Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science / Edition 1

by Timothy Forsyth

Overview

Critical Political Ecology brings political debate to the science of ecology. As political controversies multiply over the science underlying environmental debates, there is an increasing need to understand the relationship between environmental science and politics. In this timely and wide-ranging volume, Tim Forsyth uses an innovative approach to apply political analysis to ecology, and demonstrates how more politicised approaches to science can be used in environmental decision-making.

Critical Political Ecology examines:
*how social and political factors frame environmental science, and how science in turn shapes politics
*how new thinking in philosophy and sociology of science can provide fresh insights into the biophysical causes and impacts of environmental problems
*how policy and decision-makers can acknowledge the political influences on science and achieve more effective public participation and governance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415185622
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/05/2002
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tim Forsyth is a lecturer in Environment and Development at the London School of Economics

Table of Contents

1. Political ecology and the politics of environmental science 2. Environmental science and myths 3. Environmental 'laws' and generalizations 4. Social framings of environmental science 5. The co-production of environmental science and political activism 6. Enforcing and contesting boundaries: Boundary organizations and social movements 7. The globalization of environmental risk 8. Democratizing environmental explanations 9. Democratizing environmental science and networks 10. Conclusion: 'Critical' Political ecology and environmental science

Editorial Reviews

'Forsyth's balanced and wide-ranging approach to the subject will appeal to students and academics working across that wide range of disciplines that are concerned with the 'environment'.' - James Evans, University of Birmingham, UK

'One of the first clear and progressive visions of environmental ecology as a field of research that can extend beyond the developing world to address environmental issues wherever they occur.' - James Evans, University of Birmingham, UK

'This innovative book mobilizes critical political ecology as an analytical tool that revitalizes accounting for biophysical reality - represented through ecology ... Forsyth offers a compellingly enhanced 'critical' political ecology.' - Environment and Planning A

'This book is going on my reading list ... having read so much on the divisions between human and physical geography and how they might be brought together [...] it is refreshing to read a book from someone who has just gone ahead and done it ... this fusion of physical science and cultural contexts is a work of genuine intellectual education which shows a way ahead in geography.' - Transactions of the IBG

From the Publisher