Book Reviews
Gellers, Joshua C. 2017. The Global Emergence of Constitutional Environmental Rights.
London, UK: Routledge.
Reviewed by David R. Boyd
University of British Columbia
Over the past five decades, many scholars have debated the normative pros and
cons of granting legal recognition to the right to live in a healthy environment,
a relative newcomer to the library of human rights. Since 1976, this right has
spread rapidly across the world, securing constitutional protection and being
incorporated into environmental laws in more than 100 nazioni, and gaining
recognition in regional treaties ratified by at least 135 nazioni (Boyd 2012).
Despite this unprecedented convergence of human rights law and envi-
ronmental law, few scholars have explored the factors influencing the emer-
gence of these remarkable legal developments, or the practical consequences
for people and ecosystems. Joshua C. Gellers, with his slim but idea-filled book,
The Global Emergence of Constitutional Environmental Rights, is at the forefront of
an exciting new wave of empirical scholarship.
Constitutions are the highest form of law in all contemporary legal sys-
tems, and also serve, at least in theory, as an important reflection of a nation’s
most deeply cherished values. Nel frattempo, the world faces profound ecological
problems caused by human activities. For these reasons, Gellers’ focus on the
processes, factors, and players involved in constitutional recognition of envi-
ronmental rights is eminently justified. At its heart, the book seeks to answer a
simple but significant question: “Why do some countries have constitutional
environmental rights while others do not?" (P. 2).
To answer this question, Gellers develops a model, which he calls the
“world cultural framework,” drawn from theories in political science, sociology,
and law. This framework suggests that an international normative context
(based on individualism, rationalization, and universalism) exists and is drawn
upon by actors (bureaucrats, lawyers, judges, policy-makers, and activists) A
influence outcomes at the national level.
To test the utility of his proposed framework for analyzing constitutional
environmental rights, Gellers skillfully employs a combination of quantitative
and qualitative research methods. On the quantitative side, he uses various
global data sources to test a series of hypotheses, drawn from the international
relations literature, about the factors leading states to incorporate environ-
mental rights in their constitutions. His results indicate that constitutional envi-
ronmental rights are more likely to be found in countries with higher numbers
Global Environmental Politics 18:4, novembre 2018
© 2018 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
132
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David R. Boyd (cid:129) 133
of international civil society organizations, higher levels of democratic gover-
nance, and poor human rights records. Thus the emergence of constitutional
environmental rights appears to validate his model, as it is significantly influ-
enced by both international norms and domestic political concerns.
This quantitative global analysis is complemented by qualitative assess-
ments of the emergence of constitutional environmental rights in Nepal and
Sri Lanka, two nations selected for their demographic similarities. Through
country visits and interviews with lawyers, activists, academics, and government
officials, Gellers compares the processes and factors that led Nepal to include
the right to a healthy environment in its 2007 constitution (and modified in
2015) and that resulted in Sri Lanka not doing so. Again, the results are con-
sistent with his hypothesis that constitutions are determined primarily by the
influence of domestic factors, but within an international normative context.
In Nepal, environmental issues enjoyed a prominent public profile and
the active support of civil society, leading to the adoption of environmental
rights by constitutional drafters. In Sri Lanka, little attention was paid to the
environment during the original constitution drafting process during the
1970s or in a subsequent process that led to a draft constitution in 2000, Quale
was never adopted. Political debates in Sri Lanka focused on devolution of
power and other issues perceived as pressing problems, with less emphasis on
either human rights or environmental issues.
È interessante notare, in both Nepal and Sri Lanka, courts followed a series of
judicial precedents from India’s Supreme Court, ruling that even when the
right to a healthy environment is not explicitly mentioned in a constitution,
it is implicit in other fundamental rights, such as the rights to life and health.
The Nepalese court decision not only predated the inclusion of the right to
a healthy environment in the 2007 constitution, but the judge responsible
for the decision later chaired the committee making decisions about the con-
tent of the constitution. While Gellers identifies this judge’s role as “of no
small consequence,” it perhaps deserved greater attention, as it suggests the
critical role that specific influential individuals may play in constitutional draft-
ing processes.
In the Sri Lankan case study, Gellers depicts the judiciary’s recognition of
an implicit constitutional right as part of a broader set of legal developments
(a long history of environmental law, robust legal framework, and judicial
openness towards environmental litigation) that diminished the perceived
importance of establishing an explicit right to a healthy environment in the
constitution.
