The Earthscan Reader In Sustainable Consumption

First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Such a huge number of books, journals and papers have been devoted to defining, assessing and implementing 'sustainable development' that students and other readers face information overload. Earthscan alone has published hundreds of essays and books on the subject. Now, though, the most authoritative writings have been carefully assessed and collected together in the Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Development. The contributions included span five years of the debate, and cover all the principle themes: the history of the concept; the problems in defining it; the issues surrounding it; and national international policies and schemes to implement it. For ease of use, the essays have been split into key subject areas - such as agriculture, population and the commons - and they include practical case studies and examples, together with analyses from a number of different viewpoints from both the North and South. These seminal essays will provide readers with a unique overview of the subject, as well as the long-awaited basic course material for students of environmental studies, economics, geography, politics, planning and the social sciences.

The last five years have brought an enormous growth in the literature on how urban development can meet human needs and ensure ecological sustainability. This collection brings together the most outstanding contributions from leading experts on the issues surrounding sustainable cities and urban development. The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Cities is fully international in scope and coverage. It will be the basic introduction to the subject for a wide range of students in urban geography, planning and environmental studies, and is essential reading for professionals involved with the successful running and development of cities.

Sustainable Consumption: Key Issues provides a concise introduction to the field of sustainable consumption, outlining the contribution of the key disciplines in this multi-disciplinary area, and detailing the way in which both the problem and the potential for solutions are understood. Divided into three parts, the book begins by introducing the concept of sustainable consumption, outlining the environmental impacts of current consumption trends, and placing these impacts in social context. The central section looks at six contrasting explanations of sustainable consumption in the public domain, detailing the stories that are told about why people act in the way they do. This section also explores the theory and evidence around each of these stories, linking them to a range of disciplines and approaches in the social sciences. The final section takes a broader look at the solutions proposed by sustainable consumption scholars and practitioners, outlining the visions of the future that are put forward to counteract damage to environment and society. Each chapter highlights key authors and real-world examples to encourage students to broaden their understanding of the topic and to think critically about how their daily lives intersect with environmental and ethical issues. Exploring the ways in which critical thinking and an understanding of sustainable consumption can be used in daily life as well as in professional practice, this book is essential reading for students, academics, professionals and policy-makers with an interest in this growing field.

Environmental economics may hold the key to the successful management of the world's accelerating environmental problems, from transport and pollution to the wholesale degradation of much of the Third World, climate change and loss of the ozone layer. Increasingly a range of professionals and policy makers as well as environmentalists and the economists themselves are turning to it to show how to arrive at decisions on these complicated and vital issues. This reader brings together the most important contributions to the subject. Sections of it cover the theoretical issues, the different ways of valuing the environment, economic instruments of environmental policy, environment and development and global environmental problems. An extensive introduction by the editors maps out the area and the development of the arguments within it. As a whole the volume makes an indispensable sourcebook for those in any way involved with these questions. Anil markandya is one of the authors of Blueprint for a Green Economy and Blueprint 2: Greening the Global Economy.

This book offers a fresh look at sustainable consumption, exploring how grassroots community action can spread ideas in society. It presents a 'New Economics' approach based on alternative measures of wealth and value, examining how these are put into practice through local organic food systems, low-impact eco-housing, and complementary currencies.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

'Few people who think about the state of the world are content with the status quo. The increasingly complex mix of economic, social, environmental and political problems at all scales requires new ways of thinking. It also requires new ways of integrating mutually supportive ideas and approaches, which is what this useful new book offers around the theme of sustainable consumption. The editors and contributors offer a breadth and depth of research from three domains: the new economics, socio-technical transitions and social practice, with a focus on consumption that meets the needs of people within the limits of the biosphere.' – Peter A. Victor, York University, Canada 'In recent years much hard thinking has been devoted to exploring the transition to true sustainability and consumption's role in it. Innovations in Sustainable Consumption offers an impressive and enormously useful synthesis of this new work. Highly recommended.' – James Gustave Speth, Vermont University Law School, US and author of America the Possible: Manifesto for a New Economy 'This is a very timely and inspiring book. The editors have carefully compiled original contributions from leading researchers in sustainable consumption, reflecting the important work of the SCORAI network and beyond. This is a "must" read for those who want to know where research in sustainable consumption is really heading.' – Lucia A. Reisch, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark This timely volume recognizes that traditional policy approaches to reduce human impacts on the environment through technological change – for example, emphasizing resource efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources – are insufficient to meet the most pressing sustainability challenges of the twenty-first century. Instead, the editors and contributors argue that we must fundamentally reconfigure our lifestyles and social institutions if we are to make the transition toward a truly sustainable future. These expert contributions pinpoint specific areas in which innovation will be required. These include economic policies, socio-technical systems of production and consumption, and dominant social practices. Drawing on these and other diverse areas of scholarship, this fascinating book highlights new conceptual frameworks for achieving the twin sustainability goals of decreased resource use and enhanced individual and societal well-being. Students, professors and policymakers in ecological economics, innovation studies, environmental policy and many other related fields will find much of interest in this pathbreaking volume.

This book is a comprehensive guide on how to teach sustainable consumption in higher education. Teaching and Learning Sustainable Consumption: A Guidebook systematizes the themes, objectives, and theories that characterize sustainable consumption as an educational field. The first part of the book discusses approaches to teaching and learning sustainable consumption in higher education, including reflections on how learning occurs, to more practical considerations like how to set objectives or assess learning outcomes. The second part of the book is a dive into inspiring examples of what this looks like in a range of contexts and towards different aims – involving 57 diverse contributions by teachers and practitioners. Building on the momentum of a steady increase in courses addressing sustainable consumption over the past decade, this guidebook supports innovative approaches to teaching and learning, while also bringing to the fore conceptual debates around higher education and sustainability. Overall, this book will be a seminal resource for educators teaching about sustainability and consumption. It will help them to navigate the specifics of sustainable consumption as a field of scholarship, and design their teaching approaches in a more informed, competent, and creative way.