The ecological crisis is above all a wicked political problem one without a solution. If environment and capitalist economies are to be less at loggerheads, responses have to involve local realities, projects and people. University disciplines dont help the revolutionary knowledge needed for this. In squarely examining an array of destructive political economic forces to be countered, their violent successes and failures -mirrored in development as resistance - this imaginative, interdisciplinary book breaks the mould and gives resolve to writers and the reader alike. What more can we ask of concerned and critical scholars?
- Barbara Harriss-White, Emeritus Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford and Honorary Associate, Oxford Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, UK.
An excellent collection, each drawing from a distinct geographical and ecological setting, engages in conversation with the concept of the Anthropocene and climate change and its associated ideas, ideologies, power and practices based on its rich fieldwork-based empirical data. An apt lesson for researchers on how to engage in the intersection of environmental change, social theory and lived experiences.
- Virginius Xaxa, Former Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, and Former Deputy Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati and a member of the National Advisory Council of the Government of India.
The alarming crisis of climate change has to be seen in the way it intersects with other crises- inequality, deprivation, authoritarianism, short-term profit-making, and others engendered by capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism. And conversely, solutions too will have to be intersectional, going beyond simplistic 'solutions' like renewable energy and carbon trading. This book does a great service by examining and going deep into these links, providing a nuanced view of how to deal with the climate (and related ecological) crises.
- Ashish Kothari, Eminent Indian Environmentalist, founder of Kalpavriksh, Associate Fellow of the Tellus, Research Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and co-author of the book Churning the Earth The Making of Global India.