Overall, this book is a significant contribution to the growing literature on
constitutional environmental rights. Gellers’ empirical, mixed-methods ap-
proach sets the bar high for other scholars seeking to tackle the many remaining
questions in this field. Gellers closes with useful recommendations both for
governments implementing these rights and for scholars studying the emer-
gence and effects of these rights.
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134 (cid:129) Book Reviews
Reference
Boyd, David R. 2012. The Environmental Rights Revolution: A Global Study of Constitutions,
Human Rights and the Environment. Vancouver, BC, Canada: University of British
Columbia Press.
Dempsey, Jessica. 2016. Enterprising Nature: Economics, Markets, and Finance in Global
Biodiversity Politics. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.
Reviewed by Rebecca Pearse
University of Sydney
Enterprising Nature is a detailed and thoughtful exploration of the tensions
underpinning neoliberal biodiversity conservation efforts. The book reports
on Jessica Dempsey’s multi-sited ethnography and intellectual history of the
global conservation movement, as well as her many prior years of engagement
as a practitioner. The book provides a wealth of empirical detail explored with
clarity, and the analysis is thought provoking. Dempsey delivers three key in-
sights into the project of enterprising nature that help explain its utopian outlook
and arrested development. Questo è, the ongoing pursuit of forms of conservation
that try to make themselves entrepreneurial and relevant to markets persistently
fail to operate in ways that are envisioned in the reams of science and economic
modelling dedicated to this idea.
Primo, Dempsey illustrates that enterprising nature, the idea of assigning a
monetary value to nature, is contradictory. The processes of valuing nature are
riddled with contradictions. But exactly how these contradictions play out and
with what political and material implications is often harder to pin down.
Enterprising Nature provides a fascinating picture of how such tensions fuel all
sorts of political economic and politicized knowledge problems. There are mul-
tiple contradictions, or tensions, as Dempsey prefers to put it, throughout the
book: for instance, the dualist notions of nature-culture and intrinsic-extrinsic
values in Western environmentalism. Drawing on anti-colonial critiques,
Dempsey contends that this kind of distinction is a product of Western Enlight-
enment thinking and conservation strategies that are insensitive to the values
and economies of people in the South (P. 33–35). It seems the most funda-
mental tension that Dempsey explores arises between capital and non-human
natura. She notes that because externalization of nature is essential to political
economic power, any “efforts to alter externalization mean[S] confronting these
formidable forces” (P. 235). Tuttavia, efforts to realize enterprising nature have
studiously avoided a confrontation with capital.
Secondo, Dempsey demonstrates that enterprising nature is hard work, E
mostly unsuccessful. Convincing states and capital to internalize nature (even
an “enterprising nature”) has proven difficult. Others have made this important
point, but few in the same detail and focus on the politics of environmental knowl-
edge discussed here. Much to the chagrin of many advocates, environmental
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Rebecca Pearse
(cid:129) 135
valuation techniques lack a coherent economic logic. Dempsey observes, via her
interviewees, that not all valuation techniques are explicitly intended to com-
modify nature. Major problems defining units of analysis worry experts who
themselves hold little political or economic power, and green financial
innovations are stymied by state inaction. These dynamics lead Dempsey
to observe that the promise of de-politicization through enterprising nature is
utopian. She writes:
The so-called “pragmatists” hold onto an impossible dream wherein, once
conditions are right, all social, economic, and ecological values can be
accounted for within a single analytical system—aligning global, socioeco-
logical needs, national interests, and economic growth (P. 52).
Invece, Dempsey’s analysis shares ground with other critics of the “anti-
political” effects of neoliberal environmental governance (Bryant 2016; McCarthy
2012; Pearse 2018). The tragedy of liberal environmentalism is premised on
the smooth operation of rational politics. But socio-ecological and political eco-
nomic realities do not permit such an end-of-history vision to come about.
