Author: Andrew Müller
Publisher: Galda Verlag
ISBN: 3962032045
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Are insects the food of the future, alleviating world hunger and ecological issues? In this book, based on extensive field research in Laos and Thailand, the author suggests otherwise. He describes local transformations in ‘entomophagy’ and explores differences between South East Asian and Western food cultures before presenting a deconstruction of the widespread ‘insect solution narrative’. Empirical observations are discussed mainly in the light of the World-Ecology approach, seeing the exploitation of humans and nature as inextricably intertwined. The main argument targets the commodification of edible insects and related resources, denoted by the central concept of the ‘entomophagy frontier’. Unfolded along the lines of the distinction between wild-collected and farmed insects, it holds that the emerging entomophagy industry tends to reinforce the problems it addresses by ignoring their structural causes: social inequality, systemic unsustainability and ultimately the insatiability of capitalism.
Insects as Food for Capitalism
Author: Andrew Müller
Publisher: Galda Verlag
ISBN: 3962032045
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Are insects the food of the future, alleviating world hunger and ecological issues? In this book, based on extensive field research in Laos and Thailand, the author suggests otherwise. He describes local transformations in ‘entomophagy’ and explores differences between South East Asian and Western food cultures before presenting a deconstruction of the widespread ‘insect solution narrative’. Empirical observations are discussed mainly in the light of the World-Ecology approach, seeing the exploitation of humans and nature as inextricably intertwined. The main argument targets the commodification of edible insects and related resources, denoted by the central concept of the ‘entomophagy frontier’. Unfolded along the lines of the distinction between wild-collected and farmed insects, it holds that the emerging entomophagy industry tends to reinforce the problems it addresses by ignoring their structural causes: social inequality, systemic unsustainability and ultimately the insatiability of capitalism.
Publisher: Galda Verlag
ISBN: 3962032045
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Are insects the food of the future, alleviating world hunger and ecological issues? In this book, based on extensive field research in Laos and Thailand, the author suggests otherwise. He describes local transformations in ‘entomophagy’ and explores differences between South East Asian and Western food cultures before presenting a deconstruction of the widespread ‘insect solution narrative’. Empirical observations are discussed mainly in the light of the World-Ecology approach, seeing the exploitation of humans and nature as inextricably intertwined. The main argument targets the commodification of edible insects and related resources, denoted by the central concept of the ‘entomophagy frontier’. Unfolded along the lines of the distinction between wild-collected and farmed insects, it holds that the emerging entomophagy industry tends to reinforce the problems it addresses by ignoring their structural causes: social inequality, systemic unsustainability and ultimately the insatiability of capitalism.
The Omega Principle
Author: Paul Greenberg
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698183460
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
By the bestselling author of Four Fish and American Catch, an eye-opening investigation of the history, science, and business behind omega-3 fatty acids, the "miracle compound" whose story is intertwined with human health and the future of our planet Omega-3 fatty acids have long been celebrated by doctors and dieticians as key to a healthy heart and a sharper brain. In the last few decades, that promise has been encapsulated in one of America's most popular dietary supplements. Omega-3s are today a multi-billion dollar business, and sales are still growing apace--even as recent medical studies caution that the promise of omega-3s may not be what it first appeared. But a closer look at the omega-3 sensation reveals something much deeper and more troubling. The miracle pill is only the latest product of the reduction industry, a vast, global endeavor that over the last century has boiled down trillions of pounds of marine life into animal feed, fertilizer, margarine, and dietary supplements. The creatures that are the victims of that industry seem insignificant to the untrained eye, but turn out to be essential to the survival of whales, penguins, and fish of all kinds, including many that we love to eat. Behind these tiny molecules is a big story: of the push-and-pull of science and business; of the fate of our oceans in a human-dominated age; of the explosion of land food at the expense of healthier and more sustainable seafood; of the human quest for health and long life at all costs. James Beard Award-winning author Paul Greenberg probes the rich and surprising history of omega-3s--from the dawn of complex life, when these compounds were first formed; to human prehistory, when the discovery of seafood may have produced major cognitive leaps for our species; and on to the modern era, when omega-3s may point the way to a bold new direction for our food system. With wit and boundless curiosity, Greenberg brings us along on his travels--from Peru to Antarctica, from the Canary Islands to the Amalfi Coast--to reveal firsthand the practice and repercussions of our unbalanced way of eating. Rigorously reported and winningly told, The Omega Principle is a powerful argument for a more deliberate and forward-thinking relationship to the food we eat and the oceans that sustain us.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698183460
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
