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Organizations and Environment

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Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Synonyms

Bureaucracy; Climate change; Ecological modernization; Risk society; Sustainable development

Definition

Organizations – groupings of people in society that come together for specific purposes – have an impact on the natural environment and the natural environment, in turn, influences organizations.

Introduction

Human society profoundly shapes the natural environment. We harvest natural resources, build elaborate urban settings, and deposit waste from economic processes back into nature. These processes produce deforestation, pollution, reduce biodiversity, and transform ecosystems. While it is common knowledge that human society influences nature, the converse is also true. The biophysical world shapes human society. Poverty and abundance, family and industry, are impacted by the landscape, stocks of natural resources, and weather. Human settlements follow the contours of watersheds. Economies are differently endowed with natural resource riches. At its core, the scholarship...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University, Campus Box 4660, Normal, IL, 61790, USA

    Michael L. Dougherty & T. W. Dondanville

Authors
  1. Michael L. Dougherty
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  2. T. W. Dondanville
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael L. Dougherty .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Dougherty, M.L., Dondanville, T.W. (2017). Organizations and Environment. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_29-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_29-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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