Green Politics

Andrew Dobson's highly acclaimed introduction to green political thought is now available in a new edition. It has been fully revised and updated to take into account the areas that have grown in importance since the last edition was published. The third edition includes: * a comparison of ecologism with other principal modern ideologies, such as liberalism, conservatism, fascism, socialism, feminism and anarchism * an assessment of the relationship between green thinking and democracy, justice and citizenship * an exploration of 'sustainable development' addressing the fundamental question of 'what to sustain?' * real environmental problems and how green thinking relates to them.

This book presents a uniquely comprehensive and balanced survey of current green political ideas. It analyses the ability of these ideas to provide plausible answers to fundamental problems in political theory, concerning justice and democracy, individual rights and freedom, human nature and gender. The authors, who come from a range of different disciplines, explore the relationship between green ideas and other traditions including liberalism, anarchism, feminism and Christianity.

Our present political system is dominated by business news and the stock market. But those in support of green politics ask whether human profit should continue to be the bottom line of political deliberations or whether it is time for the interests of the natural world to combine with or even displace them.In The Promise of Green Politics Douglas Torgerson offers a survey of different strands of ecological schools of thought, discusses their implications for the larger political sphere, and advances a three-dimensional concept of politics that emphasises ethics and discourse, as well as strategy.Arguing that the environmental movement has the potential to contribute to contemporary developments in political theory and social action by changing discursive practices at grassroots gatherings and along the corridors of power, Torgerson draws on the theories of Hannah Arendt and others to advocate a performative type of political debate that values a plurality of opinions and is not always oriented toward the narrowing of debate down to a single conclusion. In a world stuck in administrative, scientific gridlock, Torgerson argues, the theatrical, comic aspects of green politics are as important as other, more goal-oriented, aspects. Gestures of the carnivalesque-such as protestors sleeping in hammocks slung from trees targeted for destruction or funeral processions held for dying rivers-could be the key to the creation of what Torgerson refers to as a "green public sphere," one which promises a reconfiguration of the relationship between human creativity and the natural world. While offering a number of concrete policy suggestions, his focus remains on the complexity and heterogeneity of green thinking, and on the transformative promise implicit in green politics. In creating new ways to speak about the environment, Torgerson argues, the green movement offers a chance to productively rethink many larger issues of political theory and action.The Promise of Green Politics will serve as a gateway to new thinking about green politics and the emerging possibilities of a diverse and vital green public sphere. As such, it will be valued by those interested in environmental and public policy, political theory, social activism, and the future of political action.

At the heart of the green debate are a set of basic contradictions concerning beliefs and actions. This book reveals the problems associated with these contradictions, including adherence to decentralized political forms.

This book examines the Greens' contribution to the changing nature of contemporary German local politics and the effect of local political involvement upon the Greens themselves. The author shows how the established 'unpolitical' nature of Germany's local politics has given way to overtly political and confrontational approaches. This has occurred primarily under the influence of the Greens and the 'New Local Politics'. The book appears at an important juncture for the German Greens with questions being posed about their relevance in a post-unification Germany.

Political Parties and the European Union offers a panoramic survey of the political parties of contemporary Europe. It covers party politics from Scandinavia to Greece, focusing on how parties in the individual member states have responded to the processes of European integration. Despite a trend towards political convergence, national traditions continue to shape politics across Europe. In order to reflect, and do justice to, the diversity of political cultures, the book combines case studies, comparative approaches and supranational perspectives. It examines the history of the main national parties, offers new comparative perspectives on communist, green and extreme right parties, and analyses party politics at the European level.

Green Power intermeshes the theories of social movements and non-government organisations with everyday events occurring in the environmental movement in Australia. The book's focus is on non-institutional politics.

Despite the optimism of the `Earth Summit' held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the politics of environmental sustainable development has reached an impasse. Why do issues of environmental protection continue to take a back seat to economic competition, particularly in the international realm? Once the environmental problem was widely recognised, it was held that consensus could be reached. In practice, however, the development of sustainability had often continued to merely extend earlier technocratic practices and solutions, which fail to take into consideration the specific cultural questions. Living With Nature seeks to place the question of the dynamics of environmental crisis within a socio-cultural dimension of the existing economic and political institutions. The book argues for a need to find a new balance between a theoretical analysis of the debate and an appreciation of local circumstances, norms and knowledge. Politically, it implies an implicit understanding of the way in which we live together with nature.

Showing how green social and political theory can be linked to practical struggles from environmental and social change, Derek Wall looks at key topics of political and sociological interest in Britain and the world today.