The Environment: Between Theory and Practice. By Avner de-Shalit. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 238p. $60.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Although there is a lot of it about, environmental philosophy has so far had little influence on the world of environmental politics and policy, avers de-Shalit in this fine contribution to ecological political theory. In this assessment he is quite right. As someone who believes there should be a role in public discourse for the philosopher, de-Shalit seeks to provide a remedy for this deficiency. Why should the rest of us care?

Moral Imperatives and Political Realities

Thomas Weiss's essay is a fine contribution to the current conversation within the humanitarian international, but there is a worrying absence of a broader, extra-humanitarian context in the discussion. There is no question that “Human Rightsism” has become the dominant political ideology of the international new class, and the common currency of UN treaties, academic conferences, and charitable foundation mission statements.What remains open to question is whether, in the field, where humanitarians and human rights activists do their work, this revolution is real, or whether it is instead a fiction well-intentioned Westerners have chosen to believe in because otherwise the realities of the contemporary world would seem too bleak. It is an ironic reality that humanitarian workers and human rights activists have become the last interventionists. But should the humanitarian movement be embarking down the path of demanding more political action and, when necessary in order to allow humanitarians to do their work, military intervention? Should, as relief agencies insist, humanitarian considerations always take pride of place? There are unexamined assumptions here that need to be thought through more rigorously than those engaged in the debate have seemed willing to do.

Development, Change, and Gender in Cairo

Since the late 1980s, the literature on women living in the Middle East hasshown an uneven but progressive sophistication in its approach. The view ofbackward, oppressed, submissive women is gradually being replaced by anunderstanding that women in the Middle East, like women anywhere, are "rational"actors, fully cognizant of their environment and situations. Books such asEveryday Life in the Muslim Middle East,1 and Muslim Women's Choices:Religious Belief and Social Reality2 are examples of this welcome ttend.Development, Change, and Gender in Cairo: A View from the Household, editedby Diane Singerman and Homa Hoodfar, is a fine contribution lo this newgenre. The essays in this book not only show that Cairene women are intelligentand comprehending observers of Egyptian society, but that they are also activeparticipants in their society-acting upon it, as well as being acted upon. Wewould hardly need a scholarly book lo tell us this, if it were not for the sttengthand prevalence of the negative stereotype of the "oppressed/silenced/submissiveMuslim woman," contributed lo in no small measure by previous scholarlybooks!Development, Change, and Gender in Cairo: A View from the Householdcontains seven essays detailing various aspects of low-income Cairene women'slives, plus an introduction by the editors which sets the more focused empiricalessays into broader theoretical context The volume is an interdisciplinary work,with contributions from sociologists, anthropologists, communications special ...

Religion, Economics and Social Thought

This is a wide-ranging and fascinating collection of papers dealing withthe impact of religion on what may be called the social economy. It is anecumenical volume in that it begins with the Catholic Church then considersseveraJ forms of Protestantism, then goes on to discus Judaism, and finallyconsiders Islam. It should be clear that the volume is predominantly "Christian,"but the effort to include the other monotheistic religions is very welcome.One difficulty in reviewing this volume is that many of the papers areinformative but not representative of the religious traditions they represent.Thus A. M. C. Waterman's piece describes a particular phase of Anglicansocial thought, and the same is true of the one by Paul Heyne. Perhaps anoverview is po ible only for those movements which are no longer active,a in Ronald Preston's fine contribution on Christian Socialism in Britain.I must confess some surprise on finding the vigor with which any perceiveddefect of the market was defended.For Muslims, some of the most interesting points about this volume areto be found in the instances of active politicians who took strong religiousstands. Abraham Kuyper's vision of neo-Calvinism is the outstanding examplein the paper by Bob Goudzwaard, but Waterman's presentation of PrimeMinister Margaret Thatcher's views are equally revealing. Of less practicalimport, but nonetheles equally intriguing, is the account by John Yoder ofthe "First Reformation" in Czechoslovakia as well as the reasons for the neglectof this movement-lack of political support, linguistic distance from We ternEurope, and an ab ence of shared doctrinal formulations.The description of Judaism and the Market Mechanism by Meir Tamariprovides many parallels with Islamic market supervi ion, and there is even ...