Politics and the Environment in Eastern Europe

doi:10.11647/obp.0244

Politics and the Environment in Eastern Europe - cover image

DOI

https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0244

License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright

Eszter Krasznai Kovacs

Published On

2021-07-28

ISBN

Paperback978-1-80064-132-7

Hardback978-1-80064-133-4

PDF978-1-80064-134-1

HTML978-1-80064-644-5

XML978-1-80064-137-2

EPUB978-1-80064-135-8

MOBI978-1-80064-136-5

Language

English

Print Length

342 pages (xii+330)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 24 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.93" x 9.21")

Hardback156 x 27 x 234 mm(6.14" x 1.06" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback1433g (50.55oz)

Hardback1827g (64.45oz)

Media

Illustrations27

OCLC Number

1262131675

LCCN

2020447490

BIC

RNKC
RNKH
RND

BISAC

NAT010000
NAT011000
SCI026000

LCC

DJK51

Keywords

East Europe
West Europe
Environment
Political ecology
Environmentalism

Politics and the Environment in Eastern Europe

Eszter Krasznai Kovacs (editor)

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.

Endorsements

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

Reviews

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.