Inequality, Cooperation, and Environmental Sustainability

"Does inequality exacerbate environmental problems ? Would an equalization of wealth, social status, and political power contribute to environmental sustainability ? Or is environmental degradation a likely byproduct of efforts to advance the economic, social, and political interests of the less well-off ? In this book, we investigate the impact of inequality of environmental sustainability.... The problem is often termed the 'tragedy of the commons.' However, many communities have managed common resources with great success over hundreds of years....
Our research provides evidence that in many settings inequality does indeed inhibit mutually beneficial approaches of the governance of the commons...." — from the Editors' Introduction "This is an excellent volume : a cutting-edge compilation that brings together a wide variety of disciplines (from anthropology to economics), methods (from village-level studies to agent-based modeling), and cases (from Colombia to India)." — Clark Gibson, University of California, San Diego