Managing the Unknown: Essays on Environmental Ignorance

·
· Environment in History: International Perspectives Book 3 · Berghahn Books
Ebook
208
Pages
Tools
Eligible

About this ebook

Information is crucial when it comes to the management of resources. But what if knowledge is incomplete, or biased, or otherwise deficient? How did people define patterns of proper use in the absence of cognitive certainty? Discussing this challenge for a diverse set of resources from fish to rubber, these essays show that deficient knowledge is a far more pervasive challenge in resource history than conventional readings suggest. Furthermore, environmental ignorance does not inevitably shrink with the march of scientific progress: these essays suggest more of a dialectical relationship between knowledge and ignorance that has different shapes and trajectories. With its combination of empirical case studies and theoretical reflection, the essays make a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary debate on the production and resilience of ignorance. At the same time, this volume combines insights from different continents as well as the seas in between and thus sketches outlines of an emerging global resource history.
Information is crucial when it comes to the management of resources. But what if knowledge is incomplete, or biased, or otherwise deficient? How did people define patterns of proper use in the absence of cognitive certainty? Discussing this challenge for a diverse set of resources from fish to ru...

Discover more

About the author

Frank Uekötter is Reader at the School of History and Cultures of the University of Birmingham. His publications include The Age of Smoke. Environmental Policy in Germany and the United States, 1880-1970 (2009), The Green and the Brown. A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany (2006) and, as editor, The Turning Points of Environmental History (2010). He is currently working on a global resource history.

Frank Uekötter is Reader at the School of History and Cultures of the University of Birmingham. His publications include The Age of Smoke. Environmental Policy in Germany and the United States, 1880-1970 (2009), The Green and the Brown. A History of Conservation in Nazi Germany (2006) and, as edi...

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.