Editors:
- Provides a roadmap that will help to achieve healthier ecosystems alongside productive societies
- Includes contributions from policy makers, government, political scientists and engineers
- Provides a unique insight into coordinating scientists, politicians and people to act to restore and sustain lands
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Table of contents (22 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Introduction
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Front Matter
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Science, Technology, and Engineering (Tools and Methods)
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Front Matter
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Politics and Policy (Governance and Frameworks)
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Front Matter
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People and Action (Implementation and Stewardship)
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Front Matter
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About this book
Environmental issues, vast and varied in their details, unfold at the confluence of people and place. They present complexities in their biophysical details, their scope and scale, and the dynamic character of human action and natural systems. Addressing environmental issues often invokes tensions among battling interests and competing priorities. Air and water pollution, the effects of climate change, ecosystem transformations—these and other environmental issues involve scientific, social, economic, and institutional challenges. This book analyzes why tackling many of these problems is so difficult and why sustainability involves more than adoption of greener, cleaner technologies. Sustainability, as discussed in this book, involves knowledge flows and collaborative decision processes that integrate scientific and technological methods and tools, political and governance structures and regimes, and social and community values. The authors synthesize a holistic and adaptive approach to rethinking the framework for restoring healthy ecosystems that are the foundation for thriving communities and dynamic economies. This approach is that of collective action. Through their research and practical experiences, the authors have learned that much wisdom resides among diverse people in diverse communities. New collaborative decision-making institutions must reflect that diversity and tap into its wisdom while also strengthening linkages among scientists and decision makers.
From the pre-publication reviews:
“Finally, we have a book that explains how science is irrelevant without people. It’s people who decide when and how to use science, not scientists. This book gives us a roadmap for how to really solve complex problems. It involves hard work, and creating new relationships between scientists and the public that don’t typically exist in our society.”
-John M. Hagan, Ph.D.
President, Manomet Center forConservation Sciences
Reviews
"This book by Karl et al., “Restoring and Sustaining Lands Coordinating Science, Politics and Communities for Action”, is a must read for those who are attempting to conduct policy-relevant research on sustainability of lands and water resources. It provides clear perspectives about the challenges that scientists face in addressing climate change and other complex societal issues. This is a book that should be recommended to students are interested in contributing to interdisciplinary and participatory research programs that address sustainable resources management." (James Jones, Distinguished Professor, University of Florida, Department of Agriculture and Biological Engineering)
"This book collects the first-person accounts of diverse practitioners who have taken action on what they know in efforts to manage ecosystems in harmony with social and economic systems. The outcomes of these empirical tests of knowledge – both the achievements and the disappointments – illuminate barriers between disciplines, agencies, and different kinds of expertise as well as paths for overcoming them in advancing common interests. For scientists in particular, this book is a valuable source of insight for rethinking their roles in society and revitalizing their sciences and service to society accordingly." (Ronald D. Brunner, Professor Emeritus and Policy Scientist, University of Colorado, Boulder, Author (with Amanda H. Lynch), Adaptive Governance and Climate Change, and (with others) Adaptive Governance: Integrating Science, Policy, and Decision Making)
"Finally, we have a book that explains how science is irrelevant without people. It’s people who decide when and how to use science, not scientists. This book gives us a roadmap for how to really solve complex problems. It involves hard work, and creating new relationships between scientists and the public that don’t typically exist in our society." (John M. Hagan, Ph.D., President, ManometCenter for Conservation Sciences)
"This book presents adaptive governance as a new policy frame. It is full of insights into how relationships between scientists, policy-makers, and stakeholders change as they try to manage natural resources and address complex problems like climate change. The reflections that are brought together in this book are a welcome tonic to anyone who has felt the potential and the frustrations of trying to work across the boundaries that separate disciplines and set science apart from society." (Maarten Hajer, Director, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Professor of Public Policy, University of Amsterdam, Author of Strong Stories. How the Dutch are Reinventing Spatial Planning)
"The overall compilation of this book goes to the core of a problem of academic separation from the critical social issues of our day by conducting research only in disciplinary silos. These silos are important for developing foundational basic work, but the task of bringing that work to the world of practical relevance requires a multi-disciplinary approach and an engagement with practitioners and citizens that the norms of academia formally resist. This book provides just such a multi-disciplinary synthesis and engagement with the real world. " (Andrew J. Hoffman, Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan, Author of From Heresy to Dogma: An Institutional History of Corporate Environmentalism, Memo to the CEO: Climate Change, What’s Your Business Strategy? (with John Woody), and editor of Oxford Handbook on Business and the Natural Environment (with Pratima Bansal))
"Restoring and Sustaining Lands—Coordinating Science, Politics and Communities for Action illustrates the frustrations and triumphs associated with trying to manage our lands in the 21st century with the vision and humanity called for by Thoreau and Leopold in the 19th and early20th centuries. The editors and authors of this book urge better integration of science, politics and communities through collaborative problem solving and consensus building. They offer multiple examples of local and regional cooperative restoration efforts, while encouraging us to do better and to address the barriers that restrict the opportunities and capacities to do more." (Kirk Emerson, University of Arizona, Former Director, U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution)
Editors and Affiliations
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University of New Hampshire, Durham, New, Lincoln, USA
Herman A. Karl
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Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, Arlington, USA
Lynn Scarlett
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology, C, Brighton, USA
Juan Carlos Vargas-Moreno
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology, C, Cambridge, USA
Michael Flaxman
About the editors
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Restoring Lands - Coordinating Science, Politics and Action
Book Subtitle: Complexities of Climate and Governance
Editors: Herman A. Karl, Lynn Scarlett, Juan Carlos Vargas-Moreno, Michael Flaxman
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2549-2
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-007-2548-5Published: 05 February 2012
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-017-8520-4Published: 13 April 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-2549-2Published: 03 February 2012
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 540
Topics: Climate Change, Coastal Sciences, Philosophy of Technology