Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference

This work focuses on justice. Its purpose is to understand the relation between natural justice, the "rights" of nature and the rights of people and how this in turn relates to social actions and their impact. On the basis of his findings, the author considers whether what is just varies at different times and in different places. The book is thus concerned both with social change and environmental change and with their combined interactions. It explores these subjects at the local scale (with numerous examples, from Baltimore to the Welsh Black Mountains) and at regional, national and global levels. It shows how the tensions between processes operating at different scales express themselves in individuals, communities and societies. The book demonstrates that the just concerns of a community or society need to be understood in the context of both local culture and global economics. It proceeds from the simple to the complex to throw light on and to reformulate the central concepts of nature and environment, needs and justice. The author ranges through perspectives drawn from economics, literature, art, and social, spatial and cultural theory. The book is informed throughout by a concern to establish how justice may be achieved for people wherever they are.

Table of Contents:
Thoughts for a Prologue.Introduction.Part I: Orientations:1. Militant Particularism and Global Ambition.2. Dialectics.3. A Cautionary Tale on Internal Relations.4. The Dialectics of Discourse.5. Historical Agency and the Loci of Social Change.Part II: The Nature of Environment:Prologue.6. The Domination of Nature and its Discontents.7. Valuing Nature.8. The Dialectics of Social and Environmental Change.Part III: Space, Time and Place:Prologue.9. The Social Construction of Space and Time.10. The Currency of Space-Time.11. From Space to Place and Back Again.Part IV: Justice, Difference and Politics:Prologue.12. Class Relations, Social Justice and the Political Geography of Difference.13. The Environment of Justice.14. Possible Urban Worlds.Thoughts for an Epilogue.Bibliography.Index.

About the Author :
David Harvey is Professor of Geography at the Johns Hopkins University. From 1987-1993 he was Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. He received the Outstanding Contributor Award from the American Association of Geographers in 1980; the Anders Retzius Gold Medal from the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography in 1989; the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society and the Vautrin Lud Prize in 1995. His books include The Explanation in Geography (1969); Social Justice and the City (Blackwell, 1973, new edition 1988); The Limits to Capital (Blackwell, 1982); The Urban Experience (Blackwell, 1989) and The Condition of Postmodernity (Blackwell, 1989).

Review :
"As always with Harvey's work, this is a book rich in ideas and dense in argument... It should be widely read and argued over by all of us in the urban and environmental field." P. Healey, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design "This surely is a most important book and one to turn to again and again as David Harvey's work never fails to be challenging." Linda McDowell, University of Cambridge ..". Harvey's writing remains enviably readable and maintains a compelling sense of urgency and purpose." Steve Hinchliffe, Open University ..". this book deserves a very wide readership, even among those who are more practically or even policy oriented. It is a rich and creative text, which confronts some of the biggest social and political questions we face today." Allan Cochrane, The Open University "As a contribution to the development of geographical scholarship in the historical materialist tradition, this is a landmark volume..." David M. Smith, Queen Mary and Westfield College "Clearly, this book is a tour de force ... Its breadth of reference makes almost every page interesting and provocative." Alan M. Hay, The Geographical Journal