By the bestselling author of Four Fish and American Catch, an eye-opening investigation of the history, science, and business behind omega-3 fatty acids, the "miracle compound" whose story is intertwined with human health and the future of our planet Omega-3 fatty acids have long been celebrated by doctors and dieticians as key to a healthy heart and a sharper brain. In the last few decades, that promise has been encapsulated in one of America's most popular dietary supplements. Omega-3s are today a multi-billion dollar business, and sales are still growing apace--even as recent medical studies caution that the promise of omega-3s may not be what it first appeared. But a closer look at the omega-3 sensation reveals something much deeper and more troubling. The miracle pill is only the latest product of the reduction industry, a vast, global endeavor that over the last century has boiled down trillions of pounds of marine life into animal feed, fertilizer, margarine, and dietary supplements. The creatures that are the victims of that industry seem insignificant to the untrained eye, but turn out to be essential to the survival of whales, penguins, and fish of all kinds, including many that we love to eat. Behind these tiny molecules is a big story: of the push-and-pull of science and business; of the fate of our oceans in a human-dominated age; of the explosion of land food at the expense of healthier and more sustainable seafood; of the human quest for health and long life at all costs. James Beard Award-winning author Paul Greenberg probes the rich and surprising history of omega-3s--from the dawn of complex life, when these compounds were first formed; to human prehistory, when the discovery of seafood may have produced major cognitive leaps for our species; and on to the modern era, when omega-3s may point the way to a bold new direction for our food system. With wit and boundless curiosity, Greenberg brings us along on his travels--from Peru to Antarctica, from the Canary Islands to the Amalfi Coast--to reveal firsthand the practice and repercussions of our unbalanced way of eating. Rigorously reported and winningly told, The Omega Principle is a powerful argument for a more deliberate and forward-thinking relationship to the food we eat and the oceans that sustain us.
Canned
Author: Anna Zeide
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520964756
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Book Description
2019 James Beard Foundation Book Award winner: Reference, History, and Scholarship A century and a half ago, when the food industry was first taking root, few consumers trusted packaged foods. Americans had just begun to shift away from eating foods that they grew themselves or purchased from neighbors. With the advent of canning, consumers were introduced to foods produced by unknown hands and packed in corrodible metal that seemed to defy the laws of nature by resisting decay. Since that unpromising beginning, the American food supply has undergone a revolution, moving away from a system based on fresh, locally grown goods to one dominated by packaged foods. How did this come to be? How did we learn to trust that food preserved within an opaque can was safe and desirable to eat? Anna Zeide reveals the answers through the story of the canning industry, taking us on a journey to understand how food industry leaders leveraged the powers of science, marketing, and politics to win over a reluctant public, even as consumers resisted at every turn.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520964756
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Book Description
2019 James Beard Foundation Book Award winner: Reference, History, and Scholarship A century and a half ago, when the food industry was first taking root, few consumers trusted packaged foods. Americans had just begun to shift away from eating foods that they grew themselves or purchased from neighbors. With the advent of canning, consumers were introduced to foods produced by unknown hands and packed in corrodible metal that seemed to defy the laws of nature by resisting decay. Since that unpromising beginning, the American food supply has undergone a revolution, moving away from a system based on fresh, locally grown goods to one dominated by packaged foods. How did this come to be? How did we learn to trust that food preserved within an opaque can was safe and desirable to eat? Anna Zeide reveals the answers through the story of the canning industry, taking us on a journey to understand how food industry leaders leveraged the powers of science, marketing, and politics to win over a reluctant public, even as consumers resisted at every turn.
Coffeeland
Author: Augustine Sedgewick
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143110748
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice “Extremely wide-ranging and well researched . . . In a tradition of protest literature rooted more in William Blake than in Marx.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker The epic story of how coffee connected and divided the modern world Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. But few coffee drinkers know this story. It centers on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of Manchester, England, founded one of the world’s great coffee dynasties at the turn of the twentieth century. Adapting the innovations of the Industrial Revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history—a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality, and violence. In the process, both El Salvador and the United States earned the nickname “Coffeeland,” but for starkly different reasons, and with consequences that reach into the present. Provoking a reconsideration of what it means to be connected to faraway people and places, Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143110748
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450
Book Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice “Extremely wide-ranging and well researched . . . In a tradition of protest literature rooted more in William Blake than in Marx.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker The epic story of how coffee connected and divided the modern world Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world. But few coffee drinkers know this story. It centers on the volcanic highlands of El Salvador, where James Hill, born in the slums of Manchester, England, founded one of the world’s great coffee dynasties at the turn of the twentieth century. Adapting the innovations of the Industrial Revolution to plantation agriculture, Hill helped turn El Salvador into perhaps the most intensive monoculture in modern history—a place of extraordinary productivity, inequality, and violence. In the process, both El Salvador and the United States earned the nickname “Coffeeland,” but for starkly different reasons, and with consequences that reach into the present. Provoking a reconsideration of what it means to be connected to faraway people and places, Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism.
