Conceptual Innovation in Environmental Policy (American and Comparative Environmental Policy)

Concepts and their role in the evolution of modern environmental policy, with case studies of eleven influential concepts ranging from “environment” to “sustainable consumption.”

Concepts are thought categories through which we apprehend the world; they enable, but also constrain, reasoning and debate and serve as building blocks for more elaborate arguments. This book traces the links between conceptual innovation in the environmental sphere and the evolution of environmental policy and discourse. It offers both a broad framework for examining the emergence, evolution, and effects of policy concepts and a detailed analysis of eleven influential environmental concepts.

In recent decades, conceptual evolution has been particularly notable in environmental governance, as new problems have emerged and as environmental issues have increasingly intersected with other areas. “Biodiversity,” for example, was unheard of until the late 1980s; “negative carbon emissions” only came into being over the last few years. After a review of concepts and their use in environmental argument, chapters chart the trajectories of a range of environmental concepts: environment, sustainable development, biodiversity, environmental assessment, critical loads, adaptive management, green economy, environmental risk, environmental security, environmental justice, and sustainable consumption. The book provides a valuable resource for scholars and policy makers and also offers a novel introduction to the environmental policy field through the evolution of its conceptual categories.

Contributors
Richard N. L. Andrews, Karin Bäckstrand, Karen Baehler, Daniel J. Fiorino, Yrjö Haila, Michael E. Kraft, Oluf Langhelle, Judith A. Layzer, James Meadowcroft, Alexis Schulman, Johannes Stripple, Philip J. Vergragt

James Meadowcroft is Professor in the Department of Political Science and in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa.

Daniel J. Fiorino is Director of the Center for Environmental Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University.

James Meadowcroft is Professor in the Department of Political Science and in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa.

Daniel J. Fiorino is Director of the Center for Environmental Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University.

James Meadowcroft is Professor in the Department of Political Science and in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa.

Daniel J. Fiorino is Director of the Center for Environmental Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University.

James Meadowcroft is Professor in the Department of Political Science and in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa.

Michael E. Kraft is Professor of Political Science and Public Affairs Emeritus and Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Environmental Studies Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Wallenberg Research Fellow Department of Political Science Lund University Box 52 SE 221 00 Lund Sweden

Judith A. Layzer is Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. She is the author of Natural Experiments: Ecosystem-Based Management and the Environment (MIT Press) and The Environmental Case: Translating Values into Policy.

Daniel J. Fiorino is Director of the Center for Environmental Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University.

James Meadowcroft is Professor in the Department of Political Science and in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa.

Daniel J. Fiorino is Director of the Center for Environmental Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University.