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Sociology as a discipline is concerned with relationships. The relationship addressed in this book, is the one between society and nature. More specifically, the process of making pollution and the environmental condition relevant for – and in – parliament is used as an analytical prism to gain better understanding of that relationship. Building on theoretical perspectives from pragmatic moral-political sociology developed by Boltanski and Thévenot, the changing valuation of «nature» and «the environment» in Norwegian parliamentary debates is analysed: When and how is nature made a relevant for parliament? How is nature valued in these debates? How are decisions on environmental- and petroleum policy legitimated? What kind of knowledge is made relevant? In what ways have parliamentary debates changed over time and how can we understand these changes? Empirical data is an extensive sample of Norwegian parliamentary debates in the period 1945–2013. The book maps the historical trajectory of the political conflicts on the environmental consequences from industry in Norway, and the petroleum industry in particular. The analysis exposes how the form of valuable nature has changed substantially over time. That is, what makes nature valuable for parliament has changed over time. The changing form of valuable nature also has consequences for how pollution should be avoided and what kind of policy instruments that are considered relevant. In the early 20th century nature was primarily regarded as a robust and unchangeable entity. Starting from the early 1950s this understanding of nature is undergoing impor- 10 GISLE ANDERSEN | PARLAMENTETS NATUR tant changes. Rather than being viewed as a robust entity, nature is to larger extent seen as fragile and should be protected from humans: Nature should be conserved. During the next decades the relevant form of nature to protect is gradually redefined as «the environment». In contrast to the idea of protecting «nature» from humans, pollution was primarily a problem because it harmed the human environment. A significant change occurred during the 1990s. The Norwegian parliamentary debates from this period are characterised by a harsh ecological self-critique. This had several consequences, among them a new environmental statute in the Norwegian Constitution. A new way of valuing nature emerged: What is valued is not nature «itself» but the function that nature has for humans, the conservation of nature understood as a «life supporting production system» for humanity. This view of nature specified the valuation of nature as anthropocentric. Another important dimension of the new way of valuing nature is that it clearly limited what form of nature that should be protected: It is legitimate to pollute and to harm parts of nature, but only as long as one does not threaten the production system that humans depend upon. As long as an activity can go on without diminishing the functional utility of nature for humanity; use, change and destruction of nature can be considered legitimate. This could be understood as a minimum definition of sustainability. These changes are linked to the ways the modern societies today responds to, and tries to control, global environmental change.
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Environmental Policies in Asia highlights the environmental challenges Asian planners and policymakers face as the continent undergoes rapid economic growth in the 21st Century. Edited by Jing Huang and Shreekant Gupta, with contributions from leading Asian scholar practitioners, this timely and unique volume is the first of its kind to look at environmental policies and governance from the perspective of seven dynamic Asian countries. These include developed economies of Japan and Singapore, emerging giants such as China and India and rapidly developing nations such as Vietnam, Indonesia and
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"Powstala w ramach inicjatywy EKOEkSoc ksia?z?ka W poszukiwaniu zielonego ladu jest efektem pracy autoro´w zwia?zanych zawodowo z Wydzialem Ekonomiczno-Socjologicznym Uniwersytetu Lo´dzkiego, kto´rzy w swej aktywnos´ci badawczej i dydaktycznej podejmuja? zagadnienia zwia?zane z problemami wyrastaja?cymi na styku systemo´w spoleczno-gospodarczych i s´rodowiska przyrodniczego. Jak zazieleniac´ zarza?dzanie zasobami czynniko´w produkcji? Jak koegzystowac´ z innymi gatunkami? Dlaczego warto poznawac´ ekologiczne uwarunkowania funkcjonowania miast, sektoro´w gospodarczych, przedsie?biorstw i gospodarstw domowych? Do czego moga? sie? przydac´ zielone podatki? Jak policzyc´ s´lad we?glowy i finansowac´ proekologiczne rozwia?zania? Czy wzrost PKB zawsze jest miara? sukcesu, a zwrot w kierunku zielonej gospodarki be?dzie inkluzywny? To przykladowe pytania, kto´re postawilis´my w publikacji. Znalezienie odpowiedzi wymagalo wyjs´cia poza utarte schematy mys´lenia, o kto´rych juz? wiemy, z?e zbyt cze?sto prowadza? do praktyk destrukcyjnych nie tylko wobec przyrody, lecz takz?e nas samych. Zapraszamy do lektury i aktywnego poszukiwania sposobo´w bar- dziej harmonijnego ukladania relacji z natura?."-- Provided by publisher.
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"The climate crisis is the greatest existential threat humanity faces today. The need for a radical societal transformation in the interests of social justice and ecological sustainability has never been greater. But where can we turn to find systemic alternatives? From India, Turkey and Bolivia, to Venezuela, Canada and Lebanon, Just Transformations looks to local environmental struggles for the answers. With each case study grounded in the social movements and specific politics of the region in question, this volume investigates the role that resistance movements play in bringing about sustainable transformations, the strategies and tools they utilise to overcome barriers, and how academics and grassroots activists can collaborate effectively. The book provides a toolkit for scholar-activists who want to build transformative visions with communities. Interrogating each case study for valuable lessons, the contributors develop a conceptualisation of a just transformation that focuses on the changes that communities themselves are trying to produce."
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Based on case studies in Southern Africa, West Africa and East Africa, this book revisits some of the dilemmas and paradoxes associated with the development, management and utilisation of environmental resources, as well as lacklustre official handling of climate change-related challenges, in Sub-Saharan Africa. On the subject of natural resource exploitation, in particular, the book revisits scholarly debates and specific practices around compensation, benefit- and burden-sharing, local participation and space-place dynamics. It highlights fundamental ambiguities in the ways the dominant discourses and policy responses have been framed and mobilised, and examines epistemic and ideational incongruences that have hobbled and sometimes negated the effectiveness of otherwise well-intentioned interventions. On climate change, the book revisits debates around the vulnerability-assets nexus with regard to mitigation and adaptation, as well as the intersection of climate information and livelihoods in agro-based settings. The contradictions, gaps and limitations of climate change policies and strategies in different regions are re-examined based on new data. In the last few years, the Environment and Natural Resources Working Group of the South African Sociological Association (SASA) has intensified efforts to go beyond the annual SASA Congresses and the production of journal articles, in making the research agendas of its members more visible to the global scholarly and policy community. This book is one result of such efforts. It calls for a constant questioning of orthodoxies and the promotion of ethnographically sensitive and epistemologically nuanced scholarly and policy approaches to developmental challenges in Africa, especially in relation to environmental resources and environmental change.
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