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7 - Green Economies and Community Wellbeing

from Part II - The Economy and Environmental Sociology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Yifei Li  and
Gary Paul Green
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

The promise of an economy that creates good jobs, promotes social justice, and improves environmental quality is an alluring one. Proponents of a green economy argue that businesses and communities can overcome contradictions and conflicts between economic, social, and environmental goals through pursuit of the triple bottom line. Yet there is little consensus on what the green economy is and how to achieve it. In this chapter, we review the empirical studies on existing green economic arrangements in different parts of the world. We identify four streams of activities: macroeconomic restructuring, spatial replanning, industrial redesign, and local revitalization. Our review suggests that existing empirical studies remain overwhelmingly practical in their orientation, which leaves much room for theoretically motivated environmental sociological analyses. We conclude with a call for an environmental sociology of green economies that has the potential to enrich the academic literature and enable real-world transformations.

Keywords

green jobsgreen economysustainabilitycommunity developmentecological transition
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 107 - 123
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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