Andrew Dobson

La ciudadanía, como concepto, trata de los derechos y los deberes de los individuos (normalmente), y en un territorio político determinado (por ejemplo, un Estado). Bajo su vertiente participativa, la ciudadanía está normalmente asociada con la esfera pública, y puede suponer o no el cultivo y ejercicio de ciertas virtudes. El diseño específico de la arquitectura general del concepto de ciudadanía nos define lo que podríamos llamar «ciudadanías adjetivas» -por ejemplo, la ciudadanía liberal, la ciudadanía republicana o la ciudadanía cosmopolita-. Cada uno de estos tipos de ciudadanía interpreta la arquitectura de diferente manera. Así, la ciudadanía liberal tiende a centrarse más en los derechos que en los deberes, la ciudadanía republicana habla en el lenguaje del deber y la virtud, y la ciudadanía cosmopolita cuestiona los argumentos territoriales de los otros dos tipos de ciudadanía. Este artículo explora el modo en que la ciudadanía ecológica completa la arquitectura general de la ciudadanía, antes de perfilar la importancia de la ciudadanía ecológica para el objetivo de lograr el desarrollo sostenible.

In this article the implications of our nature as both autonomous and heteronomous beings is discussed. It is suggested that our condition as part-dependent creatures calls for a reconsideration of the nature of both freedom and liberalism, and the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Jean-Paul Sartre is used to illustrate the natural and historical dimensions of our dependency. The conclusion reached is that neither deep ecological re-enchantment nor full-blooded cornucopianism are possible, and that we need to take our nature as semi-dependent creatures seriously as we seek ways of negotiating our way through our environmental problems.

This paper addresses the leitmotif of Alan Holland's work, which is argued here to be a defence of the existence and worth of nonhuman nature. Definitions of politics have always depended on the idea of nature as a contrasting non-political realm, usually turning on the centrality of speech. Referencing the work of Aristotle, Kant and Bentham, I suggest that the instability of the distinction between the human and the nonhuman means that politics, as ‘thing and activity', must itself be unstable. The question of whether there can be a politics without nature is explored through an analysis of the work of Latour, and the conclusion is reached that listening may well be just as important as speaking.

This is the first book-length treatment of the relationship between citizenship and the environment. Andrew Dobson argues that ecological citizenship cannot be fully articulated in terms of the two great traditions of citizenship - liberal and civic republican - with which we have been bequeathed. He develops an original theory of citizenship, which he calls 'post-cosmopolitan', and argues that ecological citizenship is an example and an inflection of it. Ecological citizenship focuses on duties as well as rights, and these duties are owed non-reciprocally, by those individuals and communities who occupy unsustainable amounts of ecological space, to those who occupy too little.

In recent years the engagement between the environmental 'agenda' and mainstream political theory has become increasingly widespread and profound. Each has affected the other in palpable and important ways, and it makes increasingly less sense for political theorists in either camp to ignore what the other is doing. This book draws together the threads of this interconnecting enquiry in order to assess its status and meaning. Dobson and Eckersley, two renowned scholars in this field, have commissioned an internationally recognised group of political theory scholars to think through the challenge that political ecology presents to political theory. Looking at fourteen familiar political ideologies and concepts such as liberalism, conservatism, justice, and democracy, the contributors question how they are re-shaped, distorted or transformed from an environmental perspective. Lively, accessible and authoritative, this book will appeal to professional scholars and students alike.