Third, Dempsey illustrates how the intellectual projects of enterprising
nature “articulate” with imperial and capitalist agendas. The intellectual origins
of ecosystems science in the connection between biotechnology and the US
government departments’ agendas for trade and intellectual property reform
is a case in point (Cooper 2008), as are the multiple corporate ventures, trade
fairs, and business-sponsored conferences detailed in the book. Dempsey’s
theorization of the neo-colonial organization of knowledge production and
circulation is less developed. She describes the “southward gaze” of mostly
Global North biodiversity market entrepreneurs (P. 167) and discusses the
reception of de-colonial environmental thought in the North. For instance, she
argues that responses to Vandana Shiva’s “disruptive” critiques of Western sci-
ence and green developmentalism have been contradictory: dismissive at many
points, and glowing at others. Nevertheless, she might have more explicitly cri-
tiqued and theorized these North-South tensions as born of problems endemic
to the unequal global structure of environmental knowledge.
Dempsey’s knowledge politics invites more questions about positionality
and global inequalities embedded in environmental knowledge. Following
Anna Tsing’s approach to ethnography of global connection (Tsing 2005), she
identifies her position in “the middle of things,” that is, in the middle of global
networks of biodiversity experts and entrepreneurs across the globe. The social
practices and organization of knowledge documented in this book are implicitly
framed as occurring within the global North (including sites of elite knowledge-
brokering in Southern nations). Her focus on mobile expert networks is inter-
esting and important. But there is a larger set of people involved in global
ecosystems, enrolled in a neo-colonial division of intellectual labor. I’m think-
ing here of the research assistants, rural people, and less mobile Southern scien-
tists engaged in collective efforts behind the datasets and other forms of
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136 (cid:129) Book Reviews
knowledge necessary for enterprising nature. Theory from the North dominates
the generation of knowledge, but gathering it relies upon participants in bureau-
cracies and diverse lands of the South (Connell 2007; Hountondji 2002). Inves-
tigating the ideas and practices of a broader set of knowledge workers might
have invoked a different framing of problems than the ones so strongly influ-
enced by Anglo-European eco-entrepreneurs at meetings in New York.
In summary, this book speaks to political economy debates over nature’s
commodification as well as to discussions about the neo-colonial organization
of environmental knowledge politics. Dempsey’s thoughtful analysis is rich with
insights into both. In particular, she has documented the fragility of enterpris-
ing nature in valuable detail. The knowledges that make up “enterprising
nature” in so many respects express capitalist and colonial logics, but they have
failed to impose order upon on an unruly world, marked by stark inequalities
and “uncooperative” natures (Bakker 2003). The elusive character of this envi-
ronmental-economic project has been beautifully captured. Enterprising Nature
is a must read for any student of green political economy.
Riferimenti
Bakker, Karen. 2003. An Uncooperative Commodity: Privatizing Water in England and Wales.
Oxford UK: Oxford University Press.
Bryant, Gareth. 2016. The Politics of Carbon Market Design: Rethinking the Techno-
Politics and Post-Politics of Climate Change. Antipode 48 (4): 877–898.
Connell, Raewyn. 2007. Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social
Scienza. Cambridge UK: Polity.
Cooper, Melinda. 2008. Life as Surplus. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Hountondji, Paulin J. 2002. Knowledge Appropriation in a Post-Colonial Context. In
Indigenous Knowledge and the Integration of Knowledge Systems, edited by Catherine A.
Odora Hoppers. Capetown ZA: New Africa Books.
McCarthy, James. 2012. The Financial Crisis and Environmental Governance ‘After’
Neoliberalism. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 103 (2): 180–195.
Pearse, Rebecca. 2018. Pricing Carbon in Australia: Contestation, the State, Market Failure.
Abingdon UK: Earthscan/Routledge.
Tsing, UN. l. 2005. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton, NJ, US: Princeton
Stampa universitaria.
Bulkeley, Harriet, Matthew Paterson, and Johannes Stripple. 2016. Towards a Cultural
Politics of Climate Change: Devices, Desires, and Dissent. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
Stampa universitaria.
Reviewed by Sandeep Kandikuppa
Università della Carolina del Nord, Chapel Hill
If climate change is one of the burning issues of our times, the debate on cli-
mate change is turning out to be one of the most polarizing. Deep skepticism of
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Sandeep Kandikuppa
(cid:129) 137
climate change has come to characterize the political discourse in several coun-
tries, and has increasingly come to mark the presidency in one of the largest
emitters of carbon dioxide in the world, the United States of America. Against
the backdrop of this stark and inflamed political climate, Towards a Cultural
Politics of Climate Change comes as a breath of fresh air. It provides a framework
for understanding what aids or impedes the transition from a high-carbon-
society to a low-carbon-society.
