A Companion to Environmental Geography

Description

A Companion to Environmental Geography is the first book to comprehensively and systematically map the research frontier of ‘human-environment geography’ in an accessible and comprehensive way.

• Cross-cuts several areas of a discipline which has traditionally been seen as divided; presenting work by human and physical geographers in the same volume
• Presents both the current ‘state of the art’ research and charts future possibilities for the discipline
• Extends the term ‘environmental geography’ beyond its ‘traditional’ meanings to include new work on nature and environment by human and physical geographers – not just hazards, resources, and conservation geographers
• Contains essays from an outstanding group of international contributors from among established scholars and rising stars in geography

Key Features

• The first book to comprehensively and systematically map the research frontier of ‘human-environment geography’ in an accessible and comprehensive way
• Cross-cuts several areas of a discipline which has traditionally been seen as divided; presenting work by human and physical geographers in the same volume
• Presents both the current ‘state of the art’ research and charts future possibilities for the discipline
• Extends the term ‘environmental geography’ beyond its ‘traditional’ meanings to include new work on nature and environment by human and physical geographers – not just hazards, resources, and conservation geographers
• Contains essays from an outstanding group of international contributors from among established scholars and rising stars in geography

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements viii
2. List of Contributors ix
3. Introduction: Making Sense of Environmental Geography 1 – Noel Castree, David Demeritt and Diana Liverman
4. Part I Concepts 17
   1. Nature 19 – Bruce Braun
   2. Sustainability 37 – Becky Mansfield
   3. Biodiversity 50 – Karl S. Zimmerer
   4. Complexity, Chaos and Emergence 66 – Steven M. Manson
   5. Uncertainty and Risk 81 – James D. Brown and Sarah L. Damery
   6. Scale 95 – Nathan F. Sayre
   7. Vulnerability and Resilience to Environmental Change: Ecological and Social Perspectives 109 – W. Neil Adger and Katrina Brown
   8. Commodification 123 – Scott Prudham
5. Part II Approaches 143
   1. Earth-System Science 145 – John Wainwright
   2. Land Change (Systems) Science 168 – B. L. Turner II
   3. Ecology: Natural and Political 181 – Matthew D. Turner
   4. Quaternary Geography and the Human Past 198 – Jamie Woodward
   5. Environmental History 223 – Georgina H. Endfield
   6. Landscape, Culture and Regional Studies: Connecting the Dots 238 – Kenneth R. Olwig
   7. Ecological Modernisation and Industrial Transformation 253 – Arthur P. J. Mol and Gert Spaargaren
   8. Marxist Political Economy and the Environment 266 – George Henderson
   9. After Nature: Entangled Worlds 294 – Owain Jones
6. Part III Practices 313
   1. Remote Sensing and Earth Observation 315 – Heiko Balzter
   2. Modelling and Simulation 336 – George L. W. Perry
   3. Integrated Assessment 357 – James Tansey
   4. Ethnography 370 – Kevin St. Martin and Marianna Pavlovskaya
   5. Analysing Environmental Discourses and Representations 385 – Tom Mels
   6. Deliberative and Participatory Approaches in Environmental Geography 400 – Jason Chilvers
7. Part IV Topics 419
   1. Ecosystem Prediction and Management 421 – Robert A. Francis
   2. Environment and Development 442 – Tom Perreault
   3. Natural Hazards 461 – Daanish Mustafa
   4. Environmental Governance 475 – Gavin Bridge and Tom Perreault
   5. Commons 498 – James McCarthy
   6. Water 515 – Karen Bakker
   7. Energy Transformations and Geographic Research 533 – Scott Jiusto
   8. Food and Agriculture in a Globalising World 552 – Richard Le Heron
   9. Environment and Health 567 – Hilda E. Kurtz and Karen E. Smoyer-Tomic
8. Index 580

Authors Biography

Noel Castree is Professor of Geography at Manchester University, England, and the University of Wollongong, Australia. Editor of Social Nature (2001) and author of Making Sense of Nature (2013), his current research focuses on how people and Earth are represented by expert communities cross the disciplines.

David Demeritt is a Reader in Geography at King’s College, London. He has published many essays on the politics and practice of environmental science and theories of society-nature relations more generally.

Diana Liverman is Co-Director of the Institute of the Environment and Regents Professor of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona. She has published widely on environmental change and policy.

Bruce Rhoads is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and would describe himself as a ‘hard core’ physical geographer.