The Harold and Margaret Sprout Award
The Harold and Margaret Sprout Award was established in 1972 and named in honor of two pioneers in the study of international environmental problems. The award is given annually to the best book in the field – one that makes a contribution to theory and interdisciplinarity, shows rigor and coherence in research and writing, and offers accessibility and practical relevance. Nominated books should address some aspect of one or more environmental, pollution or resource issues from a broadly international or transnational perspective, including works in (for example) global, interstate, transboundary, North-South, foreign policy, comparative or area studies. Environmental subjects of books can include (for example) environmental law, diplomacy, transnational activism, natural resource use, global change, sustainable development, biodiversity, transboundary pollution control, and the like.
Nominated works must be published during the two years prior to the year they are nominated for. Books with a copyright date of the award year are welcome provided that they are released by the previous year’s end. Each publisher may nominate more than one book, and books nominated for the prior year can be re-nominated. The committee members will begin reading the books as soon as they arrive. The committee must complete its review and reach its decision by the beginning of the award year in time for presentation of the award at the annual meeting of the ISA in February or March. Therefore, we need to receive notice of nominations and receive copies of nominated books by 1 August.
- Publishers wishing to nominate books should send one copy of each book to each member of the Sprout Award Committee. The names and current mailing addresses of committee members can be obtained by sending an email to the Sprout Committee chair Charles Roger at croger@ibei.org.
Year Recipient Title
2019 Jessica Steinberg Mines, Communities and States: The Local Politics of Natural Resource Extraction in Africa.
2018 (two winners) Liliana Andonova Governance Entrepreneurs: International Organizations and the Rise of Global Public-Private Partnerships
(Cambridge UP)
2018 (two winners) Tim Bartley Rules without Rights:
Land, Labor and Private Authority in the Global Economy
(Oxford UP)
2017 Thomas Princen, Jack P. Manno and Pamela L. Martin Ending the Fossil Fuel Era
2016 Sikina Jinnah Post-Treaty Politics: Secretariat Influence in Global Environmental Governance
2015 Jessica F. Green Rethinking Private Authority: Agents and Entrepreneurs in Global Environmental Governance
2014 Joanna I. Lewis Green Innovation in China: China’s Wind Power Industry and the Global Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy
2014 Jeannie L. Sowers (runner-up) Environmental Politics in Egypt: Activists, Experts, and the State
2013 Andrew S. Mathews Instituting Nature: Authority, Expertise, and Power in Mexican Forests
2012 Rob Nixon Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor
2011 Daniel Bodansky The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law
2010 D.G. Webster Adaptive Governance: The Dynamics of Atlantic Fisheries Management
2009 Steve Vanderheiden Atmospheric Justice: A Political Theory of Climate Change
2008 David Humphreys Logjam: Deforestation and the Crisis of Global Governance
2007 Thomas Princen The Logic of Sufficiency
2006 Ken Conca Governing Water: Contentious Transnational Politics and Global Institution Building
2005 Benjamin Cashore Governing Through Markets – Forest Certification and the Emergence of Non-State Authority
2004 Edward A. Parson Protecting the Ozone Layer
2003 Thomas Princen Confronting Consumption
2002 Paul F. Steinberg Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries: Transnational Relations and Biodiversity Policy in Costa Rica and Bolivia
2001 Roni Garcia-Johnson Exporting Environmentalism: U.S. Multinational Chemical Corporations in Brazil and Mexico
2000 Yok-shiu F. Lee/ Alvin Y. So Asia’s Environmental Movements: Comparative Perspectives
1999 Nicholas Low and Brendan Gleeson Justice, Society, and Nature: An Exploration of Political Ecology
1998 Peter Dauvergne Shadows in the Forest: Japan and the Politics of Timber in Southeast Asia
1997 Paul Kevin Wapner Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics
1996 Marian A. L. Miller The Third World in Global Environmental Politics
1995 Ronald B. Mitchell Intentional Oil Pollution at Sea: Environmental Policy and Treaty Compliance
1994 Oran R. Young and Gail Osherenko Polar Politics: Creating International Environmental Regimes
Jon M. Van Dyke, Durwood Zaelke and Grant Hewison Freedom for the Seas in the 21st Century: Ocean Governance And Environmental Harmony
1993 William R. Cline The Economics of Global Warming
1992 Elinor Ostrom Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
1991 World Resources Institute and International Institute for Environment and Development World Resources 1990-91: A Guide to the Global Environment
1990 H. Jeffrey Leonard Pollution and the Struggle for the World Product: Multinational Corporations, Environment, and International Comparative Advantage
1989 Barbara Jancar-Webster Environmental Management in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia: Structure and Regulation in Federal Communist States
1986 James K. Sebenius Negotiating the Law of the Sea: Lessons in the Art and Science of Reaching Agreement
1985 Lynton Caldwell International Environmental Policy: Emergence and Dimensions
1981 R. Michael McGonigle and Mark Zacher Pollution, Politics, and International Law: Tankers at Sea
Kenneth Dahlberg Beyond the Green Revolution
1977 Amory Lovins Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken
(Cambridge UP)
Land, Labor and Private Authority in the Global Economy
(Oxford UP)