Perspectives

In this issue of RCC Perspectives, adapted from a 2008 proposal submitted to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Christof Mauch and Helmuth Trischler explain why the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society was founded. They conclude by outlining the six research clusters of the RCC and highlighting its activities, which include colloquia, summer schools, international conferences, and exhibitions.

In this issue of RCC Perspectives, Marcus Vogt discusses climate change as an issue of justice. Sustainability, in Vogt’s view, needs to look to the humanities—to philosophy, theology, sociology, history, and cultural studies—for accompanying critical perspectives.

In this issue of RCC Perspectives, Christian Pfister examines disaster memory and risk culture. In contrast to the memory of war, the memory of natural disaster is markedly short-lived in a globalized world, yet such memory should be preserved in order to minimize the impact of similar disasters in the future.

In this issue of RCC Perspectives, Frank Uekoetter addresses monocultures as more than a cultural phenomenon, considering the science, economics, and technology behind the trend.

The sixteen contributions in this volume of RCC Perspectives offer diverse insights and concerns about the future of the field from those working in environmental history and related disciplines.

In this issue of RCC Perspectives, Donald Worster—one of the founders and leading figures in the field of environmental history—examines how China and the United States have attempted to control water.

This volume of RCC Perspectives combines a number of essays in Canadian environmental history and related disciplines. The essays are united by a focus on cultural perceptions of Canadian environments, by an analysis of the interrelationship between nature and culture over time, and by a discussion of the human impact on natural environments.

In this issue of RCC Perspectives, a group of scholars reflect on Ulrich Beck’s influential Risk Society (1986). They seek to critically historicize the concept of risk society, considering how it might be a product of its particular time and place as well as what it means for public debate and scholarship in the early twenty-first century.

A narrative of natural progression for environmentalism, from modest beginnings to a global force with the promise of a more sustainable future, is unconvincing in the early twenty-first century. In this issue of RCC Perspectives, Frank Uekoetter discusses the position of the environmental movement in society.

Disease, hunger, war, and religion have shaped human existence over many centuries. This volume of RCC Perspectives presents exciting syntheses between research in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, and history.