Description
Book SynopsisVenice is perceived to be in peril due to rising sea levels, tourism, and modern development. This book is based on interviews with Venetian environmentalists about Venice’s environmental risks, especially regarding the city’s anticipated mobile dams. It offers a ten-point proposal to modernize Venice while preserving its ancient heritage
Trade ReviewVenice is a glory of human achievement, and this book is the human-centered defense that the city deserves. -- Mick Hume, columnist for The Times (London)
…A groundbreaking book for understanding the politicization of the environment. -- Dr. Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent at Canterbury
…In Venice it’s impossible to ignore the cases where the science has been affected by politics. -- Jane Da Mosto, co-author of The Science of Saving Venice
Standish has succeeded in locating the transforming history of Venice as metaphor for Western preoccupations and self-understanding - from the highest realization of mercantile politics and republican statehood through romance and degenerate decadence, to its contemporary invocation as a symbol of unease and discomfort with the achievements of modernity and the attempt to master nature. This is an important contribution to the critique of the diminished political and historical imagination that underpins the construction of climate change as an insurmountable social problem. -- Dr. James Panton
Standish’s project is to re-conceptualize Venice’s historic relationship to human endeavor and to remind us that it was the energy and innovation of Venetians themselves that made Venice great. He succeeds admirably. His book is a valuable contribution not only to Venice’s future but to the wider debate on the efficacy of human intervention. -- Alan Hudson, director of Leadership Programs for China, University of Oxford
Venice in Environmental Peril? Myth and Reality offers compelling evidence to disprove the arguments that Venice is in peril. . . . Recommend for the excellent critique Venice in Environmental Peril provides the contemporary concerns and preoccupations of environmentalism. . . . Dominic Standish represents a powerful response to the perception of Venice in peril, with a message that is loud and clear. * The Future Cities Project *
Table of ContentsContents List of Figures List of Tables Foreword by John Eglin Acknowledgments Introduction: The Venice Problem and a Proposed Solution PART ONE – VENICE’S MYTHICAL TRADITIONS Chapter One: Founding Myths of the Venetian Republic Chapter Two: Cultural Myths PART TWO – FROM CONSERVATIONISM TO ENVIRONMENTALISM Chapter Three: The Triumph of Conservationism Chapter Four: Transforming Conservationism into Environmentalism PART THREE – CLAIMS-MAKING ABOUT VENICE’S MOBILE DAMS Chapter Five: Environmentalists Challenge Venice’s Mobile Dams Chapter Six: Environmental Claims about Venice’s Mobile Dams Chapter Seven: Myths about Venice’s Mobile Dams PART FOUR – MYTHS ABOUT MODERNIZATION Chapter Eight: Modernization and Environmentalism Chapter Nine: Modernizing or Sustaining Venice? Conclusion: The Reconstitution of the Venetian Metaphor Appendix A: Profiles of Venetian Environmentalists Interviewed Appendix B: List of Non-Governmental Organizations Appendix C: List and Abbreviations of Political Parties Appendix D: Glossary of Terminology Chronology: Venice and its Protection Bibliography Index
