Paths To A Green World: The Political Economy Of The Global Environment

by Jennifer Clapp

This comprehensive and accessible text fills the need for a political economy view of global environmental politics, focusing on the ways key economic processes affect environmental outcomes. It examines the main actors and forces shaping global environmental management, particularly in the developing world. Moving beyond the usual academic emphasis on international agreements and institutions, it strives to integrate debates within the real world of global policy and the academic world of theory. The book maps out an original typology of four contrasting worldviews of environmental change -- those of market liberals, institutionalists, bioenvironmentalists, and social greens -- and uses these as a framework to examine the links between the global political economy and ecological change. This typology not only helps students understand and participate in debates about these worldviews but also provides a common language for students and instructors to discuss the issues across the social sciences. The book covers globalization and its consequences for the environment; the evolution of global discourse and global environmental governance; wealth, poverty, and consumption; the impact on the environment of global trade and trade agreements; transnational corporations and differential environmental standards; and the environmental effects of international financing, including multilateral lending and aid and bilateral and private finance. Brief, illustrative case studies appear throughout the text.

Genres: Environment, Nonfiction, School, Academic

327 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2005

Reviews

[Caroline Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t really think a textbook read for university is the sort of thing one should record on Goodreads but I need some kind of reward for getting through it
It was fine, didn’t blow my mind or anything.

[Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paths to a Green World de Jennifer Clapp y Peter Dauvergne es una gran introducción a los debates de la economía política respecto al ambientalismo y la lucha contra el cambio climatico. El libro hace un recuento de 4 posiciónes aveces encotradas y aveces con cosas en común: los liberales, los institucionalistas, los verdes sociales y los bioambientalistas.

El libro trata las 4 posturas conforme cuenta la historia de algunos de los debates más importantes desde los años 60s hasta Kyoto y la actualidad. Es particularmente interesante en su trato al tema de la construcción de regimenes ambientales, especialmente aquellos que son regimenes de conocimiento y el rol de distintos actores a escala global.

Muy recomendable si se desea entender el tema más alla de las posiciones simplificadas de algunos grupos ambientalistas y de los gobiernos.

[Laura May · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fairly well-written textbook, and an acceptable introductory text to the political economy of the environment (as, I suppose, the title would suggest!). I do prefer textbooks which sound like they're written by real people rather than robots, but on the other hand, the sheer number of unnecessary clauses and conversational devices in this book drove me a bit nuts. Why so many non-defining clauses?!? (And now I know I've been teaching English too long).
I also found the text a little repetitive, despite the fact I read it over a couple of months. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book as a refresher on main ecological viewpoints re the economy.

[Laurie Neighbors]

275400 Good -- but remedial. This would make a nice course book for undergrads, however, in an environmental sociology class.

[Althea]

Can't remember how much I read.