Leach, Melissa

Overview

Works:	100 works in 207 publications in 3 languages and 4,925 library holdings
Roles:	Editor
Classifications:	ge170, 333.72

Publication Timeline

1980 |

|2020

Key

Publications about Melissa Leach

Publications by Melissa Leach

Most widely held works by Melissa Leach

Negotiating environmental change new perspectives from social science ( Book )
9 editions published between 2002 and 2003 in English and held by 888 libraries worldwide
Global environmental change will be with us forever, but how it happens in the future, and with what effect on the planet and its peoples, depends to a large extent on how the international agreements, national politics and local actions play out. This collection assesses these interconnections.

Misreading the African landscape : society and ecology in a forest-savanna mosaic by James Fairhead ( Book )
8 editions published between 1996 and 2002 in English and held by 494 libraries worldwide
Islands of dense forest in the savanna of 'forest' Guinea have long been regarded by both scientists and policy-makers as the last relics of a once more extensive forest cover, degraded and degrading fast due to its inhabitants' land use. Through meticulous use of historical sources, and an investigation of inhabitants' technical knowledge and practices, James Fairhead and Melissa Leach question these entrenched assumptions. They show, on the contrary, how people have created forest islands around their villages, and how they have turned fallow vegetation more woody, so that population growth has implied more forest, not less. They also consider the origins, persistence and consequences of a century of erroneous policy. Interweaving historical, social anthropological and ecological data, this unique study advances a novel theoretical framework for ecological anthropology, forcing a radical re-examination of some central tenets in each of these disciplines.

Dynamic sustainabilities technology, environment, social justice by Melissa Leach ( Book )
5 editions published in 2010 in English and held by 477 libraries worldwide
Introducing a new pathways approach for understanding and responding to sustainability challenges, this title explores practical ways forward for building pathways to sustainability.

Epidemics science, governance, and social justice ( Book )
4 editions published in 2010 in English and held by 430 libraries worldwide
Recent disease events such as SARS, H1N1 and avian influenza, and haemorrhagic fevers have focussed policy and public concern as never before on epidemics and so-called 'emerging infectious diseases'. Understanding and responding to these often unpredictable events have become major challenges for local, national and international bodies. All too often, responses can become restricted by implicit assumptions about who or what is to blame that may not capture the dynamics and uncertainties at play in the multi-scale interactions of people, animals and microbes. As a result, policies intended to.

Reframing deforestation : global analyses and local realities ; studies in West Africa by James Fairhead ( Book )
4 editions published between 1998 and 2003 in English and held by 401 libraries worldwide
Reframing Deforestation suggests that the scale of destruction wrought by West African farmers during the twentieth century has been vastly exaggerated and global analyses have unfairly stigmatized them.

The lie of the land : challenging received wisdom on the African environment ( Book )
7 editions published between 1996 and 2003 in English and held by 345 libraries worldwide
"Images of children starving because of environmental destruction have become an integral part of the way that Africa is perceived in the north. That is a typical signpost to the lie of the land. This book questions the reasoning behind such images." "How do environmental orthodoxies become established? Historically informed research in this book shows that many of the orthodoxies are ill-conceived or represent the interests of certain powerful groups." "What are the alternative and appropriate approaches for policy-making? This pioneering book draws eleven key cases together to explore their commonalities. Challenges to received wisdom have reached a critical mass which allows comparative analysis." "On what experience do these contributors draw? first hand research in different ecological zones; experience in different aspects of rural production; ecology, soil science, geography, social anthropology, economics and history."--BOOK JACKET.

Vaccine anxieties : global science, child health and society by Melissa Leach ( Book )
8 editions published in 2007 in English and held by 296 libraries worldwide
One of the most insightful and compelling analyses of a modern public health paradox.? Richard Horton Editor of The Lancet?A remarkable anthropological comparison across continents this book is about common anxieties and different circumstances as they colour people?s lives. The empirical studies at its core show us parents struggling with global science with stereotypes about ignorance with the delivery of medical services all framed by their personal knowledge and experiences. Vaccination offers a brilliant case study for a brilliant exposition.? Marilyn Strathern DBE Professor of Social A.

Rainforest relations : gender and resource use among the Mende of Gola, Sierra Leone by Melissa Leach ( Book )
9 editions published in 1994 in English and held by 295 libraries worldwide

Science and citizens : globalization and the challenge of engagement ( Book )
8 editions published between 2005 and 2007 in English and held by 277 libraries worldwide
"This book brings together for the first time authors from diverse experiences and analytical traditions, encouraging a conversation between science and technology and development studies around issues of science, citizenship and globalisation. It reflects on the nature of expertise; the framing of knowledge; processes of public engagement; and issues of rights, justice and democracy. A wide variety of pressing issues is explored, such as medical genetics, agricultural biotechnology, occupational health and HIV/AIDS."--BOOK JACKET.

