Governing Environmental Flows

by Mol, A. P. J.; Mol, Arthur P. J.; Buttel, Frederick H.

• ISBN13: 9780262195454
• ISBN10: 0262195453
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-06-01
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Globalization and the changing role of the nation-state call for new approaches to environmental governance and new ways to conceptualize it. Recent developments in sociology-seen in the work of John Urry, Manuel Castells, and others-show how social theory can be made less static, more fluid, and more directed toward flow and networks in order to encompass today's reality. Governing Environmental Flowsexplores what such a reformulation means for the environmental social sciences. Taking the term environmental flows-in both its traditional scientific sense and in a newer social dimension-as its key unit of analysis, the book focuses on the interrelationships of globalization, the environment, and the state. The consensus of the contributors is that the conventional nation-state-based approach to environmental policy is in need of revision; the goal of the book is to lay the foundations for a set of concepts capable of analyzing environmental governance in global modernity. The first part of the book takes a theoretical perspective on how to interpret and conceptualize problems of governance and material flows. Case studies follow, examining biodiversity policies, transnational governance of climate-change-related water risks, globalized food production and consumption, "green" urban office buildings owned by global corporations, and transport flows in everyday life. Using the flow and network conceptual framework, these case studies illuminate the new dynamics of environmental policymaking in the twenty-first century.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Abbreviations	xi
List of Contributors	xv
Introduction: Governing Environmental Flows in Global Modernity	1	(38)
Gert Spaargaren
Arthur P. J. Mol
Hans Bruyninckx
I. Theoretical Perspectives and Debates
Toward a Sociology of Environmental Flows: A New Agenda for Twenty-First-Century Environmental Sociology	39	(44)
Arthur P. J. Mol
Gert Spaargaren
The Environmental State and Environmental Flows: The Need to Reinvent the Nation-State	83	(24)
Martin Janicke
Looking through the State at Environmental Flows and Governance	107	(30)
Dimitris Stevis
Hans Bruyninckx
Detached Flows or Grounded Place-Making Projects?	137	(20)
Zsuzsa Gille
Globalization, Environmental Reform, and U.S. Hegemony	157	(30)
Frederick H. Buttel
II. Empirical Perspectives
Governing Nature? On the Global Complexity of Biodiversity Conservation	187	(34)
C. S. A. (Kris) van Koppen
Governing Climate Risk: A Study of International Rivers	221	(46)
Itay Fischhendler
Environmental Governance of Global Food Flows: The Case of Labeling Strategies	267	(36)
Peter Oosterveer
Greening Transnational Buildings: Between Global Flows and Local Places	303	(24)
Luciana M. S. Presas
Arthur P. J. Mol
Environment, Mobility, and the Acceleration of Time: A Sociological Analysis of Transport Flows in Modern Life	327	(24)
Mette Jensen
Epilogue: Environmental Flows and Twenty-First-Century Environmental Social Sciences	351	(20)
Frederick H. Buttel
Gert Spaargaren
Arthur P. J. Mol
Index	371