The book presents case studies from the United States, Europe, and Australia
that ask critical questions about who makes or does not make the transition,
why they do so, and what pitfalls mark these transitions. The book explores how
devices, desires, and dissent interact to reproduce climate change subjectivities.
“Device” refers to the “objects, technologies, and techniques through
which everyday life in high-carbon, decarbonizing, and low-carbon societies is
organized” (P. 9), including techniques and technologies for reducing carbon
footprints, technologies of government, and other assemblages of objects and
techniques. “Desire” denotes “the affective and visceral dimensions of social
life” (P. 9), encompassing hopes, fears, joys, sorrows, and anxieties, as well as
their myriad expressions. “Dissent” explores “the contestation around these
devices and desires,” connecting “questions of culture explicitly to the clash
of visions and power central to the understanding of politics” (P. 9). Dissent,
as articulated in this book, includes not only active forms of resistance but
also the everyday, mundane, and incremental ways in which individuals, house-
holds, and communities express their dissatisfaction with devices and desires.
This book is not as much about the spectacular and dazzling as it is about
the commonplace and routine. It is about how devices like laws, technologies,
and institutional frameworks collide with the desires of individuals, house-
holds, and communities, and how these entities then use everyday tools of pro-
test and resistance—the broken law, the un-complied-with rule, the rejected
proposal—to push back and dissent.
The chapters contain examples of the interplay at different levels of polit-
ical structure. Per esempio, a proposal to design houses without under-floor
heaters in Denmark encountered political opposition from those who wanted
those heaters; the government relented even though it resulted in houses that
were heated both less efficiently and less well. UN 2006 program to make new
houses in the UK “zero-carbon” ran into difficulties as private organizations
conflicted with less stringent government definitions and caused friction with
builders and planners who had originally supported the concept.
Other themes in this book are the importance of grief, the unfolding of
epistemic struggles in every day work, and the devices and desires of the firm
in governing urban carbon economics. Each chapter in the book adheres to
the larger framework of exploring the intricate connections between devices,
dissent, and desires. In doing so, the book places culture at the center of climate
change politics, on the same pedestal as economics and social science, E
demonstrates that climate change is much more than loss of habitat or
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138 (cid:129) Book Reviews
livelihood. Climate change is also about a threat to one’s identity and a challenge
to one’s notion of comfort. Inoltre, it is about “leaving behind linear time”
and exploring the dynamic interactions between decisions and consequences
(P. 92, 93).
The book makes a conscious effort to move beyond individual subjec-
tivities and explore households, the firm, and the community. In doing so, Esso
posits that any technology of government has to take into account multiple
subjectivities that interact constantly and dynamically. This point is of special
importance from a policymaking perspective, for it offers insight into how
policies that aim to achieve low-carbon societies must look beyond individual
level interventions to achieve sustainable transition.
The book challenges the widely held notion that if certain barriers were
removed, it wouldn’t take much for societies to move from being high-carbon
to low-carbon. Piuttosto, various processes contribute to the continuation of a
high-carbon order. This perspective pushes us to think beyond simply removing
barriers and also focus on the relationships and processes that make it possible
for high-carbon societies to persist and thrive.
A noteworthy dimension of this book is its engagement with a wide range
of theories and methods that the contributing authors have used to construct
their arguments. Methods include organizational ethnography, interviews, E
a critical review of policy documents, websites, and publication material. IL
theories employed are equally varied, ranging from actor network theory and
framing analysis to organizational development and carbon economics, to the
idea of governmentality. These approaches offer future researchers options for
the theoretical and methodological directions to take when working on cultural
political aspects of climate change.
The scope of this book is broad, and it takes a novel approach to under-
standing climate change politics. Tuttavia, a book of this breadth should have
included case studies from the Global South. Given that countries like India and
China are among the leading emitters of carbon dioxide and also among the
leading investors in climate change technology and governance, such an omis-
sion seems conspicuous. Inoltre, the book only touches briefly on the crit-
ical aspects of social and economic inequities. While discussing cultural politics
of climate change, it is important to explore how devices, desires, and dissent
interact with social and economic cleavages like class and gender in reproducing
climate change subjectivities.
Notwithstanding these concerns, this book is an important contribution
to a growing body of literature exploring the cultural politics of climate change,
and it comes at a particularly precarious time. The many issues covered offer rich
insights and signposts for future research about how countries of the Global North
are striving to lower their carbon footprints.
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