Demonstrating that all notions of nature are inextricably entangled in different forms of social life, the text elaborates the many ways in which the apparently natural world has been produced from within particular social practices. These are analyzed in terms of different senses, different times and the production of distinct spaces, including the local, the national and the global.

PART ONE: RETHINKING NATURE AND SOCIETYIntroductionNature and Society A Historical ContextA Sociology of Environmental KnowledgesCultural Readings of NatureEnvironmental BadsEnvironmentalism and SocietyConclusionPART TWO: INVENTING NATUREIntroductionPostwar Reconstruction and Rational NatureTo Nature as EnvironmentInventing British EnvironmentalismPost-Rio EnvironmentalismConclusionPART THREE: HUMANS AND NATUREIntroductionThe Polling Culture and the EnvironmentA Relational Framework Rhetoric, Identity and Nature Globalization, Agency and TrustPART FOUR: SENSING NATUREIntroductionNature, Space and VisionNature and the Other SensesConclusionPART FIVE: NATURE AND TIMEIntroductionThe Social Sciences and TimeDifferent Times in and of NatureMemories of NaturePART SIX: NATURE AS COUNTRYSIDEINTRODUCTIONProducing Countryside SpacesLandscapes of DisciplineThe Countryside and AmbivalenceSpatial Practices in the CountrysidePART SEVEN: SUSTAINING NATUREIntroductionSustainability as New Public DiscourseSustainability Discourse and Daily PracticeFraming Environmental ConcernsConclusionPART EIGHT: GOVERNING NATURESummarizingMad CowsGlobalizing the NationGoverning Nature