Publisher's Synopsis
Environmental policies, however good the science on which they are based, will ultimately fail unless they are socially just. Nor can social policy makers ignore the major environmental issues of our time - without a healthy environment social problems can only get worse not better. This pioneering book is essential reading for anybody who is interested in the environment or in social policy and is a marvellous resource for those who are teaching courses in this critically important interdisciplinary subject.
Professor John H. Lawton CBE, FRS, NERC Centre for Population Biology
This is a book which breaks new ground, challenging conventionally limited approaches to social policy. It includes all the key environmental changes that have a social impact and discusses them in a cogent and logical fashion. There will be many students who will welcome the bridging of the gap between social and environmental studies in this important and easily accessible text.
Professor Jonathan Bradshaw, University of York
Most people today are aware of the pressing need to deal with both social and environmental problems at local and global levels. However, the intimate links between them are not always recognized. This accessible text demonstrates that, since people's lives are shaped by the environments in which they live, environmental issues have a valid place on the social policy agenda. It focuses on the water, food, housing, domestic energy, transport and leisure needs of modern societies, exploring the ways in which different groups of people meet these needs. The author argues that the use of environmental resources which this entails results in changes that can alter the ability of other groups of people to ensure their present and future well-being. Inequity between social groups, stemming from unequal distribution of resources and influenced by nationality, age, gender and disability, are often perpetuated by the effects of human activities on the environment. The central themes of need and equity, risk and uncertainty, responsibility and economic growth that run throughout this book are crucial to the development of ideas about the sustainability of social and environmental change.
