Casing the Environment

Abstract

Science and Politics in the International Environment. Edited by Neil E. Harrison, Gary C. Bryner. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004. 320 pp., $75.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-7425-2019-6), $32.95 paper (ISBN: 0-7425-2020-X). The modern edifice of the natural sciences began first with “natural history.” By presenting observations through description, people learned to look for patterns in nature and to ask questions. Only later did theory and methods come along to explain and explore the workings of nature. Science and Politics in the International Environment , edited by Neil Harrison and Gary Bryner, is a kind of natural history of international environmental issues. It contains ten case studies on an array of environmental issues along with brief chapters that explore how existing meso-scale theories like epistemic communities or discursive practices might help interpret the results. Those readers in search of grand theory or new theory will not find them here. For that matter, those scholars who seek carefully constructed comparative case studies will be disappointed. But for those educators who seek a book to use in a wide array of environmental or international relations courses—or in interdisciplinary science, technology, and society classes, this book just might be perfect. The natural history presented in Science and Politics in the International Environment was designed to be used actively with students. Thus, the appendix on using case studies should be read at the beginning of the book, not the end. It was puzzling to see the actual “how to use this book and why” in an appendix rather than as chapter 1. In fact, the first chapter is not particularly useful except as a prompt for philosophical debates about whether international relations has useful theories. The last chapter, “Toward Theory,” would be more helpful, but even it is not well framed nor strongly connected to the cases. The primary value of the book lies in the cases. Each case illustrates how science was or was not used in the creation and evolution of an environmental issue. …