Environmental Democracy - Hardcover

Mason, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312227000 ISBN 13: 9780312227005

Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan, 1999

Synopsis

Civic self-determination and ecological sustainability are widely accepted as two of the most important public goals. This book explains how they can be combined. Using vivid and telling case studies from around the world, it shows how liberal rights can include both ecological and social conditions for collective decision-making and how environmentalist goals and social justice can be achieved together.

About this title

About the Author:

Michael Mason is Senior Lecturer in Geography and Environmental Studies at the School of Social Sciences, University of North London.

From Library Journal:

Reconciling the demands of industries that seek to use natural resources to provide goods and services with those of environmentalists who attempt to preserve nature's wonders may appear to be impossible. Fortunately, this book provides one possible resolution. The author, a senior lecturer in environmental studies at the University of North London, argues that by engaging in a kind of green communication, all parties involved in the debate over a particular natural resource will find their needs met at a satisfactory level. He defines environmental democracy as "a participatory and ecologically rational form of collective decision-making; it prioritizes judgments based on long-term generalizable interests, facilitated by communicative political procedures and radicalization of existing liberal rights." While parts of the book are as academically dry as that definition, and at times it is a bit utopian in its assumptions, Mason effortlessly blends his theories with a number of very readable examples from around the world where the principles of his environmental democracy have been successfully applied. Though some general readers may find parts of this book tough going, it should still be read by those with a serious interest in seeing environmental policy disputes settled.AThomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312227000
• ISBN 13: 9780312227005
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 266