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Sustainable development is a policy approach that has gained quite a lot of popularity in recent years, especially in international circles. By attaching a specific interpretation to sustainability, population control policies have become the overriding approach to development, thus becoming the primary tool used to “promote” economic development in developing countries and to protect the environment. These policies, however, have failed to achieve either goal. By analyzing the theoretical underpinning of such policies as well as the available scientific research, this paper aims at bringing some light to these results. The findings suggest that, while the focus on population is not necessarily incorrect, the policies implemented are mistaken since they hamper the growth of a key element of economic development: human capital, and thus render it unsustainable.

Many writers have addressed the similarities and differences between the analytical approaches of Marx and Veblen. The crucial concerns in these interpretations centre on Darwinian evolution and the analysis of capitalism. By focusing on the analysis of capitalism, most Marxists have found considerable compatibility between Veblen′s writings and those of Marx. Many institutionalists, on the other hand, have tended to stress the Darwinian content of both Veblen and Marx and have found Marx′s analysis decidedly inferior to Veblen′s. It is argued that it was Engels rather than Marx who attempted to incorporate Darwin into Marxism. As a consequence, Engels is compared with Veblen and the attempts of both writers to develop a Darwinian content to their analytical approaches are found to lead to a common bond, namely the stress on procreation.

Ecosystem-based approaches to human health, also known as Ecohealth approaches, fall in an emerging field of study that focuses on understanding how social, political and economic factors shape people–environment interactions and consequently influence human health. The approach integrates scientific and local perspectives to develop interventions aimed at improving human health through sustainable ecosystem management.

Three principles are central to traditional ecohealth approaches: (1) transdisciplinarity which integrates the expertise of professionals from the natural, health and social sciences with those of other stakeholders; (2) community participation; and (3) social equity and gender relations.

However, the extent to which these concepts benefit from rigorous theoretical analysis is still very limited. As an emerging field of study, the use of poststructuralist, feminist, postcolonial, and political ecology perspectives is still limited. This chapter illustrates the application of critical theory to the conceptual and methodological tools used in ecohealth research and practice.

Critical theory is used to examine people–environment interactions, transdisciplinarity, community participation, and social equity and gender relations. The discussion is informed by an ecohealth project conducted in the Upper West region of Ghana.

As an emerging field of study, ecohealth is yet to benefit from rigorous critical theoretical frameworks that are used to examine health and environment issues in other subdisciplines. This chapter illustrates the application of these perspectives to ecohealth.

This is the first chapter that outlines a critically informed approach to ecohealth research and practice.

This chapter explores how the irruption of plastic materials in contemporary society, in the same way that it facilitated a wide range of human activities, eventually degenerated into a global danger through the contamination of rivers and seas, damaging the human food chain. In doing so, the historical background of this situation has been outlined. Moreover, the countries and areas at present that have polluting plastic substances and those that can be most easily recycled is highlighted. It should be noted that it is precisely in the area of recyclability where most hopes have been placed to counteract plastic contamination aimed at avoiding single-use plastic products. Subsequently, the different positions adopted by the members of society on this problem have been described and, by way of example, the state of the situation in a specific country, Spain, has been summarised.

The purpose of this paper is to take up and contribute to understanding an important emerging theme in recent literature on global environmental change and socio‐ecological issues (including Slaughter's The Biggest Wake‐up Call in History): “positive reframing”. The paper also aims to deepen consideration of the potential for “overshoot and collapse” futures and related concerns by foresight practitioners.

The paper is based on, and presents, a thematic analytical literature review.

In total, four underlying drivers of increased reframing and four central themes in positive reframes are identified; mental “frames” informing and limiting foresight work need to be openly communicated and reflected on – such practitioner reflexivity is often missing in foresight work, such as in The Biggest Wake‐up Call in History by Richard Slaughter.

The paper includes discussion of the implications for futures practice, including the role of mental frames and reframing. The author suggests futures practitioners can play important new roles in challenging the recent re‐emergence of influential forms of environmental determinism and foresight practitioners need to be more wary of the potential for “narrative bias”.

Futures assessment is increasingly needed to guide policy and action in improving human‐environment relations. Barriers and opportunities to fulfilling this societal need must be understood.

The paper helps to deepen the consideration of “re‐framing” and environmental limits by foresight practitioners and theorists. In doing so, the paper also brings in new concepts from other fields (such as cognitive psychology and Science and Technology Studies) into the foresight/futures field.

This study examines whether unemployment affects the relationship between income inequality and food security in 143 advanced and developing economies from 2000 to 2019. The authors specifically explore whether unemployment can weaken the negative impact of income inequality on food security.

The authors estimate a new and robust index of food security using a generalized least squares approach. The authors then employ the system generalized method of moments to estimate the model as it allows the authors to control for endogeneity and simultaneity. The authors estimate an interaction term to account for the moderating impact of unemployment.

The authors consistently find that income inequality has a negative and significant association with food security. However, the results differ between advance and developing economies. The authors find that unemployment rates have a negative relationship with food security in the sample of developing countries, where high levels of unemployment exacerbate the adverse effects of income inequality on food security. This is insignificant for advanced economies.

The major limitation lies in the use of aggregated data, which overlooks the issue of food security at the household or individual level.

Policymakers in developing economies can ensure job security in order to lessen the adverse effects of income inequality on food security.

This study provides new empirical evidence on whether unemployment can potentially moderate and alleviate the impact of income inequality in advanced and developing economies.

This chapter is about the theories explaining the transition from foraging to farming. It aims to establish which links exist between the traditional theories – based on push/pull models – and the micro-founded approaches developed since the 1980s. More precisely, it asks how the latter may contribute, as the former did, to defining a macro-narrative of the transition to farming.

While they were providing a global narrative of the Neolithic revolution, the push and pull models have been progressively dismissed. Recent research is diverse, but it is all based upon human behaviour or micro-founded. We critically examine three of these approaches which focus either on foraging behaviour, or on the initial domestication of plants and animals, or on the evolution of social institutions related to ownership.

We demonstrate that these recent micro-founded approaches only provide a partial vision of the transition to farming. Despite this limit, they conciliate push and pull explanations in a single framework. Moreover, they confirm a conclusion held by tenants of pull models: the transition to farming is more likely to have occurred in a resource-rich environment such as the one associated with complex hunter-gatherers. Some archaeological evidence from the Levant is provided to support our claim.

This research chapter provides a useful overview of the differing approaches to the behavioural, environmental and economic factors that led to the shift to farming from foraging. Its value lies in the way it presents and evaluates differing positions derived from differing scales of analysis and types of evidence.