Sense of place and sense of planet : the environmental imagination of the global / Ursula K. Heise.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heise, Ursula K.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmentalism--United States--History.

Environmentalism.

United States.

History.

Globalization.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 250 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008.

Summary:

In an innovative approach to the connections between environmentalism, cultural difference, and globalization, Sense of Place and Sense of Planet analyzes the complex relationship between the local and the global in environmentalist thought and writing from the 1960s to the present. Ursula Heise critically explores the philosophical foundations and practical consequences of the emphasis on local identities that has characterized modern North American environmentalism up to the turn of the millennium. Connecting the most recent trends in environmentalist and ecocritical thought to contemporary theories of globalization, transnationalism, and cosmopolitanism, she proposes the concept of "eco-cosmopolitanism" as an alternative to environmentally based localisms, and illustrates through analyses of a wide range of texts and artworks what aesthetic shapes this new form of global awareness might take. In a provocative leap, Sense of Place and Sense of Planet expands this eco-cosmopolitan vision by bringing environmentalism and ecocriticism into dialogue with the interdisciplinary field of risk theory. Regional and global risk scenarios create opportunities not only for new kinds of cross-cultural awareness and community, Heise argues, but also for new ways of imagining the planet ecologically, politically, and aesthetically. In-depth interpretations of works ranging from poetry to science fiction and from installation art to nature documentaries-including such authors as John Cage, Don DeLillo, Karen Tei Yamashita, and Christa Wolf-provide an original, comparative perspective on local, national, and global environmental visions that engage both awareness of crisis and hope for a transformed planet.

Contents:

World wide webs : imagining the planet. From the Blue Planet to Google Earth : environmentalism, ecocriticism, and the imagination of the global ; Among the everywheres : global crowds and the networked planet ; Adventures in the global Amazon

Planet at risk. Narrative in the world risk society ; Toxic bodies, corporate poisons : local risks and global systems ; Afterglow : Chernobyl and the everyday ; Some like it hot : climate change and eco-cosmopolitanism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-242) and index.

ISBN:

9780195335644

0195335643

9780195335637

0195335635

OCLC:

176861322

Publisher Number:

9780195335644