Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace
by Vandana ShivaAVAILABILITY: Usually ships within 2-5 days
Publication Date: 2005
Publisher: South End Press
Binding: Paperback
Topics: Democracy: Theory & Practice, Economics, Energy, Militarism, Nature, Sustainable Community, Third World Peoples
Description: Boldly confronting the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, world-renowned physicist/activist Vandana Shiva responds with 'Earth Democracy,' or, as she prophetically names it, "The People's Project for a New Planetary Millennium." A leading voice in the struggle for global justice and sustainability, here Shiva describes what earth democracy could look like, outlining the bedrock principles for building living economies, living cultures, and living democracies.
Starting from the initial enclosure of the commons - the privatization of 6 million acres of public land in 18th-century Britain - Shiva goes on to reveal how the "commons" continue to shrink as more and more natural resources are patented and fenced. Accompanying this displacement from formerly accessible territory, she argues, is a growing attitude of disposability that erodes our natural resources, ecological sustainability, and cultural diversity.
Worse, human beings are by no means safe from this assignment of disposability. Through the forces of neoliberal globalization, economic and social exclusion work in deadly synergy to perpetrate violence on vulnerable groups, extinguishing the lives of millions.
Yet these brutal extinctions are not the only trend shaping human history. Forthright and energetic, Vandana Shiva updates readers on the movements, issues, and struggles she helped bring to international attention - the genetic engineering of food, the theft of culture, and the privatization of natural resources - and deftly analyzes the successes and new challenges the global resistance now faces. From struggles on the streets of Seattle and Cancún and in homes and farms across the world has grown a set of principles based on inclusion, nonviolence, reclaiming the commons, and freely sharing the earth's resources. These ideals, which Shiva calls Earth Democracy, will serve as unifying points in our current movements, an urgent call to peace, and the basis for a just and sustainable future.
Born in India in 1952, Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental leader and thinker. Director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology, she is the author of many books, including 'Water Wars: Pollution, Profits, and Privatization' (South End Press, 2001), 'Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge' (South End Press, 1997), 'Monocultures of the Mind '(Zed, 1993), 'The Violence of the Green Revolution' (Zed, 1992), and 'Staying Alive' (St. Martin's Press, 1989).
Shiva is a leader in the International Forum on Globalization, along with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin. She addressed the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle, 1999, as well as the recent World Economic Forum in Melbourne, 2000. In 1993, Shiva won the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award). The founder of Navdanya ("nine seeds"), a movement promoting diversity and use of native seeds, she also set up the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology in her mother's cowshed in 1997. Its studies have validated the ecological value of traditional farming and been instrumental in fighting destructive development projects in India.
Before becoming an activist, Shiva was one of India's leading physicists. She holds a master's degree in the philosophy of science and a Ph.D. in particle physics.
Review(s): "Shiva ... has devoted her life to fighting for the rights of the ordinary people of India ... her fierce intellect and her disarmingly friendly, accessible manner has made her a valuable advocate for people all over the developing world." - Ms. Magazine
"A leading thinker who has eloquently blended her views on the environment, agriculture, spirituality, and women's rights into a powerful philosophy." - Utne Reader
"One of the world's most prominent radical scientists." - The Guardian