Routledge Handbook of Food as a Commons
Author: Jose Luis Vivero-Pol
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351665510
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 571
Book Description
From the scientific and industrial revolution to the present day, food – an essential element of life – has been progressively transformed into a private, transnational, mono-dimensional commodity of mass consumption for a global market. But over the last decade there has been an increased recognition that this can be challenged and reconceptualized if food is regarded and enacted as a commons. This Handbook provides the first comprehensive review and synthesis of knowledge and new thinking on how food and food systems can be thought, interpreted and practiced around the old/new paradigms of commons and commoning. The overall aim is to investigate the multiple constraints that occur within and sustain the dominant food and nutrition regime and to explore how it can change when different elements of the current food systems are explored and re-imagined from a commons perspective. Chapters do not define the notion of commons but engage with different schools of thought: the economic approach, based on rivalry and excludability; the political approach, recognizing the plurality of social constructions and incorporating epistemologies from the South; the legal approach that describes three types of proprietary regimes (private, public and collective) and different layers of entitlement (bundles of rights); and the radical-activist approach that considers the commons as the most subversive, coherent and history-rooted alternative to the dominant neoliberal narrative. These schools have different and rather diverging epistemologies, vocabularies, ideological stances and policy proposals to deal with the construction of food systems, their governance, the distributive implications and the socio-ecological impact on Nature and Society. The book sparks the debate on food as a commons between and within disciplines, with particular attention to spaces of resistance (food sovereignty, de-growth, open knowledge, transition town, occupations, bottom-up social innovations) and organizational scales (local food, national policies, South–South collaborations, international governance and multi-national agreements). Overall, it shows the consequences of a shift to the alternative paradigm of food as a commons in terms of food, the planet and living beings.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351665510
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 571
Book Description
From the scientific and industrial revolution to the present day, food – an essential element of life – has been progressively transformed into a private, transnational, mono-dimensional commodity of mass consumption for a global market. But over the last decade there has been an increased recognition that this can be challenged and reconceptualized if food is regarded and enacted as a commons. This Handbook provides the first comprehensive review and synthesis of knowledge and new thinking on how food and food systems can be thought, interpreted and practiced around the old/new paradigms of commons and commoning. The overall aim is to investigate the multiple constraints that occur within and sustain the dominant food and nutrition regime and to explore how it can change when different elements of the current food systems are explored and re-imagined from a commons perspective. Chapters do not define the notion of commons but engage with different schools of thought: the economic approach, based on rivalry and excludability; the political approach, recognizing the plurality of social constructions and incorporating epistemologies from the South; the legal approach that describes three types of proprietary regimes (private, public and collective) and different layers of entitlement (bundles of rights); and the radical-activist approach that considers the commons as the most subversive, coherent and history-rooted alternative to the dominant neoliberal narrative. These schools have different and rather diverging epistemologies, vocabularies, ideological stances and policy proposals to deal with the construction of food systems, their governance, the distributive implications and the socio-ecological impact on Nature and Society. The book sparks the debate on food as a commons between and within disciplines, with particular attention to spaces of resistance (food sovereignty, de-growth, open knowledge, transition town, occupations, bottom-up social innovations) and organizational scales (local food, national policies, South–South collaborations, international governance and multi-national agreements). Overall, it shows the consequences of a shift to the alternative paradigm of food as a commons in terms of food, the planet and living beings.
