Community on Land Community, Ecology, and the Public Interest

This book looks to the history of the the commons in American and European social thought to better understand contemporary environmental problems. The authors show how American law governing lands and resources relies on the individualist assumptions of Enlightenment thinkers, who regarded land as wasted when not being improved by European agriculture or colonization. Curry and McGuire trace the history of this philosophical and historical legacy and reveal its strong influence on American concepts on community and land. They not only reveal the law's insufficient comprehension of community rights, but they also advocate realistic policy alternatives whereby community governance can better solve the challenges of resource management and other American social problems.

Janel M. Curry is dean for research and scholarship at Calvin College in Michigan Steven McGuire is associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio