This book offers a critical analysis of core concepts that have influenced contemporary
conversations about environment-society relations in academic political and civil circles.
Considering these conceptualizations are currently shaping responses to environmental crises in
fundamental ways critical reflections on concepts such as the Anthropocene metabolism risk
resilience environmental governance environmental justice and others are well-warranted.
Contributors to this volume working across a multitude of areas within environmental social
science scrutinize underlying worldviews and assumptions asking a common set of key
questions: What are the different concepts able to explain? How do they take into account
society-environment relations? What social cultural or geo-political biases and blinders are
inherent? What actions or practices do the concepts inspire? The transdisciplinary engagement
and reflexivity regarding concepts of environment-society relations represented in these
chapters is needed in all spheres of society-in academia policy and practice-not the least to
confront current tendencies of anti-reflexivity and denialism.
