Environmental Decision-Making in Context (ASPA Series in Public Administration and Public Policy) - Hardcover

McGuire, Chad J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1439885753 ISBN 13: 9781439885758

Publisher: Routledge, 2012

Synopsis

Because of the complexity involved in understanding the environment, the choices made about environmental issues are often incomplete. In a perfect world, those who make environmental decisions would be armed with a foundation about the broad range of issues at stake when making such decisions. Offering a simple but comprehensive understanding of the critical roles science, economics, and values play in making informed environmental decisions, Environmental Decision-Making in Context: A Toolbox provides that foundation.

The author highlights a primary set of intellectual tools from different disciplines and places them into an environmental context through the use of case study examples. The case studies are designed to stimulate the analytical reasoning required to employ environmental decision-making and ultimately, help in establishing a framework for pursuing and solving environmental questions, issues, and problems. They create a framework individuals from various backgrounds can use to both identify and analyze environmental issues in the context of everyday environmental problems.

The book strikes a balance between being a tightly bound academic text and a loosely defined set of principles. It takes you beyond the traditional pillars of academic discipline to supply an understanding of the fundamental aspects of what is actually involved in making environmental decisions and building a set of skills for making those decisions.

About this title

From the Author:

This text was written based on my experiences teaching environmental courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in the university setting, as well as my experiences working with professionals in the environmental field.  The book is meant to provide a basic yet comprehensive understanding of how environmental decisions are made.  

One of the difficult aspects of explaining environmental issues is the relatively high level of expertise often required with current texts on the subject.  If a text is looking at the environment from a 'scientific' perspective, then there is often a presumption in those texts that readers have a strong background in the science that is not always true.  In addition, the text often lacks a discussion of the other areas of society that impact environmental decisions outside of science, or otherwise makes assumptions about the reader's understanding of these subjects.  Often this leads to texts on environmental decisions going into great depth on a particular subject area while providing little to no detail in other equally important subject areas.

This text takes a different approach to understanding environmental decisions in a few primary ways.  First, it was written making almost no assumptions about the background knowledge of the reader.  Second, it provides a subject area overview of three primary topic areas that influence environmental decisions, labeled science, economics, and values.  Third, it applies the subject area concepts at the end of the text by offering practical case studies that require the reader to bring together the subject content areas.  

I believe by structuring the text as it is, one is provided with the fundamental tools for making environmental decisions in a basic yet comprehensive manner that offers an excellent addition to existing course materials for academics, or it can provide the basis for an introductory exploration in the subject of environmental issues for both academics and practitioners.  

From the Back Cover:

Because of the complexity involved in understanding the environment, the choices made about environmental issues are often incomplete. In a perfect world, those who make environmental decisions would be armed with a foundation for making decisions about the broad range of issues that are at stake when making such decisions. Offering a simple but comprehensive understanding of the critical roles of science, economics, and values play in making informed environmental decisions, Environmental Decision-Making in Context: A Toolbox provides that foundation.
The author highlights a primary set of intellectual tools from different disciplines and places them into an environmental context through the use of case study examples. The case studies are designed to stimulate the analytical reasoning required to employ environmental decision-making and ultimately help in establishing a framework for pursuing and solving environmental questions, issues, and problems. They create a framework individuals from various backgrounds can use to both identify and analyze environmental issues in the context of everyday environmental problems.
Features

• Presents a tool-based and process focused approach to environmental decision-making
  
• Provides a substantial, holistic, interdisciplinary framework to inform decision-makers from a variety of backgrounds
  
• Focuses on science, economic, and values
  
• Takes a nuts and bolts approach to environmental problem solving
  
• Includes case studies, online problem sets, and instructor materials

The book strikes a balance between being a tightly bound academic text and a loosely defines set of principles. It takes you beyond the traditional pillars of academic discipline to supply an understanding of the fundamental aspects of what is actually involved in making environmental decisions and building a set of skills for making those decisions.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1439885753
• ISBN 13: 9781439885758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218