Understanding Human-Nature Practices for Environmental Management : Examples from Northern Europe

Abstract

Nature has often been understood in literature through a disjunction to human systems. This can be seen in the nature-culture binary, or even more clearly in the opposition of ‘wilderness’ to ‘civilization’. Drawing on historical and present-day examples and case studies from Northern Europe, this book critically examines the ways in which the use of such dichotomies can be transcended to respond to sustainability challenges. Using illustrative examples, the authors demonstrate how shared histories and development of land use continue to impact multiple practices today. The book explores the prerequisites for environmental management approaches that counterpose the nature-culture binaries that are present in existing governance mechanisms. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental management, environmental law and policy and environmental anthropology.