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This book advances a social-ecological theory to reconnect nature and society through sustainable transformation of interacting social and ecological systems. Knowledge integration across the boundaries of social and natural sciences is not widespread, blocked by the specialisation of theories and their competing forms of explanation and interpretation. Chapters in this book describe a new social-ecological theory that connects concepts and theories from both sides to create a new interdisciplinary approach. Inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge synthesis creates possibilities to analyse global environmental problems more systematically by integrating specialized research on environmental problems. The author uses social-ecological theory to analyse and explain problems and processes of global change in modern society such as climate change and adaptation to it, ecosystem change, and transformation of the industrial energy regime, finally offering pathways of transformation to a future sustainable society. Karl Bruckmeier is Professor in the Department of Sociology, National Research University - Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. Formerly he was Professor in Human Ecology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

With the advent of Darwinism, God became less & less associated with responsibility for human nature, & with the introduction of the scientific method, biology became the explanation. Recently, sociobiologists have supported the view that biological or genetic predispositions are the cause of human social behaviors such as aggression, altruism, & competition. Criticism of sociobiological methods is offered, eg, when behaviors are linked to biological factors, such as brain area, genetic malfunction or physiological imbalance, & treated with therapies such as surgery or drug prescriptions. The attempt to quantify behavior in a nonordinal manner such as IQ is also criticized. The reified & quantified assumptions are then extrapolated to nonhuman subjects for testing, & these results are applied back to humans to further reify the biological explanation. Finally, the idea that sociobiological findings are generalizable & cannot be argued is criticized. E. O. Wilson's sociobiological approach in Sociobiology-the New Synthesis (Harvard University Press, 1975) is criticized as basing the whole of human behavior on gene activity. C. Strong.

In diesem Beitrag werden die Grundlagen der Verrechtlichung der Natur anhand einer empirischen Studie - einer Clusteranalyse - untersucht. Zunächst zeigt der Autor, daß die sich abzeichnenden, qualitativ unterschiedlichen Cluster nicht dafür sprechen, daß im Zuge der Aufwertung von Natur mit einem grundsätzlich neuen, etwa kosmozentrischen Weltbild zu rechnen ist. Anschließend steht das Ausmaß der normativen Objektivierung von Natur im Zentrum der Überlegungen. Hier werden einige Aspekte der Clusteranalyse, nämlich die Verwendung von kosmozentrischen Vorstellungen, das Konzept von Rechten der Natur und von unserer Verantwortung für Natur noch einmal aufgegriffen und als Indikatoren für eine je unterschiedliche Distanzierung der Natur vom Subjekt gewertet. Im Anschluß wird diskutiert, ob man zu Gunsten von Natur auch konkurrierende Güter opfern würde. Abschließend skizziert der Verfasser, wie sich moralische Urteilsstrukturen bei der Behandlung der Umweltproblematik umsetzen. (ICE)

The author contrasts the dangerous linear world view of dialectics with the totemic view of knowledge & "sacred balance" of spatial patterns & timing in the ecosystem that is shared by many indigenous peoples. The relationship between animal & human energies is related in a Kayapo myth & the anthropogenic landscapes of indigenous peoples. The author asserts that the tension between the reductionist commodification of nature that are institutionalized in international conventions verses indigenous intellectual property rights is a reflection of the actual motivations of science. The author concludes that the environmental crisis cannot be solved by technological tampering or superficial political measures, but rather civilization needs to relearn ecological knowledge & sustainable principles from indigenous & traditional peoples. References. J. Harwell

"By synthesizing scholarly work at the intersection of political ecology, digital geography, and science and technology studies, "The Nature of Data" analyzes how new digital technologies affect environments and their control"--

Cover -- The Environmental Crisis -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- 1 'Where the Danger Is Grows also That which Saves' -- 2 Intrinsic Value and Why (We Think) It's Needed -- 3 Objectivist Theories of Intrinsic Value -- 4 Subjectivist Theories of Intrinsic Value -- 5 Radical Approaches to the Value of Nature -- 6 Against Humanism I: Externalism -- 7 Against Humanism II: Evolution -- 8 Against Humanism III: Cognition -- 9 Towards a Post-Humanist Theory of Value -- 10 Perspectives on the Environmental Crisis: Social Ecology, Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism -- Notes -- Index.

