The Experts below are selected from a list of 195816 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Wendy A. Kellogg - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Nature's Neighborhood: Urban Environmental History and Neighborhood Planning
Journal of the American Planning Association, 2002Co-Authors: Wendy A. KelloggAbstract:Abstract The physical form of an urban settlement is a product of the reciprocal relationship between the humans and the ecological systems in the area which act together to create an urban landscape that changes through time. While many of the interactions between the natural world and the built environment occur at the regional level, the quality of life experienced by residents is in large part a function of Environmental conditions in the neighborhood. This article explores the benefits to neighborhood planning from incorporating urban Environmental History. It reviews the conceptual territory of urban Environmental History and presents a framework for its application to neighborhood planning. An Environmental History completed for a neighborhood is highlighted to illustrate the technique.
J. R. Mcneill - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Oxford Scholarship Online - The Historiography of Environmental History
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018Co-Authors: J. R. McneillAbstract:This chapter discusses the emergence of Environmental History, which developed in the context of the Environmental concerns that began in the 1960s with worries about local industrial pollution, but which has since evolved into a full-scale global crisis of climate change. Environmental History is ‘the History of the relationship between human societies and the rest of nature’. It includes three chief areas of inquiry: the study of material Environmental History, political and policy-related Environmental History, and a form of Environmental History which concerns what humans have thought, believed, written, and more rarely, painted, sculpted, sung, or danced that deals with the relationship between society and nature. Since 1980, Environmental History has come to flourish in many corners of the world, and scholars everywhere have found models, approaches, and perspectives rather different from those developed for the US context.
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Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of War and Militarization in Modern France
French History, 2013Co-Authors: J. R. McneillAbstract:Chris Pearson?s Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of War and Militarization in Modern France is a recent offering from the ever-growing subfield of Environmental History that is focusing on the relationship between militaries, war and environment. A number of large projects and research networks have emerged in recent years that have brought scholars working within these broad parameters ? from Environmental histories of the American Civil War to contemporary studies of boundaries in the Gaza strip, to name two examples ? into closer contact and sustained dialogue. Despite the broad scope of potential subjects, the area has become more cohesive, and Pearson is a notably productive and active member of the community of Environmental historians of war and military environments.
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The State of the Field of Environmental History
Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 2010Co-Authors: J. R. McneillAbstract:Absract This article reviews the state and evolution of the field of Environmental History since about 1970. It focuses chiefly on the work of professional historians, but because Environmental History is pursued by many varieties of scholars, it occasionally discusses the work of archeologists, geographers, and others. It offers a working definition of the field and an account of its origins, development, and institutionalization from the 1970s until 2010. It briefly surveys the literature on several world regions, concentrating most heavily on South Asia and Latin America, where Environmental History at present has grown especially lively. It considers the prominence of Americanists (that is, historians of the United States, not the same thing as Americans) in the field and how that prominence is now waning. It reviews the utility of Environmental History for historians, sketches some of the critiques of Environmental History, and comments upon some signal findings of recent years.
Kristin Asdal - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the problematic nature of nature the post constructivist challenge to Environmental History
History and Theory, 2003Co-Authors: Kristin AsdalAbstract:This article discusses the program of Environmental History within the larger discipline of History and contrasts it with more recent contributions from post-constructivist science. It explores the ways in which post-constructivism has the potential to productively address many of the shortcomings of Environmental History's theories and models that Environmental historians themselves have begun to view with a critical eye. The post-constructivist authors discussed in this article, Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour, both represent challenges to the ways in which nature and the natural sciences tend to be conceptualized as non-problematized entities within Environmental History. They also challenge the ways in which dichotomies of nature and culture tend to be reproduced within the program of Environmental History. It is argued that these post-constructivist contributions represent a radical and arguably more truly historical way of introducing non-human actors into the historical narrative, and thus represent a potential reinvigoration of Environmental History that would embrace a more radical historicity, greater diversity, and openness to difference.
