http://cgj.sagepub.com/Cultural Geographies

http://cgj.sagepub.com/content/9/1/114.citationThe online version of this article can be found at:

 DOI: 10.1177/147447400200900110

2002 9: 114Cultural GeographiesSally Eden

Book Review: Thinking through the environment: a reader  

Published by:

http://www.sagepublications.com

can be found at:Cultural GeographiesAdditional services and information for    

  http://cgj.sagepub.com/cgi/alertsEmail Alerts:

 

http://cgj.sagepub.com/subscriptionsSubscriptions:  

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints:  

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions:  

What is This? 

- Jan 1, 2002Version of Record >>

at OhioLink on August 10, 2014cgj.sagepub.comDownloaded from at OhioLink on August 10, 2014cgj.sagepub.comDownloaded from

satisfying cutting edge, however, I was drawn to the last, and largest (17 chapters),section of the book called ‘Bodies at work’. This takes us from the politics ofrepresentation to those aspects of performance that promise a nonrepresentationalapproach to appreciating the way the world works. A lot of this section is devoted todiscussions about dance, though it didn’t really help me get to grips with the fact thatdiscussing dance is not as effective in conveying key ideas as dancing dance (which ofcourse a book can’t do . . .).

This book has something about everything. This means that it has some valuableinsights, some trivia, some irrelevances, some non sequiturs, some visionary ideas.Disentangling one from another is not always easy, and even then, it is not going toprovide any neat answers to social scientists’ questions about the worlds of art andperformance. But for that rainy afternoon or patch of writer’s block, it is a worthwhileand entertaining read.

University of Edinburgh SUSAN J. SMITH

Thinking through the environment: a reader. Edited by M.J. Smith. London:Routledge. 1999. xii + 436 pp. £18.99 paper. ISBN 0 415 21172 7.

This hefty reader was designed as a course text for an Open University master’s in socialscience, with the specific remit of providing materials on ‘Ecology, Justice, Citizenship’.This remit more accurately describes both the focus and the structure of the book thanthe more general title because Smith concentrates on readings that review and contrastphilosophical and ethical theories relating to the environment, especially to the threequestions of intragenerational, animal and natural rights. In consequence, these threequestions form the heart of the book, as Sections 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Sections 5 and6 additionally cover what we might think of as more explicitly political theories of howindividualism (especially within liberalism and capitalism), socialism and feminism relateto environmentalism. The opening and concluding sections are more loosely themedwith Section 1 appearing vaguely historical, including medieval views of animals and themore modern development of pollution, and Section 7 more future oriented, includingcurrently fashionable analyses of risk society, ecological modernization and politicalrepresentation under green democracy.

Overall, the text is carefully edited and well produced. Many of the extracts chosen bySmith are familiar, even overfamiliar, but some are less frequently cited outside politicalscience or philosophy. The usual suspects are well represented: Rachel Carson, GarrettHardin, Peter Singer, John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, Aldo Leopold, Vandana Shiva and ArneNaess amongst others. But as well as reproducing original work by such authors, Smithalso mixes in extracts from textbooks that review them. For example, whilst MurrayBookchin is not extracted, explanations and critiques of his writings by Robyn Eckersley,Tim Hayward and Carolyn Merchant are. Similarly, Ulrich Beck is not extracted but dealtwith by David Goldblatt and Andrew Blowers. In addition, a few newly commissionedpieces from Open University contributors add to the volume. I liked many things about

Book reviews

114 at OhioLink on August 10, 2014cgj.sagepub.comDownloaded from

this collection, especially those sections that contraposed different points of view, suchas extracts dealing with animal rights. There are missing from the reader many aspectsof environmental thought that could be included, such as religion, ecological economicsand especially environmental politics with its explorations of green parties andenvironmental ‘movements’. As with so many texts, the title promises more breadth thanit can possibly deliver, but the book’s more realistic focus on considering ecologicaljustice and citizenship is effectively realized through the judicious use of enlighteningand provoking readings.

I still have two problems with this book: one serious and one less so. To start withthe latter, I wonder how easily a reader new to these debates could make coherent sensefrom the host of authors, given that the sectional introductions provided by Smith arecursory and provide précis only. What about commenting upon the cultural significanceof particular authors, the amount of commentary that they stimulated in their time andsince, and why they have proved so influential (or contentious) in environmentalthought? No doubt these connections are made through discussion and other materialswithin the Open University’s course, but as a stand-alone text the book makes the readerdo too much of the editor’s work (or do without the insights that could aidinterpretation). Individual extracts were presumably chosen for very different reasons,which the editor should explain. Rachel Carson for example is vastly different in style tothe others and thus justification must clarify her iconic status, whereas other extractsmight be justified on grounds of sheer elegance, Keith Thomas being the most frequentexample. Inevitably, word length will restrict the amount of introductory material, but alittle more help for the reader would be an advantage.

More seriously, though, I was surprised to find the book so heavily anchored in Anglo-American environmental thought. Despite the breadth of its title, despite recent debatesover the relationships between the environment and global trade, indigenous protestand resistance, international security, cultural relativism and North-South negotiations,Thinking through the environment encourages the reader to think in ways informedpredominantly by post-1960s Anglo-American academics, a characteristic sadly reinforcedin Smith’s introductory chapter. In a textbook of this length and quality, I expected agreater crosscultural richness and diversity. Maybe this simply did not fit the remit of thecourse and therefore of the book, but it should, given that Smith says his aim is toprovide ‘a guide to the different ways that thinking through the environment has beenconstructed (p. xi). There are more ways than are dreamt of here.

University of Hull SALLY EDEN

Poststructuralist geographies: the diabolical art of spatial science. By M. Doel.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1999. vi + 230 pp. £14.99 paper. ISBN 0 74861243 2.

Practitioners who draw upon poststructuralism are generally regarded with somesuspicion and scepticism within the so-called mainstream of human geography. They deal

Book reviews

115 at OhioLink on August 10, 2014cgj.sagepub.comDownloaded from