Mercury Stories

The book demonstrates a multifaceted conceptualization of sustainability, considering societal, technical, and environmental factors while highlighting the importance of both deep technical knowledge and responsive governmental institutions for effective management. Perhaps the most valuable contribution is the matrixed analytical framework, which could be applied in the understanding and management of a broad range of complex sustainability challenges. Viewed in this way, the book should interest all scholars focusing on sustainability and socioenvironmental systems. --CHOICE With a uniquely historical perspective and richly detailed case studies, Mercury Stories offers a new approach for systematically thinking through every element of sustainability as a human, technical, and environmental matter. --Harriet Bulkeley, Professor, Durham University and Utrecht University Mercury Stories presents a conceptually novel, operationally useful systems framework for analyzing complex interactions among technology, society, and nature, showing how attention to knowledge and institutions can help manage such interactions in pursuit of sustainability. --William C. Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development; Director, Sustainability Science Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Mercury Stories offers a valuable contribution to sustainability science by employing a systems perspective to analyze humanity's complex interrelationship with mercury. The book illuminates how mercury pollution led to a regulatory revolution in 1970s Japan and ultimately the world through the Minamata Convention. --Kazuhiko Takeuchi, President, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies