Environmental Politics and Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand
by Maria Bargh
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Environmental Politics and Policy in Aotearoa New Zealand is a comprehensive introduction to confronting some of today's most urgent challenges. Global warming, threats to biodiversity, contamination of waterways and other environmental issues confront today's citizens with critical challenges that are fundamentally political. Power, authority and state action enable current practices - and through politics and policy that power can be harnessed to create a more ecologically sustainable planet. In this book, leading scholars from around Aotearoa introduce students to environmental politics and policy based in this country's unique institutional, cultural and resource context. The text focuses on the key importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the characteristics of the natural environment in Aotearoa and the role of gender dynamics in the distribution of power, before turning to how this unique setting informs and is, in turn, informed by the global context of environmental politics. The authors take a systemic view of environmental politics and governance in New Zealand, addressing the philosophical and ideational debates about who and what matters (both human and non-human), the political institutions that embed and enact these ideas, and how these ideas then manifest in particular arenas - from climate and freshwater to energy and farming. Practical tips - how to make a submission, organise a protest, write a policy brief or a press release - are woven throughout.
About the Author
Maria Bargh (Te Arawa, Ngati Awa) is an associate professor in Maori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. She researches and teaches in the areas of Maori politics and Maori resource management. She is co-lead of the governance and policy research team for the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge and recipient of the Royal Society 2020 Te Puawaitanga Research Excellence Award. Julie L MacArthur is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Reimagining Capitalism at Royal Roads University. She specialises in environmental political economy, energy democracy, and participatory policy-making. Julie is the author of Empowering Electricity: Co-operatives, Sustainability, and Power Sector Reform in Canada (UBC Press, 2016), alongside a wide range of articles and chapters on community energy, sustainable community development, gendered employment in energy industries, environmental populism, and Green New Deal policies. She chairs the Women & Inclusivity in Sustainable Energy Research (WISER) network, and is a past chair of the New Zealand Environmental Politics and Policy Network.