ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a rather different line of critique that has been levelled at managerial approaches, namely that they fail to consider sufficiently both the social causes of environmental change and environmental management/mismanagement. It illustrates how social context may be seen as crucial in understanding the application and nonapplication of environmental good practice. The chapter highlights different ways in which the responsibility and consequences of environmental degradation are commonly assigned to particular social groups. It considers claims that capitalism may not only produce environmental problems, but may also be made solve them. Many environmentalists argued that feeding a herbivore such as cattle with feed made from other animals was unnatural and therefore potentially dangerous. Environmental problems such as global warming or depletion of the ozone layer are often presented as being the outcome of myriad individual actions that more or less everyone is seen to perform.
