Environment and Society

Editors: Paige West, Barnard College, Columbia University and Dan Brockington, University of Manchester

The field of research on environment and society is growing rapidly and becoming of ever-greater importance not only in academia but also in policy circles and for the public at large. Climate change, the water crisis, deforestation, biodiversity loss, the looming energy crisis, nascent resource wars, environmental refugees, and environmental justice are just some of the many compelling challenges facing society today and in the future. As a forum to address these issues, we are delighted to present an important new peer-reviewed annual: Environment and Society: Advances in Research. Through this journal we hope to stimulate advanced research and action on these and other critical issues and encourage international communication and exchange among all relevant disciplines.

Published in association with the Earth Institute of Columbia University, Environment and Society publishes critical reviews of the latest research literature including subjects of theoretical, methodological, substantive, and applied significance. Articles also survey the literature regionally and thematically and reflect the work of anthropologists, geographers, environmental scientists, and human ecologists from all parts of the world in order to internationalize the conversations within environmental anthropology, environmental geography, and other environmentally oriented social sciences. The publication will appeal to academic, research and policy-making audiences alike.

Table of Contents for the first issue

1. Introduction to the Journal and Issue – Paige West, Dan Brockington, Jamon Alex Halvaksz II, and Michael L. Cepek
2. Neoliberalism and the biophysical environment: a synthesis and evaluation of the research, Noel Castree
3. Neoliberal water management: trends, limitations, reformulations, Kathryn Furlong 
4. Controversies in climate change economics, Robert Eastwood 
5. Origins, uses, and transformation of extinction rhetoric, Richard J. Ladle and Paul Jepson 
6. Climate changing small islands: Considering social science and the production of island vulnerability and opportunity, Amelia Moore 
7. Adaptation genuine and spurious: Demystifying adaptation processes in relation to climate change, Thomas F. Thornton and Nadia Manasfi
8. Climate change resilience and adaptation, perspectives from two decades of water resources development, Clive Agnew and Philip Woodhouse

BOOK REVIEWS

• Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples, Mark Dowie – reviewed by George Holmes
• Rethinking Environmental History: World-System History and Global Environmental Change, eds. Hornborg, Alf, J. R. McNeill, and Joan Martinez-Alier – reviewed by Eric D. Carter
• The Political Economy of Hazards and Disasters, eds. Eric C. Jones and Arthur D. Murphy – reviewed by Kelley L. Denham
• Territories of difference: place, movements, life, redes, Arturo Escobar – reviewed by Joel Wainwright
• The Country in the City: The Greening of San Francisco, Richard Walker – reviewed by Catherine Fennell
• Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES, Nancy Langston – reviewed by K. Jill Fleuriet
• Science and Conservation in African Forests: The Benefits of Long-Term Research, Richard Wrangham and Elizabeth Ross – reviewed by Andrew Oberle
• The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, Brian Fagan – reviewed by Jason Yaeger
• African Sacred Groves: Ecological Dynamics & Social Change, eds. Michael Sheridan and Celia Nyamweru – reviewed by Joel Hartter
• Nature and Power: A Global History of the Environment,  Joachim Radkau – reviewed by Shannon Stunden Bower
• Lawn people: how grasses, weeds, and chemicals make us who we are, Paul Robbins – reviewed by Joel WainwrightThe Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics, Tania Murray Li – reviewed by Kathleen Gillogly