Stewardship and the Future of the Planet: Promise and Paradox

Description

This volume examines historical views of stewardship that have sometimes allowed humans to ravage the earth as well as contemporary and futuristic visions of stewardship that will be necessary to achieve pragmatic progress to save life on earth as we know it. The idea of stewardship – human responsibility to tend the Earth – has been central to human cultures throughout history, as evident in the Judeo-Christian Genesis story of the Garden of Eden and in a diverse range of parallel tales from other traditions around the world. Despite such foundational hortatory stories about preserving the earth on which we live, humanity in the Anthropocene is nevertheless currently destroying the planet with breathtaking speed. Much research on stewardship today – in the disciplines of geography, urban studies, oceans research, and green business practice – offers insights that should help address the ecological challenges facing the planet. Simultaneous scholarship in the humanities and other fields reminds us that the damage done to the planet has often been carried out in the name of tending the land. In order to make progress in environmental stewardship, scholars must speak to each other across the disciplinary boundaries, as they do in this volume. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Contributors Introduction: The Contradictory Inflections of Stewardship Overview of the Volume Human Self-Perception and Misperception Dystopian Visions of Past, Present, and Future Approaches to Contemporary Challenges Envisioning the Future Notes Bibliography Part I: Human Self-Perception and Misperception Chapter 1: Stewardship and Sense of Place: Assumptions and Ideals The Premise Sense of Place Stewardship Sense of Place ≠ Place Attachment Place Attachment ≠ Positive Action Conflicting Place Meanings Lessons and Ideals Notes Bibliography Chapter 2: “I Was Under No Necessity of Seeking My Bread”: Robinson Crusoe and the Stewardship of Resources in Eighteenth-Century England Why People Have Read Robinson Crusoe as an Economic Model Towards a Notion of Christian Stewardship Making Bread The Rise of the Economic Model Notes Bibliography Chapter 3: Stewardship in American Literature: Promise and Paradox in the New World Susan Cooper and the Origins of Stewardship in American Literature Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and the Science of Environmental Stewardship Gary Snyder’s Turtle Island and the Ecopoetics of Stewardship Notes Bibliography Part II: Dystopian Visions of Past, Present, and Future Chapter 4: Monstrous Stewardship and the Plantation in Charles Chesnutt’s “The Goophered Grapevine” Notes Bibliography Chapter 5: Human Stewardship and “Reproductive Futurism” in Dystopian Fiction Precarious Heredity The Stewardship of Heredity Stewardship, the Coercive Placental Economy, and Planetary Futures Notes Bibliography Chapter 6: Climate Change and Apocalyptic Literature: Post-Human Stewardship in Paolo Bacigalupi’s Drowned Cities Trilogy Welcome to the Jungle: The Kudzu and Voodoo of Orleans From Sea to Rising Sea: Washington, DC Cradle of Liberty No More: Seascape Boston and the Hunt for Tool From Revolution to Evolution Notes Bibliography Part III: Approaches to Contemporary Challenges Chapter 7: Political Aspects of Stewardship for Wildlife in the U.S. Origins of Ideas of Protecting Wildlife Do Wildlife Have Agency? The Politics of the Endangered Species Protection at the U.S. Federal Level The Politics of Stewardship at the State Level The Current State of Stewardship in the U.S.: The Trump and Biden administrations Notes Bibliography Chapter 8: The Future of the Seascape and the Humanity of Islanders: Focusing on the Korean Archipelago What Is the Island’s Humanities Topography? What Does Humanities Topography Change? Marine Awareness Natural Environment Identity Science and Technology Knowledge, Boundary, Network: Components of Humanities Topography and Their Function Knowledge: Island, a Museum of Marine Knowledge Boundary: Island on the Boundary Network: Openness, Self-reliance, and Democracy Interdisciplinary Approach for Research Methodology of Island Humanities Topography Common Interests and Collaboration with Other Disciplines Diversity Space Knowledge Islandness Sustainability Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 9: Stewardship of Rangelands in the 21st Century: Managing Complexity from the Margins Desertification Succession Rangelands as Climate Solution Conclusion Notes Bibliography Part IV: Envisioning the Future Chapter 10: Product Stewardship: Ethics and Effectiveness in a Circular Economy Social Meanings of Product Stewardship Extended Producer Responsibility for Waste Product Stewardship as Shared Responsibility Product Stewardship as a Risk Management Tool Product Stewardship as Shared Value Creation Updating Product Stewardship for a Circular Economy Limitations of Product Stewardship in a Circular Economy Addressing Increasing Levels of Consumption and Waste Incentivizing Circular Redesign Supporting Reduction, Repair, or Reuse Driving Innovation at the Ecosystem Level Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 11: An Evolutionary Systems Theoretic Perspective on Global Stewardship Evolutionary Systems Theory Inherited Systems that Have Given Rise to the Challenges of the Anthropocene Urban Systems Technological Systems Political and Economic Systems Global Stewardship Within Our Inherited Systems Notes Bibliography Chapter 12: Stewardship in the Anthropocene: Meanings, Tensions, Futures Stewardship Meanings and Tensions Multiple Stewardships in Policy and Practice Government-Led Landscape Stewardship in South Africa Civic-led Urban Stewardship in Bengaluru (India) and New York (U.S.A.) Corporate-Led Biosphere Stewardship of the World’s Oceans Stewardship as a Boundary Object Concluding Discussion: Stewardship and the Challenges of the Anthropocene Notes Bibliography Index