Sociological Theory and the Environment

Classical Foundations, Contemporary Insights

Contributions by Ted Benton, Frederick Buttel, Madison, William R. Catton, Uk, Riley Dunlap, Peter Grimes, John Hannigan University of Toronto, Rosemary McKechnie, Raymond Murphy University of Ottawa, Elim Papadakis, Timmons Roberts, Ornulf Seippel, Elizabeth Shove, Alan Warde, Peter Wehling, Ian Welsh, Steve Yearley Edited by Riley E. Dunlap, Frederick H. Buttel, Peter Dickens, August Gijswijt

Publication date:

29 December 2001

Length of book:

384 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

231x155mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780742501867

Sociological Theory and the Environment is a comprehensive survey and assessment of sociological theories of the relations between societies and their "natural" biophysical environment. This book touches on and addresses virtually all of the major perspectives, focal points, and debates in environmental sociology today—classical and twentieth century social theories, macro-micro linkage issues, globalization and development, reflexive modernization, ecological modernization vs. "limits" viewpoints, modernity and post modernity, risk society, constructionalism-realism, environmental movements/identities, consumption and environment, cultural sociologies of the environment, and so on. At the same time, the book aims to go beyond an inventory of environmental sociological theory. Sociological Theory and the Environment stresses how new ground can be broken in the articulation of environmental sociology with major classical and contemporary sociological theories.

Part 1 Preface
Part 2 I Introduction and Overview
Chapter 3 1 Sociological Theory and the Environment: An Overview and Introduction
Part 4 II The Classical Tradition and Environmental Sociology
Chapter 5 2 Environmental Sociology and the Classical Sociological Tradition: Some Observations on Current Controversies
Chapter 6 3 A Green Marxism? Labor-Processes, Alienation, and the Division of Labor
Chapter 7 4 Ecological Materialism and the Sociology of Max Weber
Chapter 8 5 Has the Durkheim Legacy Misled Sociology?
Part 9 III Environmental Sociology and Twentieth Century Sociological Theory
Chapter 10 6 Social Theory and the Environment: A Systems-Theoretical Perspective
Chapter 11 7 Dynamic Constellations of the Individual, Society, and Nature: Critical Theory and Environmental Sociology
Chapter 12 8 World-System Theory and the Environment: Toward a New Synthesis
Part 13 IV Sociological Theory and Environmental Sociology in the Late 1990s: Modernity, Culture, and the Natural World
Chapter 14 9 Modernity, Politics, and the Environment: A Theoretical Perspective
Chapter 15 10 Inconspicuous Consumption: The Sociology of Consumption, Lifestyles, and the Environment
Chapter 16 11 Social Theory and Ecological Politics: Reflexive Modernization or Green Socialism?
Chapter 17 12 The Social Construction of Environmental Problems: A Theoretical Review and Some Not-Very Herculean Labors
Chapter 18 13 When the Global Meet the Local: Critical Reflections on Reflexive Modernisation
Chapter 19 14 Cultural Analysis and Environmental Theory: An Agenda
Part 20 V Sociological Paradigms and Environmental Sociology
Chapter 21 15 Paradigms, Theories, and Environmental Sociology
Part 22 Index
Part 23 About the Editors
24 About the Contributors

In the past few years, the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Environmental Sociology has emerged as one of the world's liveliest and most important for the exchange of ideas about the relationships between environment and society. This volume on sociological theory and the environment grows out of a particularly important international workshop on the same topic that was sponsored by that Research Committee, and it summarizes some of the most important thinking that has recently been done in the area. As such, it offers a valuable compilation of some of the most thoughtful work now available on this increasingly significant topic.