Discourses of the Environment

This book is the first to provide students with critical understandings of the environment using a range of theoretical perspectives inspired from Michel Foucault. The contributors examine the proliferation of discourses about the environment that have emerged from all areas of society in the past 30 years. The book helps the reader to make sense of the significance of environmental legislation, regulation, institution-building, the growth of environmental movements and eco-warriors, and new environmental practices such as recycling and green consumerism.The book examines issues of current public and academic debate such as the construction of environmental awareness; the role of “knowledge” and “scientific” knowledge in defining legitimate environmental issues; and how and why concerns for the environment translate into new environmental social practices. The international team of contributors draw on a range of theoretical and critical concepts to address the many questions about the environment within the broader debate around modernity and postmodernity.