In den bisherigen Diskussionen um die Finanzialisierung von Nahrung, Land und Natur werden Geschlechterverhältnisse weitgehend außer Acht gelassen. Demgegenüber wird in diesem Artikel argumentiert, dass die aktuellen Veränderungen des Kapitalismus nur dann zu verstehen sind, wenn Geschlecht im Kontext des postkolonialen Nord-Süd-Gefälles als relevante Analysekategorie mitgedacht wird. Die von Gayatri Spivak inspirierte postkolonial-feministische Perspektive verdeutlicht am Beispiel der Inwertsetzung von Wald im indischen Andhra Pradesh, dass insbesondere arme ländliche Frauen im globalen Süden in den Markt von handelbaren CO2-Verschmutzungsrechten und neuen Finanzinstrumenten wie Mikrokrediten einbezogen werden – und somit für den finanzmarkt- dominierten Kapitalismus notwendig sind. Zudem zeigt eine genauere Betrachtung eines dieser Umweltprojekte, dass – trotz der angestrebten Ziele Armutsbekämpfung, Klimaschutz und Geschlechtergerechtigkeit – nicht die Integration von Adivasi-Frauen, sondern das Gegenteil bewirkt wird. Abschließend beschreibt der Artikel, wie die gegenwärtige 'Finanzialisierung des Ländlichen' gerade im globalen Süden Proteste erzeugt: In den Widerstandsformen umweltpolitischer neuer sozialer Bewegungen wird Kritik an den Modellen und Umsetzungen der herrschenden Globalisierung geäußert und gefordert, die Rechte von indigenen Gruppen auf Land, Wald und Nahrung anzuerkennen.

Reconciling productive agricultural practices with nature conservation is not only an ecological challenge, but also a demanding matter of governance. This paper analyses the potential as well as the limitations of various governance arrangements, and explores ways to enhance the governance of nature conservation in agricultural landscapes. We assume four conditions to contribute to the performance of these arrangements: farmers should be motivated, demanded, enabled, and legitimized to participate in arrangements that promote nature conservation by farmers. We analyse 10 distinct Dutch governance arrangements in the period 2000–2016, including agri-environment schemes but also privately initiated arrangements. The arrangements target a large but unknown share of farmers and farmlands, but nature conservation ambition levels are generally low to moderate. The expected low-to-moderate performance is associated with a low-to-moderate motivation, demand, and ability. Underlying are stronger forces driving towards intensification and problems farmers face in recuperating the cost of nature conservation. New greening requirements in the EU Common Agricultural Policy and in agri-food supply chains are first, cautious steps addressing these fundamental drivers of ecological degradation. More ambitious greening requirements may contribute to a higher motivation and ability of larger groups of farmers to implement nature conservation measures.

"Ecological Urbanism: The Nature of the City asks the questions that are important inside and outside the built environment professions: what are climate change, urbanisation and ecology doing to the theory and practice of urban design? How does Ecological Urbanism figure in this change? What is Ecological Urbanism? In answer, this book is neither definitive - impossible when a subject is still in motion - nor encyclopaedic - equally impossible when so much has been written on almost every aspect of these essays. Instead, it seeks to rebalance the ecological narrative and its embryonic modes of practice with the narratives of urbanism and its older, deeply embedded modes of practice. It examines the implications for cities and the designers of cities now we are required to again address their metabolic as well as social and formal dimensions, and it explores the extent to which environmental engineering and natural systems design can and should become drivers for the remaking of cities in the 21st century. Above all, it argues that sooner rather than later, urbanism needs to become environmentally literate, and environmental design needs to become culturally literate"--

This study introduces several political revolutions from the past and the present for a deeper understanding of the nature of protest communication. Previously, the protests' success was ensured by the use of printing, telegraph and media innovations, which allowed the protest organizers to evade government control. Today, such technologies provide information and allow participants to communicate proactively in social networks, self-organizing into structures that strengthen and spread protest communication. Social networks enable the realization of the communication potential of each participant based on the organizational model of mass collaboration. This model is not characterized by a system-structural organization, which confounds predictions of the processes of social interaction. Each subsequent event depends on the previous one, complicating the establishment of a trend. This organizational model creates difficulties for the authorities in controlling protests, as it is prone to the stochastic formation of centres of activity, which can be explained from the perspective of field theory, provided in this study. Therefore, from the point of view of the authorities, the situation with the development of the protest acquires the characteristics of VUCA, moving beyond possible control.

