Climate change is prompting an unprecedented questioning of the fundamental bases upon which society is founded. Businesses claim that technology can save the environment, while politicians champion the role of international environmental agreements to secure global action. Economists suggest that we should pay developing countries not to destroy their forests, while environmentalists question whether we can solve ecological problems with the same thinking that created them. As the process of steering society, governance has a critical role to play in coordinating these disparate voices and securing collective action to achieve a more sustainable future.
Environmental Governance is the only book to discuss the first principles of governance, while also providing a critical overview of the wide-ranging theories and approaches that underpin policy and practice today. It places governance within its wider political context to explore how the environment is controlled, manipulated, regulated and contested by a range of actors and institutions. This book shows how network and market governance have shaped current approaches to environmental issues, while also introducing approaches such as transition management and adaptive governance. In so doing, it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches currently in play, and considers their political implications.
This second edition has been comprehensively updated to build upon the success of the acclaimed first edition, with a new chapter on the environmental governance of outer space and updated analysis of international climate change summits. It provides a ground-breaking overview of dominant and emerging approaches of environmental governance, forging critical links between them. Each chapter has been updated with new case studies, key debates and figures, and includes questions for discussion and further reading. It is essential reading for students of the environment, politics and sociology, and, indeed, anyone concerned with changing society to secure a more sustainable future.
1. Introduction
2. Governing the Environment
3. Institutions, Rules and Actors
4. Global Governance
5. Networks
6. Markets
7. Transition Management
8. Adaptive Governance
9. Participation and Politics
10. Conclusions
Biography
James Evans is Professor of Geography at the University of Manchester, UK. His work investigates how cities learn to become smarter and more sustainable. Over the past 20 years he has worked with over 200 organizations around the world to create more collaborative ways of working toward sustainability. He has led the University’s involvement in major research projects to develop smart and more sustainable cities that have attracted more than £50m of research and innovation funding.
Craig Thomas is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. His research and teaching focus on environmental governance and sustainability. Working on solutions to the climate crisis, he has examined anti-fracking activism, urban carbon reduction and ways to make space missions more sustainable. Craig is a scholar activist, working beyond academia to explore ways that the University can make a difference to the social and economic wellbeing of neighboring communities.
'Environmental Governance offers an original and important contribution to understanding the current situation of the environment, highlighting that neither technology, nor scientific discovery are sufficient to address contemporary issues. Rather the book offers insights into how humans manage environmental questions today: governance. It explains the growth of governance strategies and arrangements over time and the shift away from largely governmental approaches. The book is a valuable teaching resource, demystifying what seem irrational and obscure processes that often appear insuperable.'
Professor Stephanie Pincetl, Director, California Center for Sustainable Communities, UCLA, USA
'This text is the perfect guide to the key issues, theories and debates in environmental governance. Comprehensive in scope, sophisticated in analysis and accessible in delivery, it offers a trusted roadmap through which to navigate the ever-growing thicket of this exciting and important field. If a user-friendly manual was indispensable when the book was first published, this expertly updated second edition has become even more necessary given the significant developments of the last decade.'
Dr Mark Usher, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Geography and Director, MSc Environmental Governance, University of Manchester, UK
