Ecology of Everday Life

While exploring the historical causes of this romantic "desire for nature, " Heller also offers a way to reconstruct ideas of both "nature" and "desire, " drawing from feminist, anarchist, and social ecological theory. She provides an activist response to ecological questions, arguing that the ecology movement too often links ecological problems to personal, psychological, and spiritual concerns, rather than to concerns of social justice. Yet rather than dismiss such personal and qualitative concerns, Heller links the desire for a more meaningful and integral quality of life to the activist impulse itself. Questioning assumptions about "nature, " "desire, " and "the ecological agenda, " the author encourages readers to consider new ways desiring nature that entail changes not only in personal life-style and outlook, but changes in social institutions as well.