This book seeks to show that the Anthropocene epoch of the earth system has converged with the global epoch of capitalist history. Planetary warming and climate change are, therefore, unfolding rapidly. This enveloping process is driven forward by the mutual ruptures of a deteriorating earth system and fossil based global capitalism, as a fraught socioecological totality. Overlapping crises of time are the net result. They involve, the recurring, myopic volatility of financialised capitalism, the ecological impossibility of sustaining capitalist growth, the spreading arrhythmias of biotic, animal, bird, insect and marine life and the irremediable psychological stresses of climate change anxiety. The time crises of global capitalism originate from certain disjunctures of time associated with carbon extractivism, carbon emission markets and official climate change projections. The book sets out the counter constructions of time necessary to energise the climate justice movement and advance ecosocialist principles.

This two-volume set LNCS 13192 – 13193 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Information for a Better World: Shaping the Global Future, held in February 2022. Due to COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held virtually. The 32 full papers and the 29 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 167 submissions. They cover topics such as: Library and Information Science; Information Governance and Ethics; Data Science; Human-Computer Interaction and Technology ̧ Information Behaviour and Retrieval ̧ Communities and Media ̧ Health Informatics.

With the Stockholm+50 Conference, held on 2-3 June 2022, the global movement to protect the environment has reached a 50 year milestone. The first UN Conference on the Human Environment, also held in Stockholm, from 5-16 June 1972, proved to be the watershed in addressing this problem, and as the world assembles once more in the Swedish capital it is time to think aloud and look ahead. In his address in 1972, the then Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme said: “The decisive question is in which direction we will develop ... there is no individual future, neither for people nor for nations.” The only other head of government to attend in 1972, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, highlighted the development as “one of the primary means of improving the environment of living, of providing food, water, sanitation and shelter, of making the deserts green and mountains habitable” and drew attention to the wisdom of the Atharva Veda: “What of thee I dig out; Let that quickly grow over; Let me not hit thy vitals or thy heart." As we look back over 50 years, we need to assess what has gone wrong in the trajectory travelled so far and look ahead to the future of our environment at this juncture and beyond. As a scholarly journal for global decision-makers, Environmental Policy and Law has sought to envision what lies ahead in the 21st century by inviting outstanding scholarly works from around the world. The 22 articles which resulted from this invitation are presented in this book, Envisioning Our Environmental Future, which is organised in three parts: Testing Times; Global Ideas; and Sectoral Ideas. The book is a sequel to Our Earth Matters (IOS Press), which was published on 5 June 2021. Bharat H. Desai is Professor of International Law and Jawaharlal Nehru Chair in International Environmental Law at the Centre for International Legal Studies, School of International Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is Editor-in-Chief of the global journals Environmental Policy and Law (Amsterdam: IOS Press) and Yearbook of International Environmental Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Prof. Desai’s ideas and proposals are reflected in his published books and in journals of international repute.

How, when, and why has the Pacific been a locus for imagining different futures by those living there as well as passing through? What does that tell us about the distinctiveness or otherwise of this “sea of islands”? Foregrounding the work of leading and emerging scholars of Oceania, Pacific Futures brings together a diverse set of approaches to, and examples of, how futures are being conceived in the region and have been imagined in the past. Individual chapters engage the various and sometimes contested futures yearned for, unrealized, and even lost or forgotten, that are particular to the Pacific as a region, ocean, island network, destination, and home. Contributors recuperate the futures hoped for and dreamed up by a vast array of islanders and outlanders—from Indigenous federalists to Lutheran improvers to Cantonese small business owners—making these histories of the future visible. In so doing, the collection intervenes in debates about globalization in the Pacific—and how the region is acted on by outside forces—and postcolonial debates that emphasize the agency and resistance of Pacific peoples in the context of centuries of colonial endeavor. With a view to the effects of the “slow violence” of climate change, the volume also challenges scholars to think about the conditions of possibility for future-thinking at all in the midst of a global crisis that promises cataclysmic effects for the region. Pacific Futures highlights futures conceived in the context of a modernity coproduced by diverse Pacific peoples, taking resistance to categorization as a starting point rather than a conclusion. With its hospitable approach to thinking about history making and future thinking, one that is open to a wide range of methodological, epistemological, and political interests and commitments, the volume will encourage the writing of new histories of the Pacific and new ways of talking about history in this field, the region, and beyond.

