Suchergebnisse

Part I Complexity of Global Change - Acceleration and Transformation -- 1 Introduction - The Century of Accelerating Social and Ecological Change -- 2 Global Change - The Great Acceleration -- 3 Global Change - The Great Transformation -- 4 Sustainable Development - The Discourse about the Common Future -- 5 Theoretical Models of the Social-ecological Transformation -- Part II Problems in the Great Transformation -- 6 Digitalisation and Social-Ecological Transformation -- 7 Food Systems and Social-Ecological Transformation -- 8 Modes of Living and Social-Ecological Transformation -- Part III The Future – Nature and Society -- 9 Transformation of Nature - Changing Relations between Nature and Society -- 10 Transformation of Society - Governance of Global Crises.

This textbook provides an overview of economic perspectives on sustainability. It synthesises economic, ecological and interdisciplinary sustainability research and by applying an integrated social-ecological and economic framework, demonstrates how this research can be improved and implemented in practice. Split into three parts, the book begins by introducing a range of topics forming the basis of knowledge needed to understand the varying sustainability discourses in economics, ecology and interdisciplinary sustainability research. Chapters cover the political context of sustainability; the history of sustainability in European environmental discourses dating back to the seventeenth century; as well as various problems and forms of interdisciplinary knowledge integration and synthesis in the sustainability process. Part II reviews the core economic themes relevant to sustainable development including natural resource management, environmental economics and ecological economics. Also highlighted are often neglected issues such as conflicts, disasters and interrelated crises on the way towards sustainability. The chapters in Part III discuss the future of the sustainability process. They argue for the necessity of overhauling the relationship between science and practice; explore failures and the unforeseen difficulties of sustainability transformation; and discuss how to enable a long term sustainability process that reaches into the distant future. An innovative resource for a broad range of interdisciplinary programmes on sustainability. The book will be an invaluable reference for master and PhD students, instructors, researchers and practitioners in sustainability governance.

This book provides a critical review of global environmental governance as part of the broader process of sustainably transforming modern society. The author argues for substantial modifications, outlining potential improvements in knowledge bridging processes, integration and synthesis that offer valuable information for environmental policy and governance. These improvements, he argues, should be achieved through the use of theoretical and empirical knowledge gleaned from global scenario analysis and interdisciplinary environmental research, and with the aid of new practices for knowledge sharing, cooperation and collective learning. The analysis presented in the book is based on recent developments in social ecology and the author's interdisciplinary theory of society-nature interaction (Social-Ecological Transformation: Reconnecting Society and Nature, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).--

Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1: Introduction: Developing Social-­Ecological Concepts and Theories -- References -- 2: Interaction of Society and Nature in Sociology -- Sociological Theories and Their Reflection of Society-Nature Interaction -- Sociological Theory of Society in the Twentieth Century -- Limits of Sociological Analyses of Society-Nature Interaction -- Interdisciplinary Broadening: Social-Scientific Analyses of Society and Nature -- Social-Ecological Theory of Society and Nature

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.

Introduction: The Development of Social Ecology Interdisciplinary Research in Society and Nature in the 20th Century Sources of Social Ecology: Discourses on Society and Nature in Sociology Sources of Social Ecology: Ecosystems and Natural Resources in Ecological Discourses Thematic Profiles of Social Ecology: The Research on Resource Flows and the Physical Economy in a Global Context Thematic Profiles of Social Ecology: The Research on Human Land Use, Food and Biomass Production in European and Global Contexts Thematic Profiles of Social Ecology: Knowledge Synthesis in a Theory of Interaction of Society and Nature Social Ecology: A Science in Development Social Ecology and Practice: The Policy Process and the Social-Ecological Discourse

The leader programme in Germany has built on the ideas and approaches of independent rural initiatives that have crystallized in a rural movement for autonomous regional development. Since the mid‐1980s,ideas such as these have found resonance in regional development programmes in some West German federal states.The implementation of leader projects in West Germany can be characterized by the institutionalization and neutralization of the approaches of the independent movements. Leader's catalytic role has not yet taken place to the same extent in East Germany where, after the unification in 1990,a rapid growth of local and regional development projects has been observed. Although leader has only adopted these in part, one can still project that official, institutional project sponsorship seems inevitably to undermine the innovative, independent and critical character of these rural development initiatives. The critical factors for the assessment of leader projects are the criteria of innovation and participation that play a central role in the community initiative. It can be concluded that the criteria of innovation are insufficient to direct the innovation process in a direction of sustainable rural development.

"Nichtstaatliche Organisationen (non-governmental organizations, NGO) haben die Diskussion über umweltgerechte Entwicklung nicht erst seit dem Brundtland-Bericht von 1987 geführt, der weithin als Auftakt der Nachhaltigkeitsdebatte gilt. Durch die Verbindung der Forderung nach nachhaltiger Entwicklung mit denen nach partizipatorischer Demokratie und nach einer Demokratisierung des internationalen Systems ergibt sich das charakteristische Profil von NGO als Akteuren in der globalen Arena 'Umwelt und Entwicklung'. Um die daraus resultierenden Anforderungen an NGO im globalen Handlungsfeld ansatzweise zu klären, werden im vorliegenden Beitrag die Ausgangsbedingungen, die Strukturen dieses Handlungsfeldes, die Entwicklung von Umwelt-NGO und ihren Netzwerken sowie die Handlungsgrenzen von NGO betrachtet werden." (Autorenreferat)