Environmentalism and Political Theory: Toward an Ecocentric Approach

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SUNY Press, Jan 1, 1992 - Political Science - 274 pages
This book provides the most detailed and comprehensive examination to date of the impact of environmentalism upon contemporary political thought. It sets out to disentangle the various strands of Green political thought and explain their relationship to the major Western political traditions. Environmentalism and Political Theory represents the consolidation of a new field of political inquiry that is destined to become an increasingly important component of political studies and political reporting worldwide. An interdisciplinary study that builds bridges between environmental philosophy, ecological thought, and political inquiry, this book employs a range of new insights from environmental philosophy to outline a particular Green political perspective.
 

Contents

The Development of Modern Ecopolitical Thought From Participation and Survival to Emancipation
7
The Environmental Problematic As A Crisis Of Participation
8
The Environmental Problematic As A Crisis Of Survival
11
The Environmental Problematic As A Crisis Of Culture And Character And As An Opportunity For Emancipation
17
The Emancipatory Critique Of Conservatism Liberalism And Orthodox Marxism
21
The AnthropocentricEcocentric Cleavage within Emancipatory Thought
26
Exploring the Environmental Spectrum From Anthropocentrism to Ecocentrism
33
Resource Conservation
35
The Egocentric Critique
107
The Good Life Revisited
114
Ecosocialism The PostMarxist Synthesis
117
Farewell to Scientific Socialism and the Economic Growth Consensus
120
The Problematic Role of the Working Class
121
The New Internationalism
123
The Meaning And Lesson Of Ecology According To Ecosocialism
125
The Ecosocialist Agenda
130

Human Welfare Ecology
35
Preservationism
37
Animal Liberation
40
Ecocentrism
43
Ecocentrism Explained and Defended
47
Some Common Criticisms And Misunderstandings
53
Three Varieties Of Ecocentrism
58
Transpersonal Ecology
59
Ecofeminism
61
An Ecocentric Analysis of Green Political Thought
71
The Ecocentric Challenge to Marxism
73
The Theoretical Roots
75
Orthodox EcoMarxism
80
Humanist EcoMarxism
85
Beyond Marxism
92
The Failed Promise of Critical Theory
95
The Legacy of Horkheimer Adorno and Marcuse
98
Habermasian Revisions
104
More Democracy Or More Bureaucracy?
134
An Alternative Green Market Economy
138
Ecoanarchism The NonMarxist Visionaries
143
The Social Ecology of Murray Bookchin
144
Bookchins Social Hierarchy Thesis
146
Bookchins Evolutionary Stewardship Thesis
152
Ecocommunalism
158
Monasticism Revisited
161
Bioregionalism
165
Does Ecocentrism Demand Ecoanarchism?
168
The Other Side of Decentralization Local Democracy and Human Scale
171
The Ecoanarchist Model Of Autonomy As Selfmanagement
174
Conclusion
177
Documentation
185
Bibliography
235
Index
261
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About the author (1992)

Robyn Eckersley is Australian Research Council Fellow, Centre for Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania.

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