Abdeali Saherwala | Staff Writer
Featured image: The need for research in environmental administration is increasing as the environmental crisis becomes more dire. | Courtesy of Erek Socha
In the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), Professors Harris Ali and Peter Mulvihill published Environmental Management: Critical thinking and emerging practices to highlight the increasing ecological crisis, which the authors believe has not been thoroughly explored through a theoretical lens.
“In discussing with Peter, he noted that this gap was partly due to overemphasis on conventional approaches that were rather narrow. We decided to look into the reasons for the lack of innovation and a lack of social and political awareness that really needs to be understood as the context in which environmental management unfolds,” says Ali.
The book critiques the conventional approaches to environmental management practices and delves into alternative and emerging approaches, which has the potential to improve current or outdated ones.
“Awareness of environmental problems at various scales has been around for decades, but in general, responses and solutions have tended to be ‘too little and too late.’ We critique conventional approaches to environmental administration—which we believe are ill-equipped to confront the ecological crisis—and we explore alternative and emerging approaches that have the potential to transform current environmental management practice,” says Mulvihill.
Ali hopes for the ecological crisis to be discussed through a multi-dimensional lens that includes social, political, and economic viewpoints. To him, this will prevent the discussion of environmental management from becoming more narrow and technical-based.
“The ecological crisis cannot be addressed in any effective way unless both biophysical and social, political, and economic aspects are addressed jointly in an in-depth manner. Otherwise, environmental management will be a purely one-sided technical or technocratic exercise that simply will not be suited to the task at hand—namely, addressing the ecological crisis in all its varied dimensions,” Ali adds.
The book is meant to provide an extensive critique of the current conventional methods of green management, to inspire more multi-dimensional thinking of the ecological crisis, explore new methods of administration in an increasing ecological emergency, and be observant of the limitations of current environment-focused administration strategies.
It also intends to educate the public about the increasing severity of the eco crisis, the effectiveness of existing environmental management techniques, and the exploration for new environmental management techniques, which have the potential to minimize the possibility of any further disasters.
The book’s intended audience is “university students studying a variety of programs, such as environmental studies, environmental management, planning, disaster management, geography, sociology, and many others,” says Mulvihill.
The need for research in environmental administration is urgent with the increasing concern for the expanding ecological crisis, which grew as a result of climate change and human activity. As a pressing ecological danger is on the rise, “we must be much more nimble and be open and ready to adopt alternative approaches to conventional existing environmental management approaches. Otherwise, to sluggishly move forward at the rate we are doing so now, will be inadequate in the prevention of grave problems in the near future,” adds Ali.
“I am proud that my fellow faculty members publish books and articles and make contributions to the body of knowledge in their fields. All faculty members at York are encouraged to conduct research for the betterment of society, to enrich our teaching, and train the next generation of scholars and professionals.
“Environmental management is vital, provided it is done well, to protect public and environmental health,” adds Lewis Molot, a professor in the FES.
