Environmental Winds Making the Global in Southwest China [Hardcover]

Environmental Windschallenges the notion that globalized social formations emerged solely in the Global North prior to impacting the Global South. Instead, such formations have been constituted, transformed, and propelled through diverse, site-specific social interactions that complicate and defy divisions between 'global' and 'local.' The book brings the reader into the lives of Chinese scientists, officials, villagers, and expatriate conservationists who were caught up in environmental trends over the past 25 years. Hathaway reveals how global environmentalism has been enacted and altered in China, often with unanticipated effects, such as the rise of indigenous rights, or the reconfiguration of human/animal relationships, fostering what rural villagers refer to as the revenge of wild elephants.

Michael J. Hathaway is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

Environmental Windsis a highly original and valuable contribution to international scholarly discussions of how global social movements work. By conceptualizing such movements as winds , Hathaway offers a new way of looking at globalization that is illuminating not only for China but worldwide. Vanessa Fong, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Amherst College

Hathaway's concept of winds to study changing political fashions in China, and beyond, is inspired. The book is a bright flare in the topic of political ecology that, after a decade and a half of brilliant insights, had begun to lose its edge. This is a promising approach that could revitalize the whole field. Anna Tsing, author ofFriction: An Ethnography of Global Connection

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

Chapter One: Environmental Winds
Chapter Two: Fleeting Intersections and Transnational Work
Chapter Three: The Art of Engagement
Chapter Four: Making an IndilÔ