Contested Natures

Phil Macnaghten - Lancaster University, UK
John Urry - Lancaster University, UK

Series:
Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society

Other Titles in:
Social Theory

March 1998 | 320 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

Demonstrating that all notions of nature are inextricably entangled in different forms of social life, the text elaborates the many ways in which the apparently natural world has been produced from within particular social practices. These are analyzed in terms of different senses, different times and the production of distinct spaces, including the local, the national and the global.

The authors emphasize the importance of cultural understandings of the physical world, highlighting the ways in which these have been routinely misunderstood by academic and policy discourses. They show that popular conceptions of, and attitudes to, nature are often contradictory and that there are no simple ways of prevailing upon people to `save the environment'.

PART ONE: RETHINKING NATURE AND SOCIETY

Introduction

Nature and Society

A Historical Context

A Sociology of Environmental Knowledges

Cultural Readings of Nature

Environmental Bads

Environmentalism and Society

Conclusion

PART TWO: INVENTING NATURE

Introduction

Postwar Reconstruction and Rational Nature

To Nature as Environment

Inventing British Environmentalism

Post-Rio Environmentalism

Conclusion

PART THREE: HUMANS AND NATURE

Introduction

The Polling Culture and the Environment

A Relational Framework

Rhetoric, Identity and Nature

Globalization, Agency and Trust

PART FOUR: SENSING NATURE

Introduction

Nature, Space and Vision

Nature and the Other Senses

Conclusion

PART FIVE: NATURE AND TIME

Introduction

The Social Sciences and Time

Different Times in and of Nature

Memories of Nature

PART SIX: NATURE AS COUNTRYSIDE

INTRODUCTION

Producing Countryside Spaces

Landscapes of Discipline

The Countryside and Ambivalence

Spatial Practices in the Countryside

PART SEVEN: SUSTAINING NATURE

Introduction

Sustainability as New Public Discourse

Sustainability Discourse and Daily Practice

Framing Environmental Concerns

Conclusion

PART EIGHT: GOVERNING NATURE

Summarizing

Mad Cows

Globalizing the Nation

Governing Nature

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