1st Edition

Learning, Natural Capital and Sustainable Development Options for an Uncertain World

Edited By John Foster, Stephen Gough Copyright 2005
    144 Pages
    by Routledge

    144 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This special issue of the journal Environmental Education Research addresses a topical area of importance - human behaviour towards the environment. The book explores the economic metaphor of 'natural capital' in this context arguing that the currently dominant model of sustainable development, underpinned by a particular understanding of this metaphor, is impeding progress towards genuine sustainability, and secondly that it will continue to do so until the metaphor can be reworked in both thought and practice.

    This book explores an alternative economic model of natural capital value, based on recent 'real options' thinking which reworks the natural capital idea and provides a framework for articulating two major and closely-related shifts of emphasis.

    Part 1 Introduction; Chapter 1 Learning, natural capital and sustainable development: exploring the connections, John Foster, Stephen Gough; Chapter 2 Uncertainty, environmental policy and social learning, Robin Grove-White; Chapter 3 Making sense of stewardship: metaphorical thinking and the environment, John Foster; Chapter 4 What does ‘natural capital’ do? The role of metaphor in economic understanding of the environment, Maria Åkerman; Chapter 5 Environmental learning, metaphors and natural capital, Derek R. Bell; Chapter 6 Education for Sustainable Development, natural capital and sustainability: Learning to Last, John Blewitt; Chapter 7 Natural capital: hard economics, soft metaphor?, Adrian Winnett; Chapter 8 Rethinking the natural capital metaphor: implications for education and learning, Stephen Gough; Chapter 9 Options, sustainability policy and the spontaneous order, John Foster;

    Biography

    John Foster is a Research Fellow in the Institute for Environment, Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Lancaster.,
    Stephen Gough is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Research in Education and the Environment at the University of Bath.