A Research Agenda for Environmental Geopolitics


Book Description

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. Challenging the mainstream view of the environment as either threatening or valuable, this book considers how geographic knowledge can be applied to offer a more nuanced understanding. Framed within geopolitics and using a range of methodologies, the chapters encapsulate different approaches to demonstrate how selective forms of knowledge, measurement, and spatial focus both embody and stabilize power, shaping how people perceive and respond to changing features of human-environment interactions. With key case studies analyzed throughout, this will be a timely read for geography and environmental studies scholars. It will also be beneficial to those studying political science and regional studies, as well as those working in NGOs and think tanks. Contributors include:L. Acton, B. Blue, L.M. Campbell, S. Dalby, O. Evrard, C.A. Fox, N.J. Gray, M. Himley, C. Johnson, F. Lasserre, P. Le Billon, M. Mostafanezhad, S. O'Lear, L. Olman, B. Schneider, L. Shykora, C. Sneddon, J. Swann-Quinn, M. Tadaki, P.-L. Têtu, S.D. VanDeveer




A Research Agenda for Environmental Geopolitics


Book Description

Challenging the mainstream view of the environment as either threatening or valuable, this book considers how geographic knowledge can be applied to offer a more nuanced understanding. Framed within geopolitics and using a range of methodologies, the chapters encapsulate different approaches to demonstrate how selective forms of knowledge, measurement, and spatial focus both embody and stabilize power, shaping how people perceive and respond to changing features of human-environment interactions.




Environmental Geopolitics


Book Description

This thought-provoking and clearly argued text provides a critical geopolitical lens for understanding global environment politics. A subfield of political geography, environmental geopolitics examines how environmental themes are used to support geopolitical arguments and physical realities of power and place. Shannon O’Lear considers common, problematic traits of such familiar but widely misunderstood narratives about human-environment relationships. Mainstream themes about human-environment relationships include narratives about presumed connections between human population trends and resource scarcity; ways in which conflict and violence are linked to resource use or environmental degradation; climate security; and the application of science to solve environmental problems. O’Lear questions these narratives, arguing that the role or meaning of the environment is rarely specified, humans’ role in these situations tends to be considered selectively, and little attention is paid to spatial dimensions of human-environment relationships. She shows that how we tend to think about environmental concerns often obscure value judgments and constrain more dynamic approaches to human-environment relationships. Environmental geopolitics demonstrates how we can question familiar assumptions to generate more just and creative approaches to our many relationships with the environment.




A Research Agenda for Geographies of Slow Violence


Book Description

This timely Research Agenda highlights how slow violence, unlike other forms of conflict and direct, physical violence, is difficult to see and measure. It explores ways in which geographers study, analyze and draw attention to forms of harm and violence that have often not been at the forefront of public awareness, including slow violence affecting children, women, Indigenous peoples, and the environment.




A Research Agenda for Military Geographies


Book Description

A Research Agenda for Military Geographies explores how military activities and phenomena are shaped by geography, and how geographies are in turn shaped by military practices. A variety of future research agendas are mapped out, examining the questions faced by geographers when studying the military and its effects.




Global Environmental Governance, Technology and Politics


Book Description

We live on an increasingly human-dominated planet. Our impact on the Earth has become so huge that researchers now suggest that it merits its own geological epoch - the 'Anthropocene' - the age of humans. Combining theory development and case s




Global Energy Politics


Book Description

Ever since the Industrial Revolution energy has been a key driver of world politics. From the oil crises of the 1970s to today’s rapid expansion of renewable energy sources, every shift in global energy patterns has important repercussions for international relations. In this new book, Thijs Van de Graaf and Benjamin Sovacool uncover the intricate ways in which our energy systems have shaped global outcomes in four key areas of world politics: security, the economy, the environment and global justice. Moving beyond the narrow geopolitical focus that has dominated much of the discussion on global energy politics, they also deftly trace the connections between energy, environmental politics, and community activism. The authors argue that we are on the cusp of a global energy shift that promises to be no less transformative for the pursuit of wealth and power in world politics than the historical shifts from wood to coal and from coal to oil. This ongoing energy transformation will not only upend the global balance of power; it could also fundamentally transfer political authority away from the nation state, empowering citizens, regions and local communities. Global Energy Politics will be an essential resource for students of the social sciences grappling with the major energy issues of our times.




A Research Agenda for Environmental Economics


Book Description

Presenting critical insights on how economic activity is constrained by the environment’s ability to provide material and energy resources, this timely Research Agenda explores how humanity shapes, and is shaped by, environmental change and sustainability challenges. Chapters highlight how, under these constraints, people may seek to improve their lives and standards of living without undermining the abilities of others to do so now or in the future.




A Research Agenda for Digital Politics


Book Description

This Elgar Research Agenda showcases insights from leading researchers on the charged issues and questions that lie ahead in the multidisciplinary field of digital politics. Covering the political implications of the Internet, social media, datafication and computational analytics, it looks to the future of how research might address the political challenges of the digital age and maps the key emerging trends in this field.




The Arctic Council


Book Description

This pivot introduces the Arctic Council and its role as a platform for dealing with local, national, regional and global challenges of relevance to the “new” Arctic. Against the backdrop of climate change and increasing commercial activity, it considers what a future Arctic should look like, from ideas of total protection to expansive oil and gas extraction. It examines the Arctic’s position on the political agenda, from Norway’s High North hype to a more peripheral place in the foreign policy of the US and explores the Council's role as an important international forum for dialogue and cooperation on Arctic challenges and opportunities, and a significant arena for developing knowledge and learning about a changing region.