Environment and Development: Challenges, Policies and Practices

This book will provide a comprehensive overview of emerging challenges facing different social groups, policy-makers and the international community related to economic growth, social development and environmental change, social inclusion and regional development. The book will undertake a critical assessment of the tensions associated with the failures of mainstream regulatory approaches and impacts of social and economic policies whilst widening the discussion on the interface between the expansion of the socio-environmental demands, equity and justice.
These are crucial challenges, of great importance today and of equal relevance to the Global North and South. The world is increasingly interconnected, with growing rates of production and trade, but also with serious levels of inequality, environmental degradation and mounting socio-ecological risks (for instance, due to climate change, soil erosion, water scarcity, biodiversity loss and social inequality). There are many problems associated with the usual focus on development, economic growth and the adoption of more intensive technologies and globalized markets. One of the main contradictions of development, including the limitations of many examples of supposedly sustainable responses, is the simplification of assessments and narrow consideration of alternatives. Taking those dilemmas as its departure point, the book will examine the justification, the trends and limitations of Western-based development and possible alternatives to fundamentally modify the basis and the rationale of the development process. It will consider theoretical and lived experiences of development, paying attention to multiple scales, local realities and economic frontiers. Contributing authors will explore policy recommendations and discuss effective practical tools for determining the values different people hold for ecosystem services and territorial resources, for monitoring change in the provision of ecosystem services that might increase the well-being of vulnerable groups and strategies to promote innovation and integrated, equitable and sustainable development.

Antonio Ioris' research focuses primarily on the political dimension of the interconnections and interdependencies between society and the rest of nature. Most of his current research is related to social and environmental justice, the multiple obstacles faced by marginalised groups and creative reactions at different geographical scales. The work is intended to have both academic and more-than-academic relevance and is focused on socionatural processes, on the political economy of development and environmental regulation, and on governance and politics.