Contested Natures

Demonstrating that all notions of nature are entangled in different forms of social life, the text elaborates the ways in which the apparently natural world has been produced from within particular social practices. These are analyzed in terms of different senses, different times and the production of distinct spaces.

Demonstrating that all notions of nature are inextricably entangled in different forms of social life, the text elaborates the many ways in which the apparently natural world has been produced from within particular social practices. These are analyzed in terms of different senses, different times and the production of distinct spaces, including the local, the national and the global.

The authors emphasize the importance of cultural understandings of the physical world, highlighting the ways in which these have been routinely misunderstood by academic and policy discourses. They show that popular conceptions of, and attitudes to, nature are often contradictory and that there are no simple ways of prevailing upon people to `save the environment′.

PART ONE: RETHINKING NATURE AND SOCIETY
Introduction
Nature and Society
A Historical Context
A Sociology of Environmental Knowledges
Cultural Readings of Nature
Environmental Bads
Environmentalism and Society
Conclusion
PART TWO: INVENTING NATURE
Introduction
Postwar Reconstruction and Rational Nature
To Nature as Environment
Inventing British Environmentalism
Post-Rio Environmentalism
Conclusion
PART THREE: HUMANS AND NATURE
Introduction
The Polling Culture and the Environment
A Relational Framework
Rhetoric, Identity and Nature
Globalization, Agency and Trust
PART FOUR: SENSING NATURE
Introduction
Nature, Space and Vision
Nature and the Other Senses
Conclusion
PART FIVE: NATURE AND TIME
Introduction
The Social Sciences and Time
Different Times in and of Nature
Memories of Nature
PART SIX: NATURE AS COUNTRYSIDE
INTRODUCTION
Producing Countryside Spaces
Landscapes of Discipline
The Countryside and Ambivalence
Spatial Practices in the Countryside
PART SEVEN: SUSTAINING NATURE
Introduction
Sustainability as New Public Discourse
Sustainability Discourse and Daily Practice
Framing Environmental Concerns
Conclusion
PART EIGHT: GOVERNING NATURE
Summarizing
Mad Cows
Globalizing the Nation
Governing Nature