Sustaining Natural Resources in a Changing Environment (Contemporary Issues in Social Science)

Climate change and environmental degradation have intensified the pressures on crucial resources such as food and water security and air quality. In this collection, academic researchers and practitioners who have lived and worked in countries as geographically and culturally diverse as Brazil, China, India, Ghana, Palestine, Uganda and Venezuela draw on their wide-ranging international and inter-sectoral experience to offer valuable comparative insights into the relationship between research and evidence-based policy for sustaining natural resources. Their contributions provide a novel mix of disciplinary perspectives ranging across geography, ecology, social policy, the political economy, philosophy, international development, engineering technology, architecture and urban planning. They examine the institutions involved in generating and mediating evidence about the sustainability of natural resources in a changing environment, and the different methodologies employed in collecting and assessing evidence, informing policy and contributing to governance. The authors demonstrate not only that social science evidence on governance and policy implementation to sustain natural resources must complement natural science inputs, but also that local communities must be an integral part of any programme development.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science.

Linda Hantrais, FAcSS, is Emeritus Professor of European Social Policy at Loughborough University, UK, and Visiting Professor at the LSE Centre for International Studies, UK. Her research interests span international comparative research theory, methods, management and practice, with particular reference to public policy and institutional structures, and the relationship between socio-demographic trends and social policy.

Ruth Kattumuri, FAcSS, is Co-Director of the LSE India Observatory and an Associate at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, UK. She is involved in transdisciplinary evidence-based research, policy influence and advice concerning sustainable growth, inclusion and population development, primarily in the context of the Global South.

Ashley Thomas Lenihan is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Centre for International Studies, UK, and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, USA. Her research focusses on the connection between state power and foreign investment, and the relationship between social science research and the policymaking process.