The SAGE Handbook of Nature offers an ambitious retrospective and prospective overview of the field that aims to position Nature, the environment and natural processes, at the heart of interdisciplinary social sciences. The three volumes are divided into the following parts: INTRODUCTION TO THE HANDBOOK NATURAL AND SOCIO-NATURAL VULNERABILITIES: INTERWEAVING THE NATURAL & SOCIAL SCIENCES SPACING NATURES: SUSTAINABLE PLACE MAKING AND ADAPTATION COUPLED AND (DE-COUPLED) SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS RISK AND THE ENVIRONMENT: SOCIAL THEORIES, PUBLIC UNDERSTANDINGS, & THE SCIENCE-POLICY INTERFACE HUNGRY AND THIRSTY CITIES AND THEIR REGIONS CRITICAL CONSUMERISM AND ITS MANUFACTURED NATURES GENDERED NATURES AND ECO-FEMINISM REPRODUCTIVE NATURES: PLANTS, ANIMALS AND PEOPLE NATURE, CLASS AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY BIO-SENSITIVITY & THE ECOLOGIES OF HEALTH THE RESOURCE NEXUS AND ITS RELEVANCE SUSTAINABLE URBAN COMMUNITIES RURAL NATURES AND THEIR CO-PRODUCTION This handbook is a key critical research resource for researchers and practitioners across the social sciences and their contributions to related disciplines associated with the fast developing interdisciplinary field of sustainability science.

"A monumental and timely contribution to scholarship on society and environments. The handbook makes it easy and compelling for anyone to learn about that scholarship in its full manifestations and as represented by some of the most highly respected researchers and thinkers in the English-speaking world. It is wide-reaching in scope and far-reaching in its implications for public and private action, a definite must for serious researchers and their libraries." - Bonnie J McCay, Rutgers University "This is the desert island book for anyone interested in the relationship between society and the environment. The editors have assembled a masterful collection of contributions on every conceivable dimension of environmental thinking in the social sciences and humanities. No library should be without it!′ - Robyn Eckersley, University of Melbourne The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society focuses on the interactions between people, societies and economies, and the state of nature and the environment. Editorially integrated but written from multi-disciplinary perspectives, it is organised in seven sections: Environmental thought: past and present Valuing the environment Knowledges and knowing Political economy of environmental change Environmental technologies Redesigning natures Institutions and policies for influencing the environment Key themes include: locations where the environment-society relation is most acute: where, for example, there are few natural resources or where industrialization is unregulated; the discussion of these issues at different scales: local, regional, national, and global; the cost of damage to resources; and the relation between principal actors in the environment-society nexus. Aimed at an international audience of academics, research students, researchers, practitioners and policy makers, The SAGE Handbook of Environment and Society presents readers in social science and natural science with a manual of the past, present and future of environment-society links.

There has been a growing academic interest in the role of outdoor spaces for play in a child′s development. This text represents a coordinated and comprehensive volume of international research on this subject edited by members of the well-established European Early Childhood Education Research Association Outdoor Play and Learning SIG (OPAL). Chapters written by authors from Europe, North and South America, Australasia and Asia Pacific countries are organised into six sections: Theoretical Frameworks and Conceptual Approaches for Understanding Outdoor Play & Learning Critical Reflections on Policy and Regulation in Outdoor Play & Learning Children′s Engagement with Nature, Sustainability and Children′s Geographies Diverse Contexts and Inclusion in Children′s Outdoor Play Environments Methodologies for Researching Outdoor Play and Learning Links Between Research and Practice

A superb resource for understanding the diversity of the modern discipline of biogeography, and its history and future, especially within geography departments. I expect to refer to it often. - Professor Sally Horn, University of Tennessee "As you browse through this fine book you will be struck by the diverse topics that biogeographers investigate and the many research methods they use.... Biogeography is interdisciplinary, and a commonly-voiced concern is that one biogeographer may not readily understand another′s research findings. A handbook like this is important for synthesising, situating, explaining and evaluating a large literature, and pointing the reader to informative publications." - Geographical Research "A valuable contribution in both a research and teaching context. If you are biologically trained, it provides an extensive look into the geographical tradition of biogeography, covering some topics that may be less familiar to those with an evolution/ecology background. Alternatively, if you are a geography student, researcher, or lecturer, it will provide a useful reference and will be invaluable to the non-biogeographer who suddenly has the teaching of an introductory biogeography course thrust upon them." - Adam C. Algar, Frontiers of Biogeography The SAGE Handbook of Biogeography is a manual for scoping the past, present and future of biogeography that enable readers to consider, where relevant, how similar biogeographical issues are tackled by researchers in different ′schools′. In line with the concept of all SAGE Handbooks, this is a retrospective and prospective overview of biogeography that will: Consider the main areas of biogeography researched by geographers Detail a global perspective by incorporating the work of different schools of biogeographers Ecplore the divergent evolution of biogeography as a discipline and consider how this diversity can be harnessed Examine the interdisciplinary debates that biogeographers are contributing to within geography and the biological sciences. Aimed at an international audience of research students, academics, researchers and practitioners in biogeography, the text will attract interest from environmental scientists, ecologists, biologists and geographers alike.

Historical geography is an active, theoretically-informed and vibrant field of scholarly work within modern geography, with strong and constantly evolving connections with disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. Across two volumes, The SAGE Handbook of Historical Geography provides you with an an international and cross-disciplinary overview of the field, presenting chapters that examine the history, present condition and future potential of the discipline in relation to recent developments and research.

Broad in scope and edited by two massive names in geography, this is a critical exploration of how the field has emerged and fared over the course of its modern institutionalization.

