'With Environmental Governance Arild Vatn succeeds in building a bridge between textbook, reference work and an original contribution to public debate. The various uses find support through the index and clear structure. The book is thus unconditionally recommended to every interested institutional and ecological economist. In addition, readers with other disciplinary backgrounds will find an easily accessible work that deals with socio-ecological and governance research.' -- Okologisches Wirtschaften 'Arild Vatn, the leading classical institutional economist, adopts a novel critical realist perspective and brings insights from a lifetime of work to bear on our social ecological economic crises. In a balanced guide through the diverse interdisciplinary literature, markets are explained as contested socially created governance structures. Mainstream economists and pragmatic environmentalists will discover why their favoured market concepts and solutions are flawed. The environmental crisis requires a fundamental restructuring of the economy and new institutions.

Vatn helps us understand the dilemmas and ways forward.' --Clive L. Spash, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria 'The sweep, clarity, and elegance of Arild Vatn's treatment of institutions and governance is unrivaled. His focus on profound environmental threats-in this era of unbridled self-interest and income inequality-is both a moral triumph and a robust challenge to the hegemony of economistic justificationism in our daily life. Vatn shows that facile application of individualistic models of choice will always fail to reveal what ought to be done. Here we find a comprehensive treatment of all the difficulties-and possibilities-in crafting social rules to live by.' --Daniel W. Bromley, University of Wisconsin-Madison, US.