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"The volume Middle East and North Africa: Climate, Culture and Conflicts focuses on the intricate interrelationships between nature, culture and society in this ecologically, historically and politically fragile region. As such, it debates ideas of eco-theology from Muslim and Jewish perspectives, followed by mythological interpretations and geo-archeological resp. historical analyses of the interrelationships and impacts of climate and other environmental factors on the development of ancient civilizations and cultures. The section "Present" addresses current conflict scenarios as a result of climate change, i.e. water scarcity, droughts, desertification and similar factors. The final section is concerned with potentials of international cooperation in pursuit of developing and ensuring sustainable energy resources and moves across different scales of environmental and religious education, from awareness raising to perspectives of best practice examples. Contributors are Katajun Amirpur, Helmut Brückner, Eckart Ehlers, Max Engel, Kerstin Fritzsche, Ursula Kowanda-Yassin, Tobias von Lossow, Ephraim Meir, Rosel Pientka-Hinz, Matthias Schmidt, and Franz Trieb"--

"The volume Middle East and North Africa: Climate, Culture and Conflicts focuses on the intricate interrelationships between nature, culture and society in this ecologically, historically and politically fragile region. As such, it debates ideas of eco-theology from Muslim and Jewish perspectives, followed by mythological interpretations and geo-archeological resp. historical analyses of the interrelationships and impacts of climate and other environmental factors on the development of ancient civilizations and cultures. The section "Present" addresses current conflict scenarios as a result of climate change, i.e. water scarcity, droughts, desertification and similar factors. The final section is concerned with potentials of international cooperation in pursuit of developing and ensuring sustainable energy resources and moves across different scales of environmental and religious education, from awareness raising to perspectives of best practice examples. Contributors are Katajun Amirpur, Helmut Brückner, Eckart Ehlers, Max Engel, Kerstin Fritzsche, Ursula Kowanda-Yassin, Tobias von Lossow, Ephraim Meir, Rosel Pientka-Hinz, Matthias Schmidt, and Franz Trieb"--

IntroductionThe reforms initiated by Reza Shah's urban modernization drive led to changes not only in cultural patterns of urban life in Iran and the economic structure of the country, but even in spatial organization. The full effect of these initiatives only started to be felt under Mohammad Reza Shah, who continued to pursue the policy of his predecessor. For our specific purpose—urban change under Reza Shah—we will focus on an analysis of the development of the Iranian city, specifically the following three aspects: spatial reorganization; economic changes; and consequences of urban change.Our basic assumption is that the city, unlike any other phenomenon, became the symbol of political and socioeconomic transformation in Iran and that, to this day, it has preserved this character of Pahlavi modernization and change like no other institution or phenomenon.

Disparate perceptions and conceptual frameworks of environment and the relationship between humans and nature often lead to confusion, constraints on co-operation and collaboration and even conflict when society tries to deal with today's urgent and complex environment research and policy challenges. Such disparities in perception and "world view" are driven by many factors. They include differences in culture, religion, ethical frameworks, scientific methodologies and approaches, disciplines, political, social and philosophical traditions, life styles and consumption patterns as well as alternative economic paradigms. Distribution of poverty or wealth between north and south may thus be seen as consequence of the above mentioned disparities, which is a challenge for it's universal reasoned evaluation. This volume discusses a wide range of factors influencing "Environment across Cultures" with a view to identifying ways and means to better understand, reflect and manage such disparities within future global environmental research and policy agendas for bridging the gap between ecology and economy as well as between societies. The book is based upon the results of a scientific symposium on this topic and covers the following sections: Cross Cultural Perception of Environment; Ethics and Nature; Environment, Sustainability and Society. Corresponding contributions were made by well-known scientific authors representing different cultural spheres in accordance to the inter-cultural approach of this effort