Reconstructing Conservation

by Minteer, Ben A.; Manning, Robert E.

• ISBN13: 9781559633505
• ISBN10: 1559633506
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-01
• Publisher: Island Pr

Summary

In the 1990s, influenced by the deconstructionist movement in literary theory and trends toward revisionist history, a cadre of academics and historians led by William Cronon began raising provocative questions about ideas of wilderness and the commitments and strategies of the contemporary environmental movement. While these critiques challenged some cherished and widely held beliefs -- and raised the hackles of many in the environmental community -- they also stimulated an important and potentially transformative debate about the conceptual foundations of environmentalism.Reconstructing Conservationmakes a vital contribution to that debate, bringing together 23 leading scholars and practitioners -- including J. Baird Callicott, Susan Flader, Richard Judd, Curt Meine, Bryan Norton, and Paul B. Thompson -- to examine the classical conservation tradition and its value to contemporary environmentalism. Focusing not just on the tensions that have marked the deconstructivist debate over wilderness and environmentalism, the book represents a larger and ultimately more constructive and hopeful discussion over the proper course of future conservation scholarship and action. Essays provide a fresh look at conservation icons such as George Perkins Marsh and Aldo Leopold, as well as the contributions of lesser-known figures including Lewis Mumford, Benton MacKaye, and Scott Nearing. Represented are a wealth of diverse perspectives, addressing such topics as wilderness and protected areas, cultural landscapes, rural/agrarian landscapes, urban/built environments, and multiple points on the geographic map. Contributors offer enthusiastic endorsements of pluralism in conservation values and goals along with cautionary tales about the dangers of fragmentation and atomism. The final chapter brings together the major insights, arguments, and proposals contained in the individual contributions, synthesizing them into a dozen broad-ranging principles designed to guide the study and practice of conservation.Reconstructing Conservationassesses the meaning and relevance of our conservation inheritance in the 21st century, and represents a conceptually integrated vision for reconsidering conservation thought and practice to meet the needs and circumstances of a new, post-deconstructivist era.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Part I. Introduction	1	(16)
Conservation: From Deconstruction to Reconstruction	3	(14)
Ben A. Minteer
Robert E. Manning
Part II. Nature and Culture Reconsidered	17	(58)
Writing Environmental History from East to West	19	(14)
Richard W. Judd
The Nature of History Preserved; or, The Trouble with Green Bridges	33	(10)
Robert McCullough
Going Native: Second Thoughts on Restoration	43	(14)
Jan E. Dizard
Conservation and Culture, Genuine and Spurious	57	(18)
Luis A. Vivanco
Part III. Reweaving the Tradition	75	(110)
Expanding the Conservation Tradition: The Agrarian Vision	77	(16)
Paul B. Thompson
Regional Planning as Pragmatic Conservationism	93	(22)
Ben A. Minteer
Building Conservation on the Land: Aldo Leopold and the Tensions of Professionalism and Citizenship	115	(18)
Susan Flader
Scott Nearing and the American Conservation Tradition	133	(12)
Bob Pepperman Taylor
Conservation and the Four Faces of Resistance	145	(20)
Eric T. Freyfogle
Conservation and the Progressive Movement: Growing from the Radical Center	165	(20)
Curt Meine
Part IV. New Methods and Models	185	(92)
Conservation: Moral Crusade or Environmental Public Policy?	187	(20)
Bryan Norton
Social Climate Change: A Sociology of Environmental Philosophy	207	(16)
Robert E. Manning
Reconstructing Conservation in an Age of Limits: An Ecological Economics Perspective	223	(16)
David N. Bengston
David C. Iverson
The Implication of the ``Shifting Paradigm'' in Ecology for Paradigm Shifts in the Philosophy of Conservation	239	(24)
J. Baird Callicott
An Integrative Model for Landscape-Scale Conservation in the Twenty-First Century	263	(14)
Stephen C. Trombulak
Part V. Reconstructing Conservation Practice: Community and the Future of Conservation Stewardship	277	(56)
Community Values in Conservation	279	(18)
Patricia A. Stokowski
Stewardship and Protected Areas in a Global Context: Coping with Change and Fostering Civil Society	297	(16)
Brent Mitchell
Jessica Brown
Reinventing Conservation: A Practitioner's View	313	(14)
Rolf Diamant
J. Glenn Eugster
Nora J. Mitchell
Conservation Stewardship: Legacies from Vermont's Marsh	327	(6)
David Lowenthal
Part VI. Conclusion	333	(18)
Finding Common Ground: Emerging Principles for a Reconstructed Conservation	335	(16)
Ben A. Minteer
Robert E. Manning
Notes	351	(50)
About the Contributors	401	(4)
Index	405