted in a "hidden" acid rain problem; and the present-day global problem of transboundary pollution, in which Japan is a victim of imported acid rain. He traces the country's scientific and policy responses to these crises through six distinct periods related to acid rain problems and argues that Japan's leadership role in East Asian acid rain science and policy today can be explained in large part by the "historical scientific momentum" generated by efforts to confront the issue since 1868, reinforced by Japan's cultural affinity with rain (its "culture of rain"). Wilkening provides an overview of nature, culture, and the acid rain problem in Japan to complement the general set of concepts he develops to analyze the interface of science and politics in environmental policymaking. He concludes with a discussion of lessons from Japan's experience that can be applied to the creation of sustainable societies worldwide. ... Read more

Book Description
Bioregionalism and Civil Society addresses the urgent need for sustainability in industrialized societies. The book explores the bioregional movement in the US, Canada, and Mexico, examining its vision, values, strategies, and tools for building sustainable societies. Bioregionalism is a philosophy with values and practices that attempt to meld issues of social and econmic justice and sustainability with cultural, ecolgoical, and spiritual concerns. Further, bioregional efforts of democratic social and cultural change take place primarily in the sphere of civil society.

Practically, Carr agrues for bioregionalism as a place-specific, community movement that can stand in diverse opposition to the homogenizing trends of corporate globalization. Theoretically, the author seeks lessons for civil society-based social theory and strategy. Conventional civil society theory from Europe proposes a dual strategy of developing strong horizontal communicative action among civic associations and networks as the basis for strategic vertical campaigns to democratize both state and market sectors. However, this theory offers no ecological or cultural critique of consumerism. By contrast, Carr integrates both social and natural ecologies in a civil society theory that incorporates lessons about consumption and cultural transformation from bioregional practice.

Carr's argument that bioregional values and community-building tools support a diverse, democratic, socially just civil society that respects and cares for the natural world makes a significant contribution to the field of green political science, social change theory, and environmental thought. ... Read more

Book Description
Crate presents the first cultural ecological study of a Siberian people: the Viliui Sakha, describing the local and global forces of modernization that continue to challenge their survival, and will be of interest to environmental and economic anthropologists, as well as to practitioners interested in sustainable rural development, globalization, indigenous rights in Eurasia, and post-Soviet Russia. ... Read more

Book Description
A Dynamic Balance aims to illustrate the links between two normally disparate literatures -- social capital and sustainable development -- within the overall context of local community development. Since the social dimension of sustainable development is the least understood of what are often viewed as its three imperatives (the other two being the ecological and economic), the book illuminates the importance of understanding this dimension and how it can be mobilized at the community level. This is shown by applied research in a number of small, predominantly rural Australian and Canadian communities.

Given the number of small communities in both countries struggling to diversify from single-resource economies in a context of increasing globalization, this topic touches on several critical public policy issues. The contributors argue that the key strategies for communities to respond to the issues they are facing must be embedded in the dialectics of sustainable development. Unless this critical imperative is met, single-resource economy communities will continue to face ecological, social, and economic collapse.

This book will appeal to both specialists in the fields of social capital and sustainable development, and to wider audiences, such as business administration students, development experts, and public policy decision-makers. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from American Review of Canadian Studies, published by Association for Canadian Studies in the United States on June 22, 2004. The length of the article is 840 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Taking Stands: Gender and the Sustainability of Rural Communities.(Environment)(Book Review)
Author: Michael Treleaven
Publication: American Review of Canadian Studies (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2004
Publisher: Association for Canadian Studies in the United States
Volume: 34Issue: 2Page: 363(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Product Description

Today, half of the world s population lives in urban areas and rapid urbanisation is expected to continue in the next decades. The growth of urban areas around the world presents many challenges and needs to be supported by the development of adequate and sustainable infrastructures.