Europe remains divided between east and west, with differences caused and worsened by uneven economic and political development. Amid these divisions, the environment has become a key battleground. The condition and sustainability of environmental resources are interlinked with systems of governance and power, from local to EU levels. Key challenges in the eastern European region today include increasingly authoritarian forms of government that threaten the operations and very existence of civil society groups; the importation of locally-contested conservation and environmental programmes that were designed elsewhere; and a resurgence in cultural nationalism that prescribes and normalises exclusionary nation-building myths. This volume draws together essays by early-career academic researchers from across eastern Europe. Engaging with the critical tools of political ecology, its contributors provide a hitherto overlooked perspective on the current fate and reception of ‘environmentalism’ in the region. It asks how emergent forms of environmentalism have been received, how these movements and perspectives have redefined landscapes, and what the subtler effects of new regulatory regimes on communities and environment-dependent livelihoods have been. Arranged in three sections, with case studies from Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Serbia, this collection develops anthropological views on the processes and consequences of the politicisation of the environment. It is valuable reading for human geographers, social and cultural historians, political ecologists, social movement and government scholars, political scientists, and specialists on Europe and European Union politics.
Politics and the Environment in Eastern Europe is a wonderful volume that makes an excellent set of unique contributions to the political ecology and political anthropology of Eastern European environmentalism, environmental policy and the post-socialist transition. In fact, there is no other project like it as far as I am aware of, and the collection of engaging and critical chapters will surely be a sought-after resource for the present and future scholarship of the region. The project is timely and significant and will help to push theory and ethnography forward into new and fresh areas of inquiry.
Edward Snajdr
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
This is an important book that addresses the environment of a neglected region undergoing socialist as well as capitalist upheavals. The history of the region is complex, and this collection will prove useful to specialists and scholars of Eastern Europe at all levels. It will also attract adult general readers with related interests.
J. P. Davis
CHOICE Connects, vol. 59, no. 7, 2022.
Contributors
Eszter Krasznai Kovacs
Eszter Krasznai Kovacs and György Pataki
Arnošt Novák
Mikulás Černìk
Jana Hrckova
Balsa Lubarda
Alexandra Coțofană
Imola Püsök
George Iordăchescu
June Brawner
Renata Blumberg
Jovana Dikovic
Éva Mihalovics and Zsüli Fehér
Eszter Krasznai Kovacs, György Pataki, Arnošt Novák, Mikulás Černìk, Jana Hrckova, Balsa Lubarda, Alexandra Coțofană, Imola Püsök, George Iordăchescu, June Brawner, Renata Blumberg, Jovana Dikovic, Éva Mihalovics and Zsüli Fehér
Index