Science, society and power : environmental knowledge and policy in West Africa and the Caribbean by James Fairhead ( Book )
2 editions published in 2003 in English and held by 249 libraries worldwide

Environmental entitlements : a framework for understanding the institutional dynamics of environmental change by Melissa Leach ( Book )
4 editions published in 1997 in English and held by 54 libraries worldwide

Dealing with displacement : refugee-host relations, food and forest resources in Sierra Leonean Mende communities during the Liberian influx, 1990-91 by Melissa Leach ( Book )
2 editions published in 1992 in English and held by 53 libraries worldwide

Integrating gender into environmental research and policy by Susan P Joekes ( Book )
5 editions published in 1996 in English and held by 46 libraries worldwide
Many interventions in the environment sector have given women a role in projects in the hope that this would assist the project as well as benefiting women themselves. But across a whole range of sectors, outcomes have often been disappointing and sometimes even damaging to women. Women have often been treated, in effect, as a source of cheap labour, and have been sidelined in the management of projects. This study looks at the reasons why this has happened, blaming it on a flawed conceptualisation of gender relations that ignores the differing interests of men and women. Recommendations on how women's interests can be better safeguarded are proposed.

Food security and the environment : conflict or complementarity by Susanna Davies ( Book )
3 editions published in 1991 in English and held by 45 libraries worldwide

Trees to meet contingencies : savings and security for the rural poor by Robert Chambers ( Book )
3 editions published in 1987 in English and held by 36 libraries worldwide

Science and citizenship in a global context by Melissa Leach ( Book )
4 editions published in 2003 in English and held by 30 libraries worldwide
Shifting science-society relationships are highly relevant both to contemporary practices of citizenship, their expressions, and to questions around the dynamics of 'participation'. Political and economic changes are altering the contexts, spaces and ways that people perceive and act on citizenship rights, as are scientific and technological changes and the new risks and opportunities they present. Today these issues are reflected perhaps most clearly in the extensive academic, policy and media debates which explore contemporary relations between risk, science and society. In this paper we begin to explore these issues in a globally-comparative frame, providing a review of some of the dominant lines of work in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Development Studies (DS) which reflect on the relationships between science and citizenship. First we consider major emphases in how each has conceived of the relationships between 'experts' and 'lay knowledges', revealing some important contrasts in their approaches. We then go on to examine how different notions of citizenship have been incorporated into these debates, whether explicitly or implicitly. We show that approaches to participation and deliberation, now central to thinking and action in a scientific context in both north and south, are underlain by particular concepts of the citizen, which variously enable and constrain their transformative potential. Today these processes take place in a globalised context, and in a third section we reflect on how this context forces us to redefine further the relationships between science and citizenship. We show in this context why it is necessary to go beyond static, universalised and essentialised notions of citizenship and a singular notion of the state, to embrace a more fluid, de-centred, and experience-based notion of both citizenship and expertise, but without losing sight of the historical, political and institutional structures which shape often highly contrasting forms of engagement.

Childhood vaccination and society in the Gambia : public engagement with science and delivery by James Fairhead ( Book )
2 editions published in 2004 in English and held by 27 libraries worldwide

MMR mobilisation : citizens and science in a British vaccine controversy by Melissa Leach ( Book )
4 editions published in 2005 in English and held by 25 libraries worldwide

Second nature building forests in savanna ( Visual )
1 edition published in 1996 in English and held by 25 libraries worldwide
Contrary to widely-held notions that West Africa's transition zone (one of the world's most ecologically fragile areas) is undergoing rapid deforestation at the hands of local villagers/farmers, two British and one Guinean social anthropologists, after doing much in-depth research in Guinea's Kissidougou prefecture, have shown that local villagers/farmers have been using their skills in transforming savanna to forest, and that, therefore, forest in Kissidougou is actually on the increase.

MMR "choices" in Brighton : understanding public engagement with vaccination science and delivery by Mike Poltorak ( Book )
5 editions published in 2004 in English and held by 22 libraries worldwide
In the context of the high-profile controversy that has unfolded in the UK around the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and its possible adverse effects, this paper addresses how parents in Brighton are thinking about MMR for their own children. Research focusing on parents' engagement with MMR has been dominated by analysis of the proximate influences on their choices, and in particular scientific and media information, guiding policy to focus on information and education. The ethnographic work in Brighton reported in this paper, to be complemented by survey work, begins to question the validity of such reasoning by showing how wider personal and social issues shape parents' immunisation actions. Extended parental narratives show how parents' practices around MMR are shaped by their personal histories, by birth experiences and related feelings of control, by family health histories, by their readings of their child's health and particular strengths and vulnerabilities, by particular engagements with health services, by processes of confidence-building and undermining, and by friendships and conversations with others, which are themselves shaped by wider social differences and transformations. 'MMR talk' has become a social phenomenon. Many see vaccination as a personal decision which must respond to the particularities of a child's immune system. These perspectives both challenge key tenets of public health policy, and suggest ways in which people's engagements with MMR reflect wider changes in their relations with science and the state.