Wu Jun-Jie, Paul Barkley, and Bruce A. Weber (eds.). 2008. Frontiers in Resource and Rural Economics: Human-Nature, Rural-Urban Interdependencies. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 266 pp., $85.00 (cloth), $41.95 (paperback).

Abstract

Jun-Jie Wu, Paul Barkley, and Bruce A. Weber (eds.). 2008. Frontiers in Resource and Rural Economics: Human-Nature, Rural-Urban Interdependencies. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, 266 pp., $85.00 (cloth), $41.95 (paperback). Many frontier collections are accessible only a select group of specialist researchers and academics. Rarely are such works accessible policymakers and ordinary citizens. The edited volume reviewed here-Frontiers in Resource and Rural Economics-is unique in its accessibility a wide field of economists, social scientists, policymakers, and educated citizens with interests in examining the interdependencies among human and ecological systems, and urban and rural settlements. The editors of this volume conceive it as an effort to push back the frontiers of our knowledge about resource and rural economics by exploring the interdependencies between natural resource management and rural development as well as between rural and urban communities (p. vii). Seen both as a celebration of Emery Castle's outstanding contributions resource and rural economics and as an opportunity advance social science research and policy design, the symposium on which this volume is largely based brought together leading scholars in disparate fields consider the past, present, and future of resource and rural economics. The final product is an edited volume of fourteen chapters divided into four parts. Used lay the groundwork for the volume, the initial chapter is, appropriately, co-authored by Emery Castle. In addition summarizing the content of the volume, Castle and David Ervin highlight five priority subjects that are, and will continue be, of primary import in the continued development of rural and resource economics. It is useful highlight these topics, as they arise frequently in alternative forms throughout this collection. First is the need develop tools, methods, and concepts account for, and explain, the interactions between economic and ecological systems. Both systems are dynamic and complex. Nevertheless, the tendency treat these systems as stand alone systems is no longer useful, as the interactions between the ecological system and the economic system have been found be so diverse and substantive that employing a ceteris paribus assumption, on either system, is likely untenable. Second, Castle and his co-author highlight the need integrate social, economic, and political science into the investigation of the interactions between humans and nature and between rural, urban, and fringe settlements. A singular disciplinary perspective, it is argued, is likely fail in providing the rich conceptual apparatus needed investigate the challenging interactions and paradoxes at the heart of rural and resource economics. The volume itself reflects this priority in bringing together leading experts in a variety of fields tackle the issues at hand. A third priority relates intermediate decision making and the importance of local and regional agency. The fourth priority concerns the potential conflict between efficiency and in the design of land use policy. To incorporate sustainability, the concept of efficiency may need be modified as core sustainability issues, like intergenerational equity, are not central efficiency- based policy analysis. Finally, from Castle and Ervin's perspective, a fifth priority must focus on how best make decisions under uncertainty where irreversibility holds and potential threshold effects may lead catastrophic ecological outcomes. Part I of the volume contains two chapters focused on the past 50 years of resource and rural economics. This section's initial chapter by Daniel Bromley offers a condensed history of environmental and natural resource economics. This contribution is valuable for its clarity and in directing scholars the seminal works shaping the evolution of environmental and natural resource economics. …