Technology, Environment, and Human Values


Book Description

Recognizing the need to balance environmental costs with benefits to society, Barbour examines the conflicting material, social and environmental values and political forces involved in the difficult policy decisions relating to technology and the environment.




Human-Environment Relations


Book Description

This fresh and innovative approach to human-environmental relations will revolutionise our understanding of the boundaries between ourselves and the environment we inhabit. The anthology is predicated on the notion that values shift back and forth between humans and the world around them in an ethical communicative zone called ‘value-space’. The contributors examine the transformative interplay between external environments and human values, and identify concrete ways in which these norms, residing in and derived from self and society, are projected onto the environment.




Environmental Values


Book Description

We live in a world confronted by mounting environmental problems; increasing global deforestation and desertification, loss of species diversity, pollution and global warming. In everyday life people mourn the loss of valued landscapes and urban spaces. Underlying these problems are conflicting priorities and values. Yet dominant approaches to policy-making seem ill-equipped to capture the various ways in which the environment matters to us. Environmental Values introduces readers to these issues by presenting, and then challenging, two dominant approaches to environmental decision-making, one from environmental economics, the other from environmental philosophy. The authors present a sustained case for questioning the underlying ethical theories of both of these traditions. They defend a pluralistic alternative rooted in the rich everyday relations of humans to the environments they inhabit, providing a path for integrating human needs with environmental protection through an understanding of the narrative and history of particular places. The book examines the implications of this approach for policy issues such as biodiversity conservation and sustainability. Written in a clear and accessible style for an interdisciplinary audience, this volume will be ideal for student use in environmental courses in geography, economics, philosophy, politics and sociology.







Energy And Material Resources


Book Description

Knowledge of public attitudes and values is essential to the formulation and implementation of government policies affecting energy and other natural resources, but it is difficult to obtain and use this knowledge, for the pertinent issues are complex and involve such difficult-to-define concepts as degree of acceptable risk for both present and future generations. Recently, survey researchers have attempted to measure and explain public attitudes related to energy and resource conservation. This volume examines what policymakers need to or would like to know about these attitudes, what kinds of results the researchers have been able to obtain, and the extent to which their results currently influence the policymaking process.




Value Functions for Environmental Management


Book Description

Environmental decisions must satisfy a multitude of objectives and the matching of a plan, policy or project to such objectives is a matter of both facts and value judgements. Value Functions for Environmental Management provides a systematic approach to the structuring and measurement of value judgements, showing how they drive the decision process and how to make them transparent and effective in support of complex decisions. The value functions that the book describes provide a scheme for the exploration of human values and a tool for transforming them into an analytical model. A clear statement can then be made of the degree to which a decision has achieved its objectives, and how conflicting objectives may be addressed. This does not mean that there is no role for human judgement in the process. Complexity, often coupled with large information gaps, necessitates expert judgement, but the values adopted by the experts are themselves capable of being structured and measured according to the value function methodology presented here, even if the judgements themselves are qualitative and tentative. Value models for expert panels are also presented. The use of the methodology in practice is illustrated by examples. The book contains an extensive subject index.




The Psychology of Human Values


Book Description

This original and engaging book advocates an unabashedly empirical approach to understanding human values: abstract ideals that we consider important, such as freedom, equality, achievement, helpfulness, security, tradition, and peace. Our values are relevant to everything we do, helping us choose between careers, schools, romantic partners, places to live, things to buy, who to vote for, and much more. There is enormous public interest in the psychology of values and a growing recognition of the need for a deeper understanding of the ways in which values are embedded in our attitudes and behavior. How do they affect our well-being, our relationships with other people, our prosperity, and our environment? In his examination of these questions, Maio focuses on tests of theories about values, through observations of what people actually think and do. In the past five decades, psychological research has learned a lot about values, and this book describes what we have learned and why it is important. It provides the first overview of psychological research looking at how we mentally represent and use our values, and constitutes important reading for psychology students at all levels, as well as academics in psychology and related social and health sciences.




Agroecology Now!


Book Description

This open access book develops a framework for advancing agroecology transformations focusing on power, politics and governance. It explores the potential of agroecology as a sustainable and socially just alternative to today’s dominant food regime. Agroecology is an ecological approach to farming that addresses climate change and biodiversity loss while contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Agroecology transformations represent a challenge to the power of corporations in controlling food system and a rejection of the industrial food systems that are at the root of many social and ecological ills. In this book the authors analyse the conditions that enable and disable agroecology’s potential and present six ‘domains of transformation’ where it comes into conflict with the dominant food system. They argue that food sovereignty, community-self organization and a shift to bottom-up governance are critical for the transformation to a socially just and ecologically viable food system. This book will be a valuable resource to researchers, students, policy makers and professionals across multidisciplinary areas including in the fields of food politics, international development, sustainability and resilience.




Education for Values, Environment and Human Rights


Book Description

All The Three Themes Of This Book The Values, The Environment And The Human Rights Have Acquired A Special Significance In The Present Trend Of Debasement Of Human Values, Degradation Of Environment And Violation Of Human Rights. In This Context, This Publication Highlights The Role Of Educational Institutions To Reverse This Trend. It Offers Several Workable Suggestions. In The Ultimate Analysis, It Is Held That There Is A Paramount Need For Mass Awaking And Concerted Action In This Regard. The Book Draws Its Notion From The Publications Of Un And Its Various Organisations And Agencies Also.;;Rs 650;Us$ 35;;




Values and the Environment


Book Description

This multidisciplinary study examines the ways in which we value the environment. It explores conceptual issues, policy dilemmas that arise when different sets of values conflict, and how values have changed over the years due to further education and a growing awareness of environmental problems.