The SAGE Handbook of Political Science presents a major retrospective and prospective overview of the discipline. Comprising three volumes of contributions from expert authors from around the world, the handbook aims to frame, assess and synthesize research in the field, helping to define and identify its current and future developments. It does so from a truly global and cross-area perspective Chapters cover a broad range of aspects, from providing a general introduction to exploring important subfields within the discipline. Each chapter is designed to provide a state-of-the-art and comprehensive overview of the topic by incorporating cross-cutting global, interdisciplinary, and, where this applies, gender perspectives. The Handbook is arranged over seven core thematic sections: Part 1: Political Theory Part 2: Methods Part 3: Political Sociology Part 4: Comparative Politics Part 5: Public Policies and Administration Part 6: International Relations Part 7: Major Challenges for Politics and Political Science in the 21st Century

It is refreshing to see a book such as this which is both broad in its conceptualization of the field of child research and deep in its focus. The volume′s editors are paragons of awareness when it comes to the need for interdisciplinary research and theory to illuminate the lives and experience of children. - James Garbarino, Loyola University Chicago "Covers a satisfying and unprecedentedly wide range of research relating to childhood. The contributors include many eminent international scholars of childhood, making the book a valuable resource for child researchers. Child advocates will also find the book to be invaluable in their efforts to improve children’s well-being, and to change policies and practices for the better." - Anne Smith, University of Otago "A really scintillating collection that will provide a lasting perspective on child studies - stimulating and comprehensive!" - Jonathan Bradshaw, University of York In keeping with global changes in children′s social and legal status, this Handbook includes examination of children as family members, friends, learners, consumers, people of faith, and participants in law and politics. The contributors also discuss the methodological and ethical requirements for research that occurs in natural settings and that enables children themselves to describe their perspective. The book is divided into three parts: Part I: Setting-Specific Issues in Child Research Part II: Population-Specific Issues in Child Research Part III: Methods in Research on Children and Childhood

"Offers an intense scholarly experience in its comprehensiveness, its variety of voices and its formal organization... the editors took a risk, experimented and have delivered a much-needed resource that upends the status-quo." - Architectural Histories, journal of the European Architectural History Network "Architectural theory interweaves interdisciplinary understandings with different practices, intentions and ways of knowing. This handbook provides a lucid and comprehensive introduction to this challenging and shifting terrain, and will be of great interest to students, academics and practitioners alike." - Professor Iain Borden, UCL Bartlett School of Architecture "In this collection, architectural theory expands outward to interact with adjacent discourses such as sustainability, conservation, spatial practices, virtual technologies, and more. We have in The Handbook of Architectural Theory an example of the extreme generosity of architectural theory. It is a volume that designers and scholars of many stripes will welcome." - K. Michael Hays, Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory, Harvard University The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory documents and builds upon the most innovative developments in architectural theory over the last two decades. Bringing into dialogue a range of geographically, institutionally and historically competing positions, it examines and explores parallel debates in related fields. The book is divided into eight sections: Power/Difference/Embodiment Aesthetics/Pleasure/Excess Nation/World/Spectacle History/Memory/Tradition Design/Production/Practice Science/Technology/Virtuality Nature/Ecology/Sustainability City/Metropolis/Territory. Creating openings for future lines of inquiry and establishing the basis for new directions for education, research and practice, the book is organized around specific case studies to provide a critical, interpretive and speculative enquiry into the relevant debates in architectural theory.

Are there certain periods in a child′s development when he or she may be more sensitive to specific environmental influences than at earlier or later times? Are preschool teachers equally nurturant to securely attached versus insecurely attached children? Are girls more sensitive than boys to parental maltreatment? Designed to synthesize what we know about the nature of environmental influences (nurture) upon development, Wachs artfully explores whether development depends upon a sole factor--the rearing environment, genetics, nutrition, or individual characteristics-- or, whether the degree of directional consistency combined with the extent of covariance among these factors may have the most developmental impact. Issues such as how individuals respond differently to stress, medical treatment, parenting styles, teaching approaches and daycare centers are all discussed through careful analysis of research and theories from a variety of fields. Researchers, teachers, and intervention specialists of developmental psychology, family studies, social psychology, education, and nursing will find The Nature of Nurture an inspiration to further examine how environmental systems determine variability in developmental outcomes and what can be done to promote optimal outcomes for individual children. USE IN NEXT AD (2/1/94): "In The Nature of Nurture Wachs does precisely what he intends to do. He lays out clearly and thoroughly what we know and do not know about environmental influences on human development, and he builds on the conceptual and empirical work of others to move research on environmental effects forward in productive and exciting ways. . . . [It] should serve as a bible for future research on the environment and development. As such, it is a must read for developmental psychologists from all specialty areas, to graduate students, and to upper level undergraduates. This is an eminently readable and important book." --Contemporary Psychology "The Nature of Nurture provides a thorough and thoughtful review and analysis of state-of-the-art theory, concepts, and evidence pertaining to the effect of the environment on human development. Especially important is the attention the author pays to the multidimensional nature of the environment, to individual differences among children, and to the need to consider both of these domains of complexity for understanding the development of specific aspects of psychological and behavioral functioning." --Jay Belsky, The Pennsylvania State University "The Nature of Nurture provides extended treatments of issues rarely dealt with in detail, including organism-environment covariance and organism-environment interaction. All in all, this is an excellent choice for those interested in studying complex, dynamic interplay of organism and environment. It deals with a number of critical design and theory issues; and it ends with a hybrid ecological developmental model designed to integrate studies of experience and offers a useful discussion of future trends in an emerging area of developmental studies." --Child Development Abstracts & Bibliography