Governing Environmental Flows ─ Global Challenges to Social Theory

Globalization and the changing role of the nation-state call for new approaches toenvironmental governance and new ways to conceptualize it. Recent developments in sociology--seen inthe work of John Urry, Manuel Castells, and others--show how social theory can be made less static,more fluid, and more directed toward flow and networks in order to encompass today's reality.Governing Environmental Flows explores what such a reformulation means for the environmental socialsciences. Taking the term environmental flows--in both its traditional scientific sense and in anewer social dimension--as its key unit of analysis, the book focuses on the interrelationships ofglobalization, the environment, and the state. The consensus of the contributors is that theconventional nation-state-based approach to environmental policy is in need of revision; the goal ofthe book is to lay the foundations for a set of concepts capable of analyzing environmentalgovernance in global modernity.The first part of the book takes a theoretical perspective on how tointerpret and conceptualize problems of governance and material flows. Case studies follow,examining biodiversity policies, transnational governance of climate-change-related water risks,globalized food production and consumption, "green" urban office buildings owned by globalcorporations, and transport flows in everyday life. Using the flow and network conceptual framework,these case studies illuminate the new dynamics of environmental policymaking in the twenty-firstcentury.

The late Frederick H. Buttel was Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.