Abstract
Brendon Larson’s Metaphors for Environmental Sustainability: Redefining our Relationship with Nature is a thought provoking treatment of what can be a challenging and sometimes controversial subject. Primarily, but not exclusively, through four feedback metaphors: progress, competition, barcoding, and meltdown, Larson challenges the dominant scientific discourse, highlighting the limits of a single-lens scientific narrative while emphasizing the value of welcoming ambiguity, and diversity as a means to fruitful discussion and inquiry in addressing the issues surrounding environmental sustainability. Furthermore, rather than fencing ourselves off from nature, Larson demonstrates the importance of breaking down narratives of duality, and seeing ourselves as one with nature, not separate from it, in addressing issues concerning environmental sustainability. This book is valuable not only for its message, but also for how its concepts are presented. Larson presents historical and cultural frameworks to contextualize evolutionary and current environmental sustainability narratives. This book exemplifies phenomenological practices and perceptions, and is a valuable and insightful read for any individual, practitioner, or academic with an interest in environmental sustainability.
Highlights
Brendon Larson’s Metaphors for Environmental Sustainability: Redefining our Relationship with Nature is a thought provoking treatment of what can be a challenging and sometimes controversial subject
Everyone should be concerned with environmental sustainability, yet perspectives about how to ensure environmental sustainability vary according to the individual’s context and prevailing cultural values
Larson presents historical and cultural frameworks to contextualize evolutionary and current narratives. His primary means of presentation is via the feedback metaphor that he defines as “a neologism for scientific metaphors that harbor social values and circulate back into society to bolster those very values” (Larson, 2011, p. 22)
Summary
Brendon Larson’s Metaphors for Environmental Sustainability: Redefining our Relationship with Nature is a thought provoking treatment of what can be a challenging and sometimes controversial subject. Larson presents historical and cultural frameworks to contextualize evolutionary and current narratives His primary means of presentation is via the feedback metaphor that he defines as “a neologism for scientific metaphors that harbor social values and circulate back into society to bolster those very values” Chapters seven and eight focus forward to what we really want in sustainability and how to get there Part of this process is recognizing the social dimensions in environmental science, encouraging plurality of metaphors and facilitating open discussion and debate The depth and scope of the notes and bibliography are remarkable, because they support Larson’s work, and their value in directing potential readers to alternate sources
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