The Social Creation of Nature / Edition 1

by Neil Evernden

Overview

One reason for our failure to "save the earth," argues Neil Evernden, is our disagreement about what "nature" really is—how it works, what constitutes a risk to it, and even whether we ourselves are part of it. Nature is as much a social entity as a physical one. In addition to the physical resources to be harnessed and transformed, it consists of a domain of norms that may be called upon in defense of certain social ideals. In exploring the consequences of conventional understandings of nature, The Social Creation of Nature also seeks a way around the limitations of a socially created nature in order to defend what is actually imperiled—"wildness," in which, Thoreau wrote, lies hope for "the preservation of the world."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801845482
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/01/1992
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.46(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Neil Evernden is associate professor of environmental studies at York University, Oantario, Canada. He is the author of The Natural Alien: Humankind and Environment.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements
Part I. The Ambiguity of Nature
Chapter 1. The Social Use of Nature
Chapter 2. Nature and Norm
Part II. The Creation of Nature
Chapter 3. The Purification of Nature
Chapter 4. From nature to Nature
Chapter 5. The Literal Landscape
Chapter 6. The Fragile Division
Part III. The Liberation of Nature
Chapter 7. Nature and Ultrahuman
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography Essay
Index

What People are Saying About This

Max Oelschlaeger

I think The Social Creation of Nature stands Evernden in relation to the present generation roughly as Thoreau stood in relation to New England Transcendentalism.

From the Publisher

I think The Social Creation of Nature stands Evernden in relation to the present generation roughly as Thoreau stood in relation to New England Transcendentalism.
—Max Oelschlaeger, author of The Idea of Wilderness.

Editorial Reviews

Sociobiologists talk about human life as if it were no more than an element of Nature, bound by its iron laws. Neil Evernden makes an end run around them by showing that once upon a time 'Nature' did not exist. Rather, he says, it is a human invention and it has a history.
—Environmental History Review

A thoughtful and illuminating book . . . For Evernden, 'wildness' is what should be defended and preserved.
—New Scientist

From the Publisher

"A thoughtful and illuminating book... For Evernden, 'wildness' is what should be defended and preserved."

New Scientist

Sociobiologists talk about human life as if it were no more than an element of Nature, bound by its iron laws. Neil Evernden makes an end run around them by showing that once upon a time 'Nature' did not exist. Rather, he says, it is a human invention and it has a history.

Environmental History Review

Evernden traces the evolution of the concept of five centuries, with a view to indicating what the impediments to change are and how we might have to think about the human/nature relationship if alternatives are to be fostered. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

A thoughtful and illuminating book . . . For Evernden, 'wildness' is what should be defended and preserved.

New Scientist