Forging Environmentalism
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Welcome to the online companion to Forging Environmentalism, Justice, Livelihood and Contested Environments, published by M.E. Sharpe in May 2006. The book draws upon the work of the Council's multi-year, multi-site study of environmental values and policymaking.
The aim of this book is to enhance our understanding of the social and cultural values that people bring to bear on environmental problems and how they mobilize those values to forge environmentalism—to create and sustain programs and movements of environmental action in their communities and countries.
The book presents new case material that links scientific analysis to policy analysis and then goes one step beyond to do what few studies do: to examine the values of all the stakeholders and their processes of interaction. This holistic approach provides a basis for understanding how people in different parts of the world define environmental goals and objectives, how their values related to the environment are shaped by their lived realities, cultural contexts, and political struggles in which they forge their ideas about nature and the environment, and whose values matter in setting environmental priorities.
Click on the individual chapters below for a variety of chapter-specific resources, including: case synopses, timelines, and maps; related links and background readings; forewords of the country chapters provided in full; and a glossary of foreign words and acronyms that appear in the chapter.
This excellent book makes a key contribution to the literature on environmental movements by providing rich case material pertaining to four environmentally critical countries. The book's movement from specific cases to general discussion is particularly valuable. Forging Environmentalism will inform and instruct practitioners, students, and scholars alike.
—JAMES GUSTAVE SPETH
Yale University
The cross-cultural study of environmentalism must now take inspiration from this amazing book which almost miraculously explains the deepest motives of environmental policy, law, and politics by comparing important case studies from China, Japan, India, and the United States. These studies, all brilliantly described and deeply researched, show the reader how concepts such as legality, populism, justice, tenacity, and caring differ fundamentally across cultural contexts and yet retain a human commonality. This collection of riches will reward anyone who wants to understand environmentalism across nations and cultures.
—MARK SAGOFF
University of Maryland, College Park
Forging Environmentalism is an outstanding addition to the literature on environmental policymaking. The volume explores the decision making process in four countries—Japan, China, India, and the United States—through a set of rich case studies, each of which underscores the importance of culture in shaping understandings and approaches to environmental policy. Editor Joanne Bauer does a masterful job of weaving together these individual cases into a seamless story that makes the book valuable for specialist and student alike.
—ELIZABETH C. ECONOMY
Council On Foreign Relations