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The Problematic Nature of Nature: The Post‐constructivist Challenge to Environmental History
History and Theory, 2003Co-Authors: Kristin AsdalAbstract:This article discusses the program of Environmental History within the larger discipline of History and contrasts it with more recent contributions from post-constructivist science. It explores the ways in which post-constructivism has the potential to productively address many of the shortcomings of Environmental History's theories and models that Environmental historians themselves have begun to view with a critical eye. The post-constructivist authors discussed in this article, Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour, both represent challenges to the ways in which nature and the natural sciences tend to be conceptualized as non-problematized entities within Environmental History. They also challenge the ways in which dichotomies of nature and culture tend to be reproduced within the program of Environmental History. It is argued that these post-constructivist contributions represent a radical and arguably more truly historical way of introducing non-human actors into the historical narrative, and thus represent a potential reinvigoration of Environmental History that would embrace a more radical historicity, greater diversity, and openness to difference.
Janice M. Saunders - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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South Africa's Environmental History: Cases and Comparisons
African Studies Review, 2004Co-Authors: Janice M. SaundersAbstract:Stephen Dovers, Ruth Edgecombe, and Bill Guest, eds. South Africa's Environmental History: cases and Comparisons. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002. ix + 326 pp. Maps. Notes. Index. $24.95. Paper. First, I must say that I am impressed by the number of contributors to this volume who are widely respected in the field of South African Environmental History. One recognizes immediately names such as William Beinart, Jane Carruthers, Nancy Jacobs, and Gregory H. Maddox. On the other hand, when I first started perusing its content, the book struck me as disjointed. Perhaps this reaction stemmed from a negative mindset toward edited texts of conference origins; in fact, this text did materialize from an Environmental History workshop at the University of Natal in 1996. Upon reflection, however, one discerns a unifying core to South Africa's Environmental History, and a significant one at that. That core resides in the historiography of Environmental History and weaves the contents together from start to finish. Through the inclusion of an interesting array of South African as well as global comparative articles, the editors demonstrate the kinds of research Environmental historians are engaging in, and to what end historiographically. The book consists of three sections, the first of which is an introduction. Here Jane Carruthers provides not only definitions but also caveats regarding the viability of the discipline of Environmental History. She cautions, for example, that the interdisciplinary nature of the field behooves Environmental historians to be better scientists, especially considering how some scientists have published groundbreaking Environmental History work; that South African Environmental historiography needs to be viewed in the context of global Environmental historiography; and that Environmental History can make the wider field of History more relevant. Perhaps more important, Carruthers cautions us to be ever mindful of whose narrative is represented in our research. In the case of South Africa, for example, the narrative may be that of African, settler, or nonhuman ecological agency. The question is, do we have accurate historical representation of various perspectives? Part 2 makes up the bulk of the book. In this section we find numerous intriguing articles on topics such as violent reactions to Environmental usurpation; the impact of white settlers, fire, tree plantations, and the prickly pear plant; and windmill and wire technology. One methodological device that caught my attention in several of these essays is that of testing seminal works in Environmental History against empirical findings. For instance, Nancy Jacobs tests Carolyn Merchant's theory of the colonial ecological revolution by examining a subtropical place, the Kuruman. …
Stephen Dovers - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Can Environmental History save the world
2008Co-Authors: Sarah Brown, Stephen Dovers, Jodi Frawley, Andrea Gaynor, Heather Goodall, Grace Karskens, Steve MullinsAbstract:As a ‘genre of History’ in Australia Environmental History is relatively new, emerging in the 1960s and 70s from encounters between History, geography and the natural sciences in the context of growing Environmental concern and activism. Interdisciplinary in orientation, the field also exhibited an unusually high level of engagement with current Environmental issues and organisations. In this era of national research priorities and debates about the role and purpose of university-based research, it therefore seemed fair to ask: ‘can Environmental History save the world?’ In response, a panel of new and established researchers offer their perspectives on issues of relevance and utility within this diverse and dynamic genre.
