A Survey of Ecological Economics (Frontier Issues in Economic Thought) (Paperback)

~ Rajaram Krishnan (Editor), Jonathan Harris (Editor), Neva R. Goodwin (Editor) "The history of economic theory is today a neglected field..." (more)
Key Phrases: embodied energy theory, natural evolution path, energetic dogma, Second Law, Third World, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The emergent discipline of ecological economics is based on the idea that the world's economies are a function of the earth's ecosystems - an idea that radically reverses the world view of neoclassical economics. A Survey of Ecological Economics provides the first overview of this new field, and a comprehensive and systematic survey of its critical literature.

The editors of the volume summarize ninety-five seminal articles, selected through an exhaustive survey, that advance the field of ecological economics and represent the best thinking to date in the area. Each two-to three-page summary is far more comprehensive than a typical abstract, and presents both the topics covered in each paper and the most important arguments made about each topic. Sections cover:

• historical perspective
• definition, scope, and interdisciplinary issues
• theoretical frameworks and techniques
• energy and resource flow analysis
• accounting and evaluation
• North-South/international issues
• ethical/social/institutional issues

Each section is preceded by an introductory essay that outlines the current state of knowledge in the field and proposes a research agenda for the future.

Product Details

• Paperback: 423 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559634111
• ISBN-13: 978-1559634113
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,410,216 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Only Summaries, April 17, 2002

By	Brett N. Pasinella (Dover, NH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a wonderful collection of essays and the introductory sections are very informative, however the complete essays are not included, only 2-3 summaries written by the editors. This may not be clear from the information given by Amazon.com.

The essays are the some of the best in the field and the summaries well written. But, the overall usefulness of this book is limited. It may be a good starting point for research; readers will quickly find themselves wanting the full text of some of the essays summarized. It may also be a useful study guide for students who have read many of the complete articles and would like a quick summary that is more complete then a usual journal abstract.

Beyond that, this is not a helpful book. I would recommend Ecological Economics: The Science and Management of Sustainability by Robert Costanza, which contains many of the same articles and other works by many of the same authors.

This book is priced much lower than other collections of essays in Ecological Economics, but considering it does not contain full articles it should probably be even cheaper.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One to have !, April 26, 1999

By A Customer

As a student in environmental economics at masters-level, i must say that this essay collection has come as rain from a blue sky. Essay collections in general is a great thing, and indeed there is a few of reccommendation behind from this one. But two things stands out from this one. Firstly in embraces a vast number of articles which rightly belongs to the "classics" category. And unfortunately such articles are sometimes hard to come by, and a number of the article included in this collection has not, to my knowledge, been published before. Therefore the book is excellent as a reference collection. Furthermore the structure of the book, is made up in such a way, that the articles are printed under a thematic heading. And the editors has managed to provide some excellent introductions to each new subject, which mean that the reader, even though he's not capable of grasping the essence of all the collected essays, at least get a fair idea of the problems involved.

In all, this means this collection, apart from being an important reference book, is providing a very comprehensive way of making essay collections in general. So all five stars are indeed well deserved.

5.0 out of 5 stars Analytical summaries of the best of the literature, November 2, 1998

By	Kenneth Prewitt <[e-mail]> (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

The Frontier Issues in Economic Thought summaries, along with the overview essays, provide a markedly different service from the standard collection of abstracts. The series will benefit not only scholarly work but the application of our best thinking to the problems of the times.

Kenneth Prewit, President, Social Sciences Research Council