1st Edition

Real Green Sustainability after the End of Nature

By Manuel Arias-Maldonado Copyright 2012
    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    What would a sustainable society look like? How could it be achieved? By challenging conventional wisdom about the ecological crisis and reframing the traditional values of green politics "Real Green; Sustainability after the End of Nature" offers new answers to the key questions of the environmental debate. In this ground-breaking and challenging work Manuel Arias-Maldonado convincingly argues that, since nature has now been transformed into a part of the human environment, it can be seen to no longer exist. Ecological problems thus become an inevitable and normal feature of our relationship with nature. Hence a post-natural environmentalism, realistic and liberal while remaining green, is advocated. In this framework, sustainability, democracy and liberalism become mutually reinforcing elements rather than conflicting ones. Only by combining them can a green society be realised.

    Chapter 1 Introduction: An Imaginary Crisis? Reframing Environmentalism; Part I Nature and Society; Chapter 1a Society within Nature; Chapter 2 Nature within Society; Chapter 3 From Nature to Human Environment; Part II Sustainability After the End of Nature; Chapter 4 The Principle of Sustainability; Chapter 5 The Politics of Sustainability; Part III Towards a Green Liberal Society; Chapter 6 Green Politics, Democracy, and Liberalism; Chapter 7 Can We Democratise Sustainability?; Chapter 8 Ecological Citizenship and Sustainability; Chapter 10 Conclusion: The Future of Environmentalism;

    Biography

    Manuel Arias-Maldonado is a Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Málaga, Spain. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Berkeley and also developed research in Keele, Oxford, Siena and Munich. He is a regular contributor of Environmental Politics since 2000 and belongs to the Green Politics Standing Group of the European Council for Political Research (ECPR).

    'Makes sense of the significance of diverse views of sustainability, to a degree that few others have achieved. Effectively connects a critical analysis of the meaning of nature with fresh thinking about sustainability and social change. A terrific book!' John M. Meyer, Humboldt State University, USA 'Written with style, grace and a lucid intelligence, this is the most thorough critique of "classical environmentalism" there is. In place of a radical ideology based on limits to growth and a return to nature, Maldonado urges a liberal, pluralist environmentalism whose aim is to refine rather than reframe our relations with the natural world. Real Green is required reading for anyone who wants to see environmental political theory at its best.' Andrew Dobson, Keele University, UK