Few people now doubt the seriousness of global environmental degration. Governments and corporations alike proclaim their commitment to ‘sustainable development’. Membership of environmental pressure groups runs into the millions. Environmental issues- from global warming to BSE, water shortages to anti-road protests-are never far away from the headlines. Yet in mainstream political life the environment remains a marginal subject. It is barely contested between the political parties, and largely ignored by the political media. Widespread public concern has not translated into political priority.
This collection of specially commissioned essays seeks to understand the politics of the environment afresh. Placing the environment in the wider context of social, economic and cultural change, it aims both to broaden the understanding of environmental issues in themselves, and to explore the implications of environmental concern for politics in general.
The book is divided into four sections. The first offers some alternative perspectives on contemporary environmental politics, including a debate on the influential idea of the ‘risk society’. The second section looks at the political economy of the environment. It discusses the concept of ‘ecological modernisation’ and the meaning of sustainable development in practice. The third section explores the troubled relationship between science and public policy making, and shows how environmental politics has become bound up with the need to renew the culture and institutions of democracy. The final section examines the evidence of public concern about the environment, draws lessons from the experience of green politics in Germany and the Netherlands, and looks at the prospects for environmental politics in the UK party system.
Written by distinguished academics, actiists and commentators, the book will appeal not only to those concerned about ebvironment, but to anyone with an interest in the future of British politics.
