This is the second volume to result from a 1997 conference held at the Woudschoten Conference Center in Zeist, Netherlands. It contains major revisions of several papers from the conference plus a few written specifically for this text. Fifteen chapters, contributed by 18 international scholars, provide an introduction to recent theoretical developments within environmental sociology. Coverage includes classical and twentieth-century social theories, macro-micro linkage issues, globalization and development, reflexive modernization, risk society, constructionalism-realism, environmental movements/identities, consumption and the environment, and cultural sociologies of the environment. For scholars and students in sociology and environmental studies. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
This comprehensive survey and assessment of sociological theories of the relations between societies and their 'natural' biophysical environment touches on and addresses virtually all of the major perspectives, focal points, and debates in environmental sociology today. At the same time, the book aims to go beyond an inventory of environmental sociological theory by stressing how new ground can be broken in the articulation of environmental sociology with major classical and contemporary sociological theories.
Arvustused
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. -- William R. Freudenburg, University of Wisconsin Anyone with an interest in sociology and how this discipline has met the challenge of addressing the human/environment interaction will find this book rewarding. It provides a rich but critical overview of the contributions of classical sociologists such as Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber; the more recent Niklas Luhman, Theodor Adorno, and Jurgen Habermas; and contemporary writing on modernity and culture by Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck. * Environment * A unique book giving clear evidence of the relevance of all major traditional and contemporary social theories for understanding how modern society deals with the contemporary environmental crisis. Remarkably comprehensive and accessible, the book is essential reading for scholars and students in sociology and environmental studies. -- Arthur P. J. Mol, Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and Renmin University, China
Preface vii Part I: Introduction and Overview Sociological Theory and the Environment: An Overview and Introduction 3(32) Frederick H. Buttel Peter Dickens Riley E. Dunlap August Gijswijt Part II: The Classical Tradition and Environmental Sociology Environmental Sociology and the Classical Sociological Tradition: Some Observations on Current Controversies 35(16) Frederick H. Buttel A Green Marxism? Labor Processes, Alienation, and the Division of Labor 51(22) Peter Dickens Ecological Materialism and the Sociology of Max Weber 73(17) Raymond Murphy Has the Durkheim Legacy Misled Sociology? 90(29) William R. Catton Jr. Part III: Environmental Sociology and Twentieth-Century Sociological Theory Social Theory and the Environment: A Systems-Theoretical Perspective 119(25) Elim Papadakis Dynamic Constellations of the Individual, Society, and Nature: Critical Theory and Environmental Sociology 144(23) Peter Wehling World-System Theory and the Environment: Toward a New Synthesis 167(30) J. Timmons Roberts Peter E. Grimes Part IV: Sociological Theory and Environmental Sociology in the Late 1990s: Modernity, Culture, and the Natural World Modernity, Politics, and the Environment: A Theoretical Perspective 197(33) Ornulf Seippel Inconspicuous Consumption: The Sociology of Consumption, Lifestyles, and the Environment 230(22) Elizabeth Shove Alan Warde Social Theory and Ecological Politics: Reflexive Modernization or Green Socialism? 252(22) Ted Benton The Social Construction of Environmental Problems: A Theoretical Review and Some Not-Very-Herculean Labors 274(12) Steven Yearley When the Global Meets the Local: Critical Reflections on Reflexive Modernization 286(25) Rosemary B. McKechnie Ian Welsh Cultural Analysis and Environmental Theory: An Agenda 311(18) John Hannigan Part V: Sociological Paradigms and Environmental Sociology Paradigms, Theories, and Environmental Sociology 329(22) Riley E. Dunlap Index 351(4) About the Contributors 355
Riley E. Dunlap is Boeing Distinguished Professor of Environmental Sociology at Washington State University and past president of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on Environment and Society. Frederick H. Buttel is professor of rural sociology and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is currently president of the Environment and Society Research Committee of the International Sociological Association. Peter Dickens is senior research fellow, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK. He is also fellow and director of studies at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. August Gijswijt retired as an environmental sociologist from the University of Amsterdam in 1998. In 1990 he and Gyorgy Szell founded the Research Committee on Environment and Science.
