Postcolonialism, Multitude, and the Politics of Nature


Book Description

"[This book] offers an overview of the latest developments of Nordic human geography and relates it to parallel Anglo-American and Continental European debates. The case studies focus on the Finnish-Russian Greenbelt, also known as the Fennoscandian Greenbelt, located at the long north-south border between the two countries. The Greenbelt is a geopolitical and socioenvironmental hybrid, or anomaly, that contains an array of cultural, economic, environmental, political, and epistemic interfaces. The drama and the dynamics of the border challenge the analytical and interpretative capabilities of human geography. [This book] describes in detail the lands and lives of the Greenbelt inhabitants who settled down in a multicultural meeting place of Finno-Ugric, Scandinavian, and Slavic cultures, as well as Orthodox and Lutheran faiths. The Greenbelt is also studied in relation to contemporary pressures of globalization, ranging from geopolitical reformulation of the relations between the European Union and Russia to transcontinental reorganizations in trade and environmental concerns" 4ème de couverture.




Mobility and Place


Book Description

The Northern peripheries of Europe, which are covered by this book, are associated with remoteness, the frontier, isolated communities, colonialism and resource extraction. Recently, huge projects in petroleum and hydropower have been located there, and the region has become better known as an attractive tourist destination. Although these spaces are perceived as being marginal, they are inhabited and linked into globalization and international agendas. This book examines how people live in such remote spaces in an emerging global world of connectivity, interdependency, mobility and non-linear dynamics. The various case studies examine a wide range of experiences, ranging from tourists and local settlers to those who migrate for labour in old or new industries, or to pursue the hybrid urban/rural life of the periphery. In this book, mobility and place come together. The analyses demonstrate how mobility and place mutually constitute each other and how specific relationships between the two aspects are crucial in the making of societies. The authors study attempts to reinvent places, together with connections and the opening of 'new scapes' in order to sustain businesses, municipalities and people's livelihood.




The Changing Governance of Renewable Natural Resources in Northwest Russia


Book Description

Bringing together scholars of human geography, environmental sociology, law, economics and international policy from Finland, Russia, Sweden and Germany, this book examines how local communities and enterprises adjust to transition and institutional changes in Northwest Russia. A unique and important facet of the book is that it analyzes the law and legal institutions, focusing on how those involved in law use or abuse it, in relation to unofficial institutions and the interplay of different interest groups in governing forest and fishery resources. The local view is approached empirically with data gathered through interviews, which is then compared against institutional change at national level and in the global arena. Multidisciplinary in nature, the book demonstrates innovative ways of adjusting to change, combining old and new, local and global and providing a holistic view of the Russian economy and a society in transition.




International Encyclopedia of Human Geography


Book Description

The International Encyclopedia of Human Geography provides an authoritative and comprehensive source of information on the discipline of human geography and its constituent, and related, subject areas. The encyclopedia includes over 1,000 detailed entries on philosophy and theory, key concepts, methods and practices, biographies of notable geographers, and geographical thought and praxis in different parts of the world. This groundbreaking project covers every field of human geography and the discipline’s relationships to other disciplines, and is global in scope, involving an international set of contributors. Given its broad, inclusive scope and unique online accessibility, it is anticipated that the International Encyclopedia of Human Geography will become the major reference work for the discipline over the coming decades. The Encyclopedia will be available in both limited edition print and online via ScienceDirect – featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit http://info.sciencedirect.com/content/books/ref_works/coming/ Available online on ScienceDirect and in limited edition print format Broad, interdisciplinary coverage across human geography: Philosophy, Methods, People, Social/Cultural, Political, Economic, Development, Health, Cartography, Urban, Historical, Regional Comprehensive and unique - the first of its kind in human geography




Placing Critical Geography


Book Description

This book explores the multiple histories of critical geography as it developed in 14 different locations around the globe, whilst bringing together a range of approaches in critical geography. It is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive account of a wide variety of historical geographies of critical geography from around the world. Accordingly, the chapters provide accounts of the development of critical approaches in geography from beyond the hegemonic Anglo-American metropoles. Bringing together geographers from a wide range of regional and intellectual milieus, this volume provides a critical overview that is international and illustrates the interactions (or lack thereof) between different critical geographers, working across a range of spaces. The chapters provide a more nuanced history of critical geography, suggesting that while there were sometimes strong connections with Anglo-American critical geography, there were also deeply independent developments that were part of the construction of very different kinds of critical geography in different parts of the world. Placing Critical Geographies provides an excellent companion to existing histories of critical geography and will be important reading for researchers as well as undergraduate and graduate students of the history and philosophy of geography.




Greening Europe


Book Description

Today, the environment seems omnipresent in European policy within and beyond the European Union. The idea of a shared European environment, however, has come a long way and is still being contested. Greening Europe focuses on the many ways people have interacted with nature and made it an issue of European concern. The authors ask how notions of Europe mattered in these activities and they expose the many entanglements of activists across the subcontinent who set out to connect and network, and to exchange knowledge, worldviews, and strategies that exceeded their national horizons. Moving beyond human agency, the handbook also highlights the eminent role nature played in both "greening" Europe and making Europe a shared environment.




Europe's Changing Woods and Forests


Book Description

Our understanding of the ecological history of European forests has been transformed in the last twenty years. Bringing together key findings from across the continent, this book provides a comprehensive account of the relevance of historical studies to current conservation and management of forests. It combines theory with a series of regional case studies to show how different aspects of forestry play out according to the landscape and historical context of the local area.




Rethinking Climate Change Research


Book Description

The problems and debates surrounding climate change possess closely intertwined social and scientific aspects. This book highlights the importance of researching climate change through a multi-disciplinary approach; namely through cultural studies, communication studies, and clean-technology studies. These three dimensions taken together have the ability to constitute a positive agenda for climate change science in its broader understanding. To cope with the climate change challenge, not only do we need new energy efficient technologies, other ways of living, and new ways to communicate but we especially need new ways to start thinking about climate change across disciplines and backgrounds. We need to begin thinking across engineering, cultural science and communication in order to create innovative solutions, as well as to generate optimistic and progressive narratives about the future. Accentuating these 'softer' scientific disciplines, their overlaps, and the positive discourses they can create, this book provides some more profoundly researched themes pertaining to climate change and by that, strengthening the analytical as well as the integrative approaches toward the fundamental questions at stake.




Nordic Landscapes


Book Description

"The first in-depth presentation of the Nordic landscapes to be published in nearly twenty years. “Norden” -- the region along the northern edge of Europe bordered by Russia and the Baltic nations to the east and by North America to the west -- is a particularly fruitful site for the examination of the ever-evolving meaning of landscape and region as place. Contributors to this work reveal how Norden’s regions and people have been defined by and against the dominant culture of Europe while at the same time their landscapes and cultures have shaped and inspired Europe’s ways of life. Together, the essays provide a much-needed picture of this culturally rich and geographically varied part of the world."--pub. desc.




Knowing from the Indigenous North


Book Description

Focusing on the Sápmi region of Northern Europe as a point of departure, this book enriches and sharpens the concept of 'the North.' It combines detailed empirical research on the Sámi people and their life-worlds with theoretical contributions from leading scholars. The authors consider the European North not only as a geographical site or an object of academic research, but as a particular way of knowing and being, with its own needs, practices, concepts, and imaginings. The North, as an epistemic position, offers its own conceptions of politics, human agency, history, and social relations, which this book studies and describes. The volume challenges us to consider social scientific knowledge, its significance, and the practices of producing it in a new way.