What is Environmental Sociology?. Diana Stuart

What is Environmental Sociology? - Diana Stuart


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sociology emerged in the 1970s as a result of calls for new theories and methods that cast away Enlightenment notions of society as separate from nature, offering a more holistic (and realistic) understanding of the world. In a series of articles, Dunlap and Catton convincingly argued for a new kind of sociