The Political Economy of Environment and Development in a Globalised World: Exploring the Frontiers: Essays in Honour of Nadarajah Shanmugaratnam

This book is a critical exploration of the theoretical and thematic frontiers of environment and development studies in the context of globalization. The edited volume offers important theoretical interdisciplinary perspectives and insights on the political economy of environment and development. The book explores concepts and theories in relation to sustainable development, social justice, capabilities, freedom, scarcity, progress, post-development and environment, and environmental governance. It offers an exposition of resource appropriation in the emerging global political economy that draws on primary and secondary material from different geographical areas. The main message is that the globalized governance regime led by the socio-economically advanced countries (mainly in the Northern Hemisphere) sets the twin agenda of development and environmental management. This ignores the contradictory nature of the two, as the nature/environment of the developing countries in the South are increasingly available to the North to subsidize development and manage environment in the North. The book also extends this analysis to the globalized nature of peace and development in national states, and it presents experiences from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. The liberal peace-building project located within the globalized regime has contributed to new conflicts over resources and power in the South, as the resource itself is subject to the increasing demands of global, particularly corporate, capital. The book is a festschrift written in honor of Nadarajah Shanmugaratnam, and it draws on his work on the 'contradiction-interdependence dialectic' relation between capital and nature/environment. It is a call to academia, policy makers, and activists to pay serious attention to these contradictions in the theories, policies, and practices of development.