Book excerpt: This book presents a selection of major research texts by Prof. Dr. Lourdes Arizpe Schlosser, a Mexican Pioneer in Anthropology. A global intellectual leader on culture, social development, sustainability, women's studies and indigenous groups, her texts provide both an outlook on the evolution of specific social scientific concepts and historical debates and a long-term and meta-analytical perspective integrating academic and policy discussions. By linking debates from different fields, the book helps readers to understand why people and groups make the choices they make and how the principles of social life must change to meet the challenges that new generations face in building social sustainability and effective environmental management in the twenty-first century.