We are living beyond our means, running up debts both economic and ecological, consuming the planet's resources at rates not remotely sustainable. But it's hard to imagine a different way. How can we live without cheap goods and easy credit? How can we consume without consuming the systems that support life? How can we live well and live within our means? In Treading Softly, Thomas Princen helps us imagine an alternative. We need, he says, a new normal, an ecological order that is actually economical with resources, that embraces limits, that sees sustainable living not as a "lifestyle" but as a long-term connection to fresh, free-flowing water, fertile soil, and healthy food. 
The goal would be to live well by living well within the capacities of our resources. Princen doesn't offer a quick fix -- there's no list of easy ways to save the planet to hang on the refrigerator. He gives us instead a positive, realistic sense of the possible, with an abundance of examples, concepts, and tools for imagining, then realizing, how to live within our biophysical means.

Treading Softly: Paths to Ecological Order

Business & Money

Princen, Thomas

Economics

Mit Pr

What if modern society put a priority on the material security of its citizens and the ecological integrity of its resource base? What if it took ecological constraint as a given, not a hindrance but a source of long-term economic security? How would it organize itself, structure its industry, shape its consumption?Across time and across cultures, people actually have adapted to ecological constraint. They have changed behavior; they have built institutions. And they have developed norms and principles for their time. Today's environmental challenges -- at once global, technological, and commercial -- require new behaviors, new institutions, and new principles.In this highly original work, Thomas Princen builds one such principle: sufficiency. Sufficiency is not about denial, not about sacrifice or doing without. Rather, when resource depletion and overconsumption are real, sufficiency is about doing well. It is about good work and good governance; it is about goods that are good only to a point.With examples ranging from timbering and fishing to automobility and meat production, Princen shows that sufficiency is perfectly sensible and yet absolutely contrary to modern society's dominant principle, efficiency. He argues that seeking enough when more is possible is both intuitive and rational -- personally, organizationally and ecologically rational. And under global ecological constraint, it is ethical. Over the long term, an economy -- indeed a society -- cannot operate as if there's never enough and never too much.

The Logic of Sufficiency

How to imagine and then realize an ecological order based on living within our biophysical means.

MIT Press]

What if modern society put a priority on the material security of its citizens and the ecological integrity of its resource base? What if it took ecological constraint as a given, not a hindrance but a source of long-term economic security? How would it organize itself, structure its industry, shape its consumption?
Across time and across cultures, people actually have adapted to ecological constraint. They have changed behavior; they have built institutions. And they have developed norms and principles for their time. Today's environmental challenges―at once global, technological, and commercial―require new behaviors, new institutions, and new principles.
In this highly original work, Thomas Princen builds one such principle: sufficiency. Sufficiency is not about denial, not about sacrifice or doing without. Rather, when resource depletion and overconsumption are real, sufficiency is about doing well. It is about good work and good governance; it is about goods that are good only to a point.
With examples ranging from timbering and fishing to automobility and meat production, Princen shows that sufficiency is perfectly sensible and yet absolutely contrary to modern society's dominant principle, efficiency. He argues that seeking enough when more is possible is both intuitive and rational―personally, organizationally and ecologically rational. And under global ecological constraint, it is ethical. Over the long term, an economy―indeed a society―cannot operate as if there's never enough and never too much.

The Logic of Sufficiency (Mit Press)

At a time when states are reactive, at best, to the global ecological crisis and when economic globalization seems to be significantly contributing to the acceleration of that crisis, environmental non-governmental orgainisations (NGOs) are proliferating. This book explains the key role of NGOs in an emerging world environmental politics, showing how NGOs act both as independent bargainers and as agents of social learning, to link biophysical conditions to the political realm at both the local and global levels.Throught the use of case studies the authors reveal the richness and diversity of NGO activity and the dificulty of the choices facing decision-makers in their attempts to protect the environment, seek new forms of governance and foster social environmental learning. The book generates questions that are central, not only to an understanding of NGO relations, but to the study of international environmental politics.Environmental NOGs in World Politics will be of great interest to upper level student sand scholars of both environmental politics and international relations. It will also appeal to environmental-policy professionals.

Environmental NGOs in World Politics: Linking the Local and the Global

Finger, Matthias

Reference

Routledge

Intermediaries in International Conflict (Princeton Legacy Library)

Few scholars have attempted to evaluate critically the role mediators play in managing international conflicts. Thomas Princen examines where mediation fits in the larger realm of diplomatic practice, going beyond the usual state-centric focus to account for the mediating activities of a wide range of actors-from superpowers to small states, from international organizations to nongovernmental groups.

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Princeton University Press

Few scholars have attempted to evaluate critically the role mediators play in managing international conflicts. Thomas Princen examines where mediation fits in the larger realm of diplomatic practice, going beyond the usual state-centric focus to account for the mediating activities of a wide range of actors-from superpowers to small states, from international organizations to nongovernmental groups.
Originally published in 1992.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Few scholars have attempted to evaluate critically the role mediators play in managing international conflicts. Thomas Princen examines where mediation fits in the larger realm of diplomatic practice, going beyond the usual state-centric focus to account for the mediating activities of a wide range of actors-from superpowers to small states, from international organizations to nongovernmental groups.Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Foreign & International Law

Few scholars have attempted to evaluate critically the role mediators play in managing international conflicts. Thomas Princen examines where mediation fits in the larger realm of diplomatic practice, going beyond the usual state-centric focus to account for the mediating activities of a wide range of actors-from superpowers to small states, from international organizations to nongovernmental groups.Originally published in 1992.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Princen, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Princen, Thomas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Princen, Thomas. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Treading Softly: Paths to Ecological Order

The Logic of Sufficiency

Treading Softly: Paths to Ecological Order

The Logic of Sufficiency (Mit Press)

Environmental NGOs in World Politics: Linking the Local and the Global

Intermediaries in International Conflict (Princeton Legacy Library)

Intermediaries in International Conflict (Princeton Legacy Library)

Intermediaries in International Conflict (Princeton Legacy Library)

Intermediaries in International Conflict (Princeton Legacy Library)