Frontier Thinking and Human-Nature Relations We Were Never Western

• Main Author: Keskitalo, E. Carina H
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 2024; Taylor & Francis
• Edition: 1
• Series: Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies
• Subjects: Civilisation; Development studies; Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning; Ecology; Environment; Environmental protection > Europe, Northern; Environmental protection > United States; Environmental science, engineering and technology; Environmental sociology > Europe, Northern; Environmental sociology > United States; Frontier; Frontier and pioneer life > Europe, Northern; Frontier and pioneer life > United States; Geography; History; History and Archaeology; History: specific events and topics; Human beings > Effect of environment on > Europe, Northern; Human beings > Effect of environment on > United States; Human Geography; Human-nature; Industrialisation and industrial history; Interdisciplinary studies; Nature; Politics and government; Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects; Regional geography; Rural Development; Scandinavian studies; Social Science; Society and Social Sciences; Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes; Urbanism; Wilderness; Rural Development; Wilderness; Scandinavian studies; Civilisation; Environment; Frontier; Human-nature; Urbanism
• ISBN: 1032738405; 9781032738420; 9781032738406; 1032738421; 1003466206; 9781040099728; 9781003466208; 1040099726; 9781040099711; 1040099718
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003466208

Combining historical, social and regulative analysis, this book builds a compelling critique of ‘frontier thinking’ as it continues to form our assumptions about social and environmental organisation – in ways that impact not least the present environmental crisis. This book systematically identifies the ways in which images of nature and society are formed by the historically developed frontier-oriented narratives which have underpinned much Anglo-American and Anglocentric thought. The book confronts these conceptions at large, showing that they never held empirically, and contrasts them with the situation in northern Europe, where diverging assumptions are integral to this day. Through this juxtaposition, this book illustrates not only the pervasiveness of structures of understanding in steering policy but also the varying traditions regarding how understandings of the environment can be formed. This study highlights how historical thought patterns, formed for very different reasons than exist today, continue to shape our assumptions about nature, the relation between urban and rural areas and our understanding of ourselves in relation to the environment. This book will be of wide interest to a range of academics and students in the fields of geography, anthropology, environmental studies, sociology, political science and development studies, amongst others.