In 1866 an uncommonly knowledgeable gentleman, Alexis de Tocqueville by name, wrote as follows: "Je pense que dans les siècles démocratiques qui vont s'ouvrir l'indépendence individuelle et les libertés locales seront toujours un produit de l'art. La centralisation sera le gouvernement naturel." Four score and five years later a distinguished compatriot documented the triumph of nature over art which de Tocqueville contemplated as a possibility, and analyzed at some length the instrumentality through which le gouvernement naturel has established its primacy over les libertés locales. Professor Jean Boulouis has recently pronounced a plaintive requiem for French local self-government culminating in these words: "On pourrait presque avancer, sans beaucoup d'exagération, qu'il n'existe plus de finances locales, mais tout au plus une localisation des finances nationales."The two most striking phenomena of local government finance in recent decades are, first, the absolute increase in the amount of money disbursed by local governments, and second, the substantial expansion in the proportion of local government disbursements financed from intergovernmental transfers of funds—grants-in-aid, shared taxes, and various other devices by which money is shifted from one level of government to another.

Seattle has long been considered a city in harmony with nature, a metropolis inseparable from and infused with the dramatic and picturesque Pacific Northwest landscape. Today, the city is frequently cited as a leader in sustainable urban development and this is due in large part to its unique relationship with its natural surroundings. However, the historical record of Seattle reveals this harmonious relationship between humans and nature to be a social construction. The founders of Seattle adopted an urban development approach similar to other North American cities and implemented large-scale engineering projects to rationalise the landscape while solidifying the municipal government as the ultimate arbiter of human/nature relations. The unintended economic, environmental, and social consequences of this so-called 'Promethean' approach to urban nature would be debunked in the 1950s, catalyzing a wide array of approaches by the municipality and residents to restore, protect, and live with nature in more benign ways. In this article, I examine the politics of nature in Seattle to understand how changing perceptions of the urban landscape are related to different forms of expertise, governance, and citizenship. I focus specifically on activities to reorient urban water flows because they reveal the multiple tensions between humans and nature. The article adds to contemporary scholarship in landscape architecture, human geography, and environmental history on the dilemma of urban nature while highlighting the central role of technical experts, practices, and networks as well as issues of governance, citizenship, and management. Seattle's reputation as a green metropolis serves as an entry point to interpret the various relationships between humans, technology, and nature while also suggesting potential routes to realise more sustainable urban futures. ; QC 20161110

Résumé Le changement de nature des chocs pétroliers entre 1970-1992 et 1992-2006 a joué un rôle central dans la modification de leur impact sur l'économie mondiale. Une série de pib des pays consommateurs de pétrole est construite pour caractériser la demande mondiale de pétrole et conduit à identifier les chocs de 1970-1992 comme chocs d'offre et ceux de 1992-2006 comme chocs de demande. L'étude d'impact établit que l'effet contra-cyclique est conditionnel aux chocs d'offre, les chocs de demande étant procycliques. Ce résultat est robuste pour les États-Unis. Un résultat supplémentaire est que la politique monétaire américaine n'a pas eu d'effet contra-cyclique dans la période récente alors même qu'elle n'a pas changé de nature depuis 1970.

This document contains the draft Chapter 2.2 of the IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Governments and all observers at IPBES-7had access to these draft chapters eight weeks prior to IPBES-7. Governments accepted the Chapters at IPBES-7 based on the understanding that revisions made to the SPM during the Plenary, as a result of the dialogue between Governments and scientists, would be reflected in the final Chapters. IPBES typically releases its Chapters publicly only in their final form, which implies a delay of several months post Plenary. However, in light of the high interest for the Chapters, IPBES is releasing the six Chapters early (31 May 2019) in a draft form. Authors of the reports are currently working to reflect all the changes made to the Summary for Policymakers during the Plenary to the Chapters, and to perform final copyediting.

The Nature of Asian Firms provides managers and others interested in doing business in the dynamic and fast changing Asian region with an understanding of the underlying principles driving both current and future business practices of Asian firms. The book is for internationally focused individuals who realize the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of the fastest growing economic region in the world and the firms from this region. Takes a look at the evolutionary and historical development of Asian firmsExamines the regional nature of Asian firmsProvides readers with a cross-cultural perspective