Routledge Environmental Politics and Governance in the Anthropocene: Institutions and legitimacy in a complex world (Routledge Research in Global Environmental Governance)

The term Anthropocene denotes a new geological epoch characterized by the unprecedented impact of human activities on the Earth’s ecosystems. While the natural sciences have advanced their understanding of the drivers and processes of global change considerably over the last two decades, the social sciences lag behind in addressing the fundamental challenge of governance and politics in the Anthropocene. This book attempts to close this crucial research gap, in particular with regards to the following three overarching research themes: (i) the meaning, sense-making and contestations emerging around the concept of the Anthropocene related to the social sciences; (ii) the role and relevance of institutions, both formal and informal as well as international and transnational, for governing in the Anthropocene; and (iii) the role and relevance of accountability and other democratic principles for governing in the Anthropocene. Drawing together a range of key thinkers in the field, this volume provides one of the first authoritative assessments of global environmental politics and governance in the Anthropocene, reflecting on how the planetary scale crisis changes the ways in which humans respond to the challenge. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of global environmental politics and governance, and sustainable development. Review "I think the book ‘Environmental Politics and Governance in the Anthropocene’, edited by Philipp Pattberg and Fariborz Zelli, is an important scholarly contribution in the field of governance studies, namely for those engaged in global environmental governance issues, but also for urban and regional planners and policy makers in the broad field of urban and regional governance." Carlos Nunes Silva, Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal,International Journal of E-Planning Research,Volume 6 • Issue 2 • April-June 2017 About the Author Philipp Pattberg is Professor of Transnational Environmental Governance at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Fariborz Zelli is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at Lund University, Sweden.