Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
There is a growing interest--even fear--regarding the migrations and the environment nexus. In the age of climate change, the possibility that dramatic environmental transformations might cause the dislocation of millions of people has become not only a matter for scientific speculations or science-fiction narratives, but the object of strategic plans and military analysis.
This book offers a worldwide perspective on the environmental history of migrations in the modern age (19th and 20th century). People have shaped the land where they have settled, and this is true not only for the age of the geographical discoveries or for the boundless areas of new settlements. The urban space has also been affected by the waves of immigration, and the industrial landscape of risk and exposure has been shaped by immigrants' location in the capitalistic treadmill of production. This collection is not a frontier tale of bold pioneers taming the wilderness; instead, a more humble story about the mutual blending of people and the environment, made of adjustments, failures, conflicts, and hybridity. This book offers an opportunity to reflect on the global ecological transformations occurring in the last few centuries. Focussing on the environment/migration nexus, it allows readers to understand that global environmental changes are not distinct from the global social transformations.
This unique book is of great interest to those researching and studying environmental history and migration studies.
Synopsis
In the age of climate change, the possibility that dramatic environmental transformations might cause the dislocation of millions of people has become not only a matter for scientific speculations or science-fiction narratives, but the object of strategic plans and military analysis.
Environmental History of Modern Migrations offers a worldwide perspective on the history of migrations throughout the 19th and 20th century and provides an opportunity to reflect on the global ecological transformations and developments which have occurred throughout the last few centuries. With a primary focus on the environment/migration nexus, this book advocates that global environmental changes are not distinct from the global social transformations. Instead, it offers a progressive method of combining environmental and social history, which manages to both encompass and transcend current approaches to environmental justice issues.
This edited collection will be of great interest to students and practitioners of environmental history and migration studies as well as those with an interest in history and sociology.