What is missing in the mounting literature on globalization is a focused theoretical foundation with parallel empirical examinations of global structures and their environmental consequences. The articles in this volume examine how the world-economy and related non-economic forms of global structuring impact the natural environment and the living conditions of human populations living across the globe. Environmental dynamics in areas as diverse as Ancient Egypt and the Modern Amazon are presented for readers who are new to the world-systems approach and for others interested in recent efforts to link environmental outcomes and antecedents to global processes.

About the AuthorAndrew K. Jorgenson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Utah. His research on the environmental and human well being impacts of world economic and world society integration appear in numerous journals including Social Forces, Social Problems, and International Sociology. He is current co-editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research.

Edward L. Kick is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at North Carolina State University. He has published articles on world-system structures and change in the modern era, as well as various papers that link world-system structure to national attributes such as economic development and the structure of organizations.