Originally published in 1988, reissued now with a new series introduction, Environmental Perspectives was the first in a trilogy of books to open the series Ethnoscapes: Current Challenges in the Environmental Social Sciences. These three titles brought together specially commissioned contributions that cover much of the range of topics that the series as a whole would cover. Although the following volumes would not have the same format, the opening trilogy gave an overview of what was to come, while also providing a broad base for the future authors to build upon.

The first of these volumes focuses, essentially, on theory. It brings together papers covering our growing understanding of the ways in which human actions are integrated within our knowledge of the places in which those actions occur. The contributors also explore the social historical antecedents that give meaning to our everyday surroundings, as well as the psychological underpinnings to aesthetic experience.