The new ‘mobilities turn’ has become a powerful perspective in social theory. John Urry’s oeuvre has been very influential in the emergence of this new field and has had lasting impacts on many scholars. This collection presents originally commissioned essays from leading scholars in the field who reflect on how Urry’s writing influenced the course of their research and theorizing. This volume gathers contributions in relation to John Urry’s path-breaking work. The new ‘mobilities turn’ made a strong imprint in European social theory and is beginning to make an impact in the Americas and Asia as well. It challenges mainstream theoretical and empirical approaches that were grounded in a sedentary and bounded view of states. It propels innovative thinking about social and media ecologies, complex systems and social change. It bridges many disciplines and methodologies, leading to new approaches to existing problems while also resonating with questions about both history and the future. Mobilities research marks the rise of academic and intellectual cooperation and collaboration ‘beyond societies’, as nations around the world face the ecological limits of contemporary mobility and energy systems. The contributors represent several national contexts, including England, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Australia and the USA. This book collects personal essays and gives insight into a vivid network of scientists who have connections of various degrees to the late John Urry as an academic figure, an author and a person.

This Handbook is a collection of contributions of more than 300 researchers who have worked to grasp the Anthropocene, this new geological epoch characterised by a modification of the conditions of habitability of the Earth for all living things, in its biogeophysical and socio-political reality. These researchers also sought to define a historical and prospective anthropology that integrates social, economic, cultural and political issues as well as, of course, environmental ones. What are the anthropological changes needed to ensure that our human adventure will be able to continue in the Anthropocene? And what are the educational and political issues involved? Anthropocene is fast becoming a widely-used term, but thus far, there been no reference work explaining the thoughts of the greatest experts of the present day on this subject (at the intersection of biogeophysical and socio-political knowledge). A scientific and political concept (but which is also the conceptual vehicle for conveying the scientific community's sense of concern), this complex term is explained by international experts as they reflect on scientific arguments taking place in earth system science, the social sciences and the humanities. What these researchers from different disciplines have in common is a healthy concern for the future and how to prepare for it in the Anthropocene and also the identification of possible anthropological changes. This Handbook encourages readers to immerse themselves in reflections on the human adventure through descriptions of our differing heritages and the future that is in the process of being written.

Approaching the issues of climate change and climate justice from a range of diverse perspectives including those of culture, gender, indigeneity, race, and sexuality, as well as challenging colonial histories and capitalist presents, Climate Futures boldly addresses the apparent inevitability of climate chaos. Seeking better explanations of the underlying causes and consequences of climate change, and mapping strategies toward a better future, or at a minimum, the most likely best-case world that we can get to, this book envisions planetary social movements robust enough to spark the necessary changes needed to achieve deeply sustainable and just economic, social, and political policies and practices. Bringing together insights from interdisciplinary scholars, policymakers, creatives and activists, Climate Futures argues for the need to get past us-and-them divides and acknowledge how lives of creatures far and near, human and non-human, are interconnected.

The editors of the third edition of the seminal textbook Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology bring it completely up to date for both instructors and students. The collection of 49 readings (17 of them new to this edition) offers extensive background description and exposes students to the breadth of theoretical, methodological, and practical perspectives and issues in the field of medical anthropology. The text provides specific examples and case studies of research as it is applied to a range of health settings: from cross-cultural clinical encounters to cultural analysis of new biomedical technologies and the implementation of programs in global health settings. The new edition features: • a major revision that eliminates many older readings in favor of more fresh, relevant selections; • a new section on structural violence that looks at the impact of poverty and other forms of social marginalization on health; • an updated and expanded section on “Conceptual Tools,” including new research and ideas that are currently driving the field of medical anthropology forward (such as epigenetics and syndemics); • new chapters on climate change, Ebola, PTSD among Iraq/Afghanistan veterans, eating disorders, and autism, among others; • recent articles from Margaret Mead Award winners Sera Young, Seth Holmes, and Erin Finley, along with new articles by such established medical anthropologists as Paul Farmer and Merrill Singer.