No matter how hard politicians try to broker agreements about curbing greenhouse gas emissions there are deeper obstacles that would seem to guarantee Planet Earth's ecological decline. Beyond the Limits is a hard-hitting and probing analysis of the underlying problems that define the possibilities of any response to the problem of climate change. If you have wondered how humanity has managed to reach a point of no return, this is a book for you. Our problems stem from an unwavering commitment to the growth of economies, populations and improved standards of living. Unpalatable as this diagnosis may be, the underlying issues involve cultural prejudice, inertia, outmoded political programs, and an overwhelming faith in technological innovation and social progress. Further, insufficiently analysed optimism may blind us to the obvious: there still are limits to growth. The author is able to combine evidence-based scientific analysis with the best of contemporary social and cultural theory to provide a compelling interdisciplinary analysis. His appeal for a genuinely eco-centric approach to politics will definitely rattle a number of philosophical cages.
Addressing a growing need to examine environmental issues from a cultural perspective, this innovative book adopts a cultural studies approach to reach a deeper understanding of the significance of ecological issues in our lives. Eco-Impacts and the Greening of Postmodernity explores such vital questions as: Can nature survive? How do academic disciplines engage with environmental crises? And, how do we map sustainable futures? The authors, Tom Jagtenberg and David McKie, bring a body of relevant literature into the debate - that stems from both cultural and environmental issues - as well as their own multidisciplinary perspectives on the subject.
The growing importance of the sciences in industrialised societies has been acknowledged by the increasing number of studies concerned with their development, change and control. In the past 20 or so years there has been a considerable growth in teaching and research programmes dealing with science and technology policy, science and society, sociology and history of science and similar areas which has resulted in much new material about the production and validation of scientific knowledge. In addition to the quanti tative growth of this literature, there has also been a substantial shift in the problems addressed and approaches adopted. In particular, the substantive content of scientific knowledge has become the focus of many historical and sociological studies which seek to understand how knowledges develop and change in different social circumstances. Instead of taking the privileged epistemological status of scientific knowledge for granted, recent approaches have emphasised the socially contingent nature of knowledge production and validation and the pluralistic nature of the sciences. Parallel to these develop ments, there has been a shift in the treatment of science by the state, business and public pressure groups. Increasingly they have sought to control the direction of research, and thus the content of knowledge, directly rather than simply applying existing knowledge. Science has become amenable to social control and influence. Its sacred status has declined and it is increasingly viewed as a socially constituted phenomenon which can be studied in a similar manner to other cultural products.
Addressing a growing need to examine environmental issues from a cultural perspective, this innovative book adopts a cultural studies approach to reach a deeper understanding of the significance of ecological issues in our lives. Eco-Impacts and the Greening of Postmodernity explores such vital questions as: Can nature survive? How do academic disciplines engage with environmental crises? And, how do we map sustainable futures? The authors, Tom Jagtenberg and David McKie, bring a body of relevant literature into the debate - that stems from both cultural and environmental issues - as well as their own multidisciplinary perspectives on the subject.
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