Landscapes and Communities on the Pacific Rim: From Asia to the Pacific Northwest: From Asia to the Pacific Northwest

As we face the environmental challenges of an increasingly connected "global world, " an appreciation and understanding of various cultural perspectives on the environment is essential. Social scientists, humanists, natural scientists, and public servants explore ways in which communities of people on both sides of the Pacific apprehend and inhabit their surrounding environments. Their essays examine particular contexts within and comparative cases across the Pacific Northwest, across the Pacific Rim, and throughout Asia. In the midst of debates about the value and appropriateness of "global" versus "local" scales of analyses of cultural and environmental change, this volume encourages the use of multilevel scales of analysis, with particular attention to different perspectives and cases normally found on the edge of or outside of American discussions of the environment. This mix of perspectives and use of shifting levels of analysis broaden and deepen our understanding of human/ environmental interactions and prompt more realistic assessments and effective action. Through ethnographic and historical case studies; textual, cartographic, and narrative analysis; and critical examination of our own discourses and methods, these essays engage in cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural discussion of the relationship between communities of people and their landscapes. In short, this volume seeks to move beyond the traditional cultural and disciplinary boundaries in addressing critical environmental questions.