Fragments of Environmental Management Studies

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This book contributes to an emerging position in the debate on how environmental management can fruitfully be researched. To this end, it employs two texts conceptualising and contextualising environmental management as an object of study. First, by means of a philosophy of science case study on an university course on environmental management, the book problematises the discourse of sustainable development and the hegemonic take on managing environments. Critiquing the shortcomings of the course ``Environmental and Resource Management'' of Brandenburg University of Technology we offer a conceptualisation of a new academic field, Environmental Management Studies. Such a field would objectify the social realities of environmental management as a practical activity taking place within a messy world. Grounding this field, the book suggests, calls for engaging critically with three broad issues: the history of environmental management, the hegemonic discourse on sustainability and possibilities for radical reforms. Second, by way of historically contextualising environmental management rationalities, the book discusses how radical political theory and policy-making could draw insights from that history. Informed by Richard Grove's account of the relation between imperialism and the emergence of modern ways of controlling natures (1994) the book provides a more reflexive base for Environmental Management Studies in manoeuvres towards the shared goal of a green future for all.