Synopses & Reviews
This book introduces readers to the field of international environmental politics (IEP) through authoritative and up-to-date surveys of its major approaches and debates. The book is divided into three parts. The chapters in Part I provide comprehensive and pluralistic reviews stressing the diversity of the field's origins, theories, and methods. The remaining chapters are organized around key research areas and allow readers to become broadly familiar with the theoretical and substantive debates that characterize
the field. In Part II, the authors review the theoretical and empirical trajectories of a given research area - international political economy, gender, knowledge, governance, transnational actors, and security - and present a short original case study to illuminate
the main debates that emerge. Part III reflects on four distinct frameworks for evaluating IEP: effectiveness, transparency, sustainability, and justice. Collectively, the authors demonstrate how the field of IEP has evolved and identify key questions, topics, and approaches to guide future research.
Synopsis
This book provides authoritative and up-to-date research for anyone interested in the study of international environmental politics. It demonstrates how the field of international environmental politics has evolved and identifies key questions, topics and approaches to guide future research.
About the Author
Michele M. Betsill is Professor of Political Science as well as founder and co-leader of the Environmental Governance Working Group at Colorado State University, USA. Her research investigates the multiple ways in which global environmental issues are governed from the global to the local level across the public and private spheres, with particular interest in questions of politics and authority in global climate governance. She is the author (with Harriet Bulkeley) of Cities and Climate Change: Urban Sustainability and Global Environmental Governance (2003) and co-editor (with Elisabeth Corell) of NGO Diplomacy: The Influence of Non-governmental Organizations in International Environmental Negotiations (2008). Current projects focus on the governance and legitimacy of carbon markets, transnational environmental governance, and the governance of low-carbon transitions. She is co-editor of Global Environmental Change and a member of the scientific steering committee of the Earth System Governance network.
Kathryn Hochstetler is CIGI Chair of Governance of the Americas in the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She has published widely on environmental politics and movements in Brazil and other Latin American countries as well as on international environmental negotiations. Her most recent book (with Margaret E. Keck) is the prize-winning Greening Brazil: Environmental Activism in State and Society (2007). Her current research focuses on the role of the emerging powers in global climate negotiations as well as Brazilian and South African initiatives to implement their international commitments at home in the energy sector. Other work examines South-South economic relations in both trade and finance and their implications for environmental outcomes.
Dimitris Stevis is Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University, USA. His research revolves around the social governance of the world political economy in the areas of labor and the environment. He is currently investigating global framework agreements between multinational companies and labor unions as well as the environmental politics of labor unions and the labor politics of environmental organizations. He is also working on a project which examines Colorado's new energy economy within global production networks. His recent publications include (with Terry Boswell) Globalization and Labor: Democratizing Global Governance (2008) and (with Michael Fichter) Global Framework Agreements in a Union-Hostile Environment: The Case of the USA (2013).
Table of Contents
1. General Introduction; Michele Betsill, Kathryn Hochstetler and Dimitris Stevis
PART I: THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS
2. The Trajectory of International Environmental Politics; Dimitris Stevis
3. Theoretical Perspectives on International Environmental Politics; Matthew Paterson
4. Methods in International Environmental Politics; Kathryn Hochstetler and Melinda Laituri
PART II: MAJOR RESEARCH AREAS
5. International Political Economy and the Environment; Jennifer Clapp
6. Gender and International Environmental Politics; Nicole Detraz
7. Knowledge and the Environment; Eva L?vbrand
8. Transnational Actors in International Environmental Politics; Michele Betsill
9. Environmental Security; Larry Swatuk
10. Global Governance and the Environment; Frank Biermann
PART III: FRAMEWORKS FOR EVALUATING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS
11. The Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes; Oran Young
12. Sustainable development: the institutionalization of a contested policy concept; Sander Happaerts and Hans Bruyninckx
13. Environmental and Ecological Justice; Chuks Okereke and Mark Charlesworth
14. Transparency and International Environmental Politics; Aarti Gupta and Michael Mason
15. Conclusion; Michele Betsill, Kathryn Hochstetler and Dimitris Stevis