Cycling and Recycling Histories of Sustainable Practices [Hardcover]

Technology has long been an essential consideration in public discussions of the environment, with the focus overwhelmingly on creating new tools and techniques. In more recent years, however, activists, researchers, and policymakers have increasingly turned to mobilizing older technologies in their pursuit of sustainability. In fascinating case studies ranging from the Early Modern secondhand trade to utopian visions of human-powered vehicles, the contributions gathered here explore the historical fortunes of two such technologiesbicycling and waste recyclingtracing their development over time and providing valuable context for the policy successes and failures of today.

The reviewer freely admits to have learned many interesting and fascinating facts about Cycling and Recycling in very different country contexts. In addition, most of the contributions have been written in such a way as to be so comprehensible and jargon-free as to make them accessible also to readers beyond the narrow circle of specialists, which appears particularly important for an interdisciplinary field such as environmental history. In addition, the collection reveals, beyond the semantic bracket of the title, a thematic stringency that one can only wish for in the cases of many available syntheses bound together.? H-Soz-Kult

This books conceptual framework is truly innovative and makes a much-needed intervention in the vast literature on sustainability. Writing against the techno-fix mentality that dominates so many contemporary environmental discourses, the editors persuasively argue for the need to resurrect older technologies for a new purpose.? Edward D. Melillo, Amherst College

PART I: INTRODUCTION

Introduction:How Old l3d