The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Politics and Theory

“The Palgrave Handbook on Environmental Politics and Theory seeks to reclaim a space for critically engaged scholarship that encourages dissent and speaks up for the many communities that are mobilizing for a radical change of political course. By confronting systems of denial and inviting conceptual and ethical innovation, the chapters form a powerful collective response.”

—Eva Lövbrand, Associate Professor in Environmental Change, Linköping University, Sweden

“Written by an impressive array of both established scholars and new voices, Kassiola and Luke are to be congratulated for assembling such a variety of topics, scholars and approaches, which has produced an excellent addition to the Palgrave Handbook series.”

—John Barry, Professor of Green Political Economy, Queens University Belfast, United Kingdom


This Handbook is exhibits the latest interdisciplinary explorations in environmental politics, an urgently burgeoning field of intellectual and practical importance., Environmental politics and theory encompasses empirical, normative, policy, political, organizational, and activist discussions unfolding across many disciplines. Through the volume’s contributions emphasizing environmental policy issues, normative prescriptions, and implementation strategies, the next generation of thinkers and activists will have useful profiles of the theories, concepts, and movements central to environmental politics and theory. It is the editors’ aspiration that this volume will become a go-to resource on the myriad perspectives relevant to studying and improving the environment for advanced researchers as well as an introduction to students seeking to understand the basic foundations and recommended resolutions to many of our environmental challenges. Environmental politics is more than theory alone, so the Handbook also considers theory-action connections by highlighting the past and current: thinkers, activists, social organizations, and movements that have worked to guide contemporary societies toward a more environmentally sustainable and just global order.


Joel Jay Kassiola is Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Francisco State University, Department of Political Science, San Francisco, California, USA. He serves as Series Editor for Palgrave's Environmental Politics and Theory book series.

Timothy W. Luke is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at Virginia Tech, USA.

Chapter “Eco-Anxiety and the Responses of Ecological Citizenship and Mindfulness” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.