Description
Contemporary ideas of nature were largely shaped by schools of thought from Western cultural history and philosophy until the present-day concerns with environmental change and biodiversity conservation. There are many different ways of conceptualising nature in epistemological terms, reflecting the tensions between the polarities of humans as masters or protectors of nature and as part of or outside of nature.
The book shows how nature is today the focus of numerous debates, calling for an approach which goes beyond the merely technical or scientific. It adopts a threefold – critical, historical and cross-disciplinary – approach in order to summarise the current state of knowledge. It includes contributions informed by the humanities (especially history, literature and philosophy) and social sciences, concerned with the production and circulation of knowledge about "nature" across disciplines and across national and cultural spaces. The volume also demonstrates the ongoing reconfiguration of subject disciplines, as seen in the recent emergence of new interdisciplinary approaches and the popularity of the prefix "eco-" (e.g. ecocriticism, ecospirituality, ecosophy and ecofeminism, as well as subdivisions of ecology, including urban ecology, industrial ecology and ecosystem services). Each chapter provides a concise overview of its topic which will serve as a helpful introduction to students and a source of easy reference.
This text is also valuable reading for researchers interested in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, geography, ecology, politics and all their respective environmentalist strands.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Rethinking the idea of nature
Aurélie Choné, Isabelle Hajek & Philippe Hamman
Part I – Values and actions
1 Environmental ethics
Catherine Larrère
2 Ecosophy
Hicham-Stéphane Afeissa
3 Ecospirituality
Aurélie Choné
4 Ecopsychology
Dennis L. Merritt
Part II – Writings and representations
5 The aesthetics of nature
Nathalie Blanc
6 Ecocriticism
Emmanuelle Peraldo
7 Epistemocritical perspectives on nature
Laurence Dahan
Part III – Movements, activism and societies
8 From Lebensreform to political ecology
Catherine Repussard
9 Ecofeminism
Margot Lauwers
10 From environmental sociology to ecosociologies
Graham Woodgate
11 From anthropogeography to ethnoecology
Éric Navet
Part IV – Renewed ecologies
12 Rethinking rural nature in the era of ecocide
Owain Jones
13 Urban ecology
Isabelle Hajek and Jean-Pierre Lévy
14 Nature, environment, health
Lionel Charles
15 Sustainable urbanism
Philippe Hamman
16 Industrial ecology
Nicolas Buclet
17 The ecosystem services paradigm
Roldan Muradian
Part V – Human–animal
18 Ecocide, ethnocide and civilizations
Éric Navet
19 Animal studies
Roland Borgards
20 Constructing an animal history
Éric Baratay
21 Environmental humanities
Sabine Wilke
Conclusion: How nature matters
Aurélie Choné, Isabelle Hajek and Philippe Hamman
