Whose Common Future

by The Ecologist

Book Overview

The authors show how environmental degradation goes hand-in-hand with the history of the enclosure of the local commons, a process which has fragmented and dispossessed communities from medieval Britain to present-day Brazil and New York. The policies put forward at the Earth Summit in Rio, they argue, will simply continue the process with new and more intrusive forms of enclosure. The only way to understand the process is to see it in terms of power - where that lies, how it is exercised, by whom and for whose benefit. Far better, the book makes clear, for environmentalists to support local movements attempting to defend the commons against the encroachments of multinationals, international agencies and national governments. Local communities do not need outside management, but control over their own land, forests, water and air.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1853831492
• ISBN13: 9781853831492
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Earthscan Publications
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Re-localize now!

As global warming becomes a household word and something the mainstream is waking up to, Whose Common Future provides a remarkable and useful explanation of the world's accelerating environmental crisis. The authors trace the crisis to the usurpation of locally- managed resources such as streams, forests, street space and even radio wavelengths, by state governments and big business. The destruction of local communities to remove their power to conserve local resources, the authors asset, is the true tragedy of the commons.