Geography and Environmental Studies: Books

This book argues that legal geography provides new insights into contemporary conservation challenges. Despite unprecedented efforts, we are facing an extinction crisis, and in situ protected area programs are falling short. This book discusses the protected area phenomenon and calls for changes to current approaches, informed by legal geography –an inter-disciplinary area focused on the intertwined people–place–law dynamics that enable, or disable, effective management practices. The book examines two protected area types: World Heritage Sites, where places of ‘outstanding universal value'are protected for all humanity, and Ramsar protected wetland sites, one of the first global environmental protection initiatives. Using case studies from the Australasian region (Australia, the Pacific and Southeast Asia), it reveals how current approaches can be improved by taking into account the people–place–law nexus embedded in legal geography research.

This Handbook offers an insightful and comprehensive overview from a geographic perspective of the numerous and varied technologies that are shaping the contemporary world. It shows how geography and technology are intimately linked by examining the origins, growth, and impacts of 27 different technologies and highlighting how they influence the structure and spatiality of society. Following summaries of important conceptual issues such as diffusion, gender and science studies, the book explores various technologies, which are grouped into six main categories: * Computational: code, location-based services and virtual reality* Communications: fiber optics, satellites, the internet, radio, cell phones and television* Transportation: automobiles, aviation, drones, railroads, and shipping and ports* Energy: biofuels, dams, fracking, geothermal energy, pipelines, solar energy and LEED buildings* Manufacturing: robotics, just-in-time systems and nanotechnology* Life sciences: new technologies of health care, biotechnology and biometrics. Significantly, the book includes in-depth explorations of new technologies that have so far received very little attention from geographers. This much-needed Handbook offers a comprehensive and state-of-the-art summary of the geographies of major technologies and how they affect society, economies, geographies and everyday life. It will appeal to academics and advanced students interested in geography, planning and the social sciences in general.

Companion to Environmental Studies presents a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the key issues, debates, concepts, approaches and questions that together define environmental studies today. The intellectually wide-ranging volume covers approaches in environmental science all the way through to humanistic and post-natural perspectives on the biophysical world. Though many academic disciplines have incorporated studying the environment as part of their curriculum, only in recent years has it become central to the social sciences and humanities rather than mainly the geosciences. 'The environment' is now a keyword in everything from fisheries science to international relations to philosophical ethics to cultural studies. The Companion brings these subject areas, and their distinctive perspectives and contributions, together in one accessible volume. Over 150 short chapters written by leading international experts provide concise, authoritative and easy-to-use summaries of all the major and emerging topics dominating the field, while the seven part introductions situate and provide context for section entries. A gateway to deeper understanding is provided via further reading and links to online resources. Companion to Environmental Studies offers an essential one-stop reference to university students, academics, policy makers and others keenly interested in 'the environmental question', the answer to which will define the coming century.