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Can Environmental History save the world
History Australia, 2008Co-Authors: Sarah Brown, Stephen Dovers, Jodi Frawley, Andrea Gaynor, Heather Goodall, Grace Karskens, Steve MullinsAbstract:As a ‘genre of History’ in Australia Environmental History is relatively new, emerging in the 1960s and 70s from encounters between History, geography and the natural sciences in the context of growing Environmental concern and activism. Interdisciplinary in orientation, the field also exhibited an unusually high level of engagement with current Environmental issues and organisations. In this era of national research priorities and debates about the role and purpose of university-based research, it therefore seemed fair to ask: ‘can Environmental History save the world?’ In response, a panel of new and established researchers offer their perspectives on issues of relevance and utility within this diverse and dynamic genre. This article has been peer-reviewed.
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South Africa's Environmental History: Cases and Comparisons
The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2004Co-Authors: Belinda Dodson, Stephen Dovers, Ruth Edgecombe, Bill GuestAbstract:South Africa's Environmental History: Cases and Comparisons. Edited by Stephen Dovers, Ruth Edgecombe, and Bill Guest. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003, and Cape Town: David Philip, 2002. Pp. ix, 326. $24.95 paper. This book has its origins in a 1996 meeting of Environmental historians at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Whether intentionally or otherwise, the collection serves as a festschrift to the late Ruth Edgecombe, one of the prime movers behind both that meeting and this subsequent volume. Ruth died of cancer in 2001. Her death robbed South African Environmental History of one of its pioneers and leaders at a time when she was still brimming with ideas and enthusiasm in a field still very much in need of champions. The book also serves as a gauge of both the promise and fragility of the scholarly Environmental History enterprise in South Africa, surely one of the most exciting physical and social contexts in which to do Environmental History research. The Environmental impact of colonialism, segregation, and apartheid; the role of an often difficult natural environment in shaping the country's social, economic, and political History; the manifestation of social and political conflict in struggles over resources and territory-these are rich fields for Environmental historians to plough. The book makes no claims to be comprehensive, and instead comprises an ultimately frustrating combination of detailed local case studies and broad-brush overviews and comparisons. Geographically, there is something of a KwazuluNatal bias, likely a reflection of Ruth's own professional base and her significant influence on the field of Environmental History as practiced by both professional and amateur historians. This bias gives the book a particularism, even parochialism, that makes it perhaps less attractive to a general and especially a non-South African readership. This is countered somewhat by the inclusion of leading international scholars in Environmental History such as Nancy Jacobs and Ravi Rajan, although neither the international comparisons nor the application to the South African case of theories formulated in other sociohistorical contexts rings entirely true. The strongest chapters are those by Sean Archer on windmills and wire in the Karoo, Lance van Sittert on the invasion of prickly pear in the Eastern Cape, and William Beinart locating South African Environmental History in the African context. Beinart's commentary on South African Environmental History as a whole applies equally to this book: Where are the studies of African people's Environmental knowledge and practices? …
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South Africa'S Environmental History: Cases & Comparisons
2003Co-Authors: William K. Storey, Stephen Dovers, Ruth Edgecombe, Bill GuestAbstract:Environmental History in Southern Africa has, in the late 20th and 21st century, come into its own distinct field of historical enquiry. While natural resources lie at the heart of all Environmental History, the field opens the door to a wide range of inquiries, several of which are pioneered in this collection. This volume offers a series of local and particular studies followed by more general commentary and comparative studies.
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Environmental History and the challenges of interdisciplinarity: an Antipodean perspective
Environment and History, 2003Co-Authors: Eric Pawson, Stephen DoversAbstract:The environment has attracted more 'integrative' or 'interdisciplinary' efforts than any other substantive focus, one of which is the diverse and evolving field of Environmental History. However, the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity, in Environmental History and elsewhere, is unclear and contested ground. In this paper, we explore the nature of interdisciplinary work in Environmental History. Drawing on three brief project narratives from Environmental History, the paper discusses issues and problems, both intellectual and practical, that face those who seek to move across disciplinary boundaries in Environmental History (as most of us do, wittingly or not). We then propose and discuss four 'intersections' that we believe have potential as loci of interdisciplinary engagement: mutual understanding; spatial scale and locale; time and change; and the environment and agency.