The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup
Author: Mitchel Cohen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1510735143
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
“We are being poisoned, and this book is sounding a well-informed alarm. Read it. Get educated and then join the thousands rising up against those who care more for profit than the health of our bodies and our earth.”–Eve Ensler, New York Times bestselling author Chemical poisons have infiltrated all facets of our lives – housing, agriculture, work places, sidewalks, subways, schools, parks, even the air we breathe. More than half a century since Rachel Carson issued Silent Spring – her call-to-arms against the poisoning of our drinking water, food, animals, air, and the natural environment – The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup takes a fresh look at the politics underlying the mass use of pesticides and the challenges people around the world are making against the purveyors of poison and the governments that enable them. The scientists and activists contributing to The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup, edited by long-time Green activist Mitchel Cohen, explore not only the dangers of glyphosate – better known as “Roundup” – but the campaign resulting in glyphosate being declared as a probable cancer-causing agent. In an age where banned pesticides are simply replaced with newer and more deadly ones, and where corporations such as Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and DuPont scuttle attempts to regulate the products they manufacture, what is the effective, practical, and philosophical framework for banning glyphosate and other pesticides? The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides takes lessons from activists who have come before and offers a radical approach that is essential for defending life on this planet and creating for our kids, and for ourselves, a future worth living in.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1510735143
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
“We are being poisoned, and this book is sounding a well-informed alarm. Read it. Get educated and then join the thousands rising up against those who care more for profit than the health of our bodies and our earth.”–Eve Ensler, New York Times bestselling author Chemical poisons have infiltrated all facets of our lives – housing, agriculture, work places, sidewalks, subways, schools, parks, even the air we breathe. More than half a century since Rachel Carson issued Silent Spring – her call-to-arms against the poisoning of our drinking water, food, animals, air, and the natural environment – The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup takes a fresh look at the politics underlying the mass use of pesticides and the challenges people around the world are making against the purveyors of poison and the governments that enable them. The scientists and activists contributing to The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup, edited by long-time Green activist Mitchel Cohen, explore not only the dangers of glyphosate – better known as “Roundup” – but the campaign resulting in glyphosate being declared as a probable cancer-causing agent. In an age where banned pesticides are simply replaced with newer and more deadly ones, and where corporations such as Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and DuPont scuttle attempts to regulate the products they manufacture, what is the effective, practical, and philosophical framework for banning glyphosate and other pesticides? The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides takes lessons from activists who have come before and offers a radical approach that is essential for defending life on this planet and creating for our kids, and for ourselves, a future worth living in.
Edible Insects Processing for Food and Feed
Author: Simona Grasso
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000864065
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
Consumers around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the significant impacts of food consumption on the environment, and demand for more sustainable foods is expanding rapidly. Edible Insects Processing for Food and Feed: From Startups to Mass Production focuses on the growing topic of insects as food and feed, covering not only production elements, but also case studies and several other areas of interest, such as environmental aspects, nutritional value, consumers, food safety and market statistics. Key Features: Includes several case studies and latest advancements in the area Contains multidisciplinary approach, covering farm-to-fork aspects Contains full account of contemporary developments in mass production of edible insects Written by passionate leading academics and industry partners around the globe, this book aims to bring together the latest advancements in edible insect production in a dynamic, modern and multidisciplinary approach. It is a one-stop shop that will give readers a flavour of where the fascinating topic of edible insect production is now, but more importantly of where it might be heading to in the future, showcasing several related challenges and opportunities.
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000864065
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
Consumers around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the significant impacts of food consumption on the environment, and demand for more sustainable foods is expanding rapidly. Edible Insects Processing for Food and Feed: From Startups to Mass Production focuses on the growing topic of insects as food and feed, covering not only production elements, but also case studies and several other areas of interest, such as environmental aspects, nutritional value, consumers, food safety and market statistics. Key Features: Includes several case studies and latest advancements in the area Contains multidisciplinary approach, covering farm-to-fork aspects Contains full account of contemporary developments in mass production of edible insects Written by passionate leading academics and industry partners around the globe, this book aims to bring together the latest advancements in edible insect production in a dynamic, modern and multidisciplinary approach. It is a one-stop shop that will give readers a flavour of where the fascinating topic of edible insect production is now, but more importantly of where it might be heading to in the future, showcasing several related challenges and opportunities.
Food Policy for Developing Countries
Author: Per Pinstrup-Andersen
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801463432
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 425
Book Description
Despite technological advances in agriculture, nearly a billion people around the world still suffer from hunger and poor nutrition while a billion are overweight or obese. This imbalance highlights the need not only to focus on food production but also to implement successful food policies. In this new textbook intended to be used with the three volumes of Case Studies in Food Policy for Developing Countries (also from Cornell), the 2001 World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen and his colleague Derrill D. Watson II analyze international food policies and discuss how such policies can and must address the many complex challenges that lie ahead in view of continued poverty, globalization, climate change, food price volatility, natural resource degradation, demographic and dietary transitions, and increasing interests in local and organic food production. Food Policy for Developing Countries offers a "social entrepreneurship" approach to food policy analysis. Calling on a wide variety of disciplines including economics, nutrition, sociology, anthropology, environmental science, medicine, and geography, the authors show how all elements in the food system function together.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801463432
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 425
Book Description
Despite technological advances in agriculture, nearly a billion people around the world still suffer from hunger and poor nutrition while a billion are overweight or obese. This imbalance highlights the need not only to focus on food production but also to implement successful food policies. In this new textbook intended to be used with the three volumes of Case Studies in Food Policy for Developing Countries (also from Cornell), the 2001 World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen and his colleague Derrill D. Watson II analyze international food policies and discuss how such policies can and must address the many complex challenges that lie ahead in view of continued poverty, globalization, climate change, food price volatility, natural resource degradation, demographic and dietary transitions, and increasing interests in local and organic food production. Food Policy for Developing Countries offers a "social entrepreneurship" approach to food policy analysis. Calling on a wide variety of disciplines including economics, nutrition, sociology, anthropology, environmental science, medicine, and geography, the authors show how all elements in the food system function together.
