Community on Land Community, Ecology, and the Public Interest

by Curry, Janel M.; McGuire, Steven F.

• ISBN13: 9780742501614
• ISBN10: 0742501612
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-11
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

This book looks to the history of the the commons in American and European social thought to better understand contemporary environmental problems. The authors show how American law governing lands and resources relies on the individualist assumptions of Enlightenment thinkers, who regarded land as wasted when not being improved by European agriculture or colonization. Curry and McGuire trace the history of this philosophical and historical legacy and reveal its strong influence on American concepts on community and land. They not only reveal the law's insufficient comprehension of community rights, but they also advocate realistic policy alternatives whereby community governance can better solve the challenges of resource management and other American social problems.

Author Biography

Janel M. Curry is dean for research and scholarship at Calvin College in Michigan Steven McGuire is associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Foreword	xi
Preface	xviii
James D. Bran
Acknowledgments	xix
Introduction	xxi
Part I: Historical, Overview
Corporate Colonialism	3	(18)
Colonizer Enlightenment	21	(20)
Industrial Transformations	41	(22)
A New Leviathan in the New World	63	(14)
The Individual and Natural Resource Management	77	(18)
Part II: Current Consequences
Aggregated in Theory	95	(16)
Monad Law	111	(18)
Land in Practice	129	(12)
Forestry Management Philosophies	141	(24)
A Tale of Two Countries	165	(16)
Part III: Re-Mediation Optic
In Thought	181	(28)
Toward Community on Land	209	(26)
Conclusion: The Road to a Place	235	(10)
Index	245	(12)
About The Authors	257