Insects and Human Life
Author: Brian Morris
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000189813
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
This pioneering book looks at the importance of insects to culture. While in the developed West a good deal of time and money may be spent trying to exterminate insects, in other cultures human-insect relations can be far more subtle and multi-faceted. Like animals, insects may be revered or reviled - and in some tribal communities insects may be the only source of food available. How people respond to, make use of, and relate to insects speaks volumes about their culture. In an effort to get to the bottom of our vexed relationship with the insect world, Brian Morris spent years in Malawi, a country where insects proliferate and people contend. In Malawi as in many tropical regions, insects have a profound impact on agriculture, the household, disease and medicine, and hence on oral literature, music, art, folklore, recreation and religion. Much of the complexity of human-insect relations rests on paradox: insects may represent the source of contagion, but they are also integral to many folk remedies for a wide range of illnesses. They may be at the root of catastrophic crop failure, but they can also be a form of sustenance.Weaving science with personal observations, Morris demonstrates a profound and intimate knowledge of virtually every aspect of human-insect relations. Not only is this book extraordinarily useful in terms of the more practical side of entomology, it also provides a wealth of information on the role of insects in cultural production. Malawian proverbs alone provide many such delightful examples - 'Bemberezi adziwa nyumba yake' ('The carpenter bee knows his own home'). This final volume in Morris' trilogy on Malawi's animal and insect worlds is certain to become a classic study of uncharted territory - the insect world that surrounds us and how we relate to it. Praise for The Power of Animals:Although based upon examination of a single culture, Morris incorporates ecological and anthropological concepts that expand this study of
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000189813
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
This pioneering book looks at the importance of insects to culture. While in the developed West a good deal of time and money may be spent trying to exterminate insects, in other cultures human-insect relations can be far more subtle and multi-faceted. Like animals, insects may be revered or reviled - and in some tribal communities insects may be the only source of food available. How people respond to, make use of, and relate to insects speaks volumes about their culture. In an effort to get to the bottom of our vexed relationship with the insect world, Brian Morris spent years in Malawi, a country where insects proliferate and people contend. In Malawi as in many tropical regions, insects have a profound impact on agriculture, the household, disease and medicine, and hence on oral literature, music, art, folklore, recreation and religion. Much of the complexity of human-insect relations rests on paradox: insects may represent the source of contagion, but they are also integral to many folk remedies for a wide range of illnesses. They may be at the root of catastrophic crop failure, but they can also be a form of sustenance.Weaving science with personal observations, Morris demonstrates a profound and intimate knowledge of virtually every aspect of human-insect relations. Not only is this book extraordinarily useful in terms of the more practical side of entomology, it also provides a wealth of information on the role of insects in cultural production. Malawian proverbs alone provide many such delightful examples - 'Bemberezi adziwa nyumba yake' ('The carpenter bee knows his own home'). This final volume in Morris' trilogy on Malawi's animal and insect worlds is certain to become a classic study of uncharted territory - the insect world that surrounds us and how we relate to it. Praise for The Power of Animals:Although based upon examination of a single culture, Morris incorporates ecological and anthropological concepts that expand this study of
Building Development Studies for the New Millennium
Author: Isa Baud
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030040526
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
This book brings together multiple critical assessments of the current state and future visions of global development studies. It examines how the field engages with new paradigms and narratives, methodologies and scientific impact, and perspectives from the Global South. The authors focus on social and democratic transformation, inclusive development and global environmental issues, and implications for research practices. Leading academics provide an excellent overview of recent insights for post-graduate students and scholars in these research areas.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030040526
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
This book brings together multiple critical assessments of the current state and future visions of global development studies. It examines how the field engages with new paradigms and narratives, methodologies and scientific impact, and perspectives from the Global South. The authors focus on social and democratic transformation, inclusive development and global environmental issues, and implications for research practices. Leading academics provide an excellent overview of recent insights for post-graduate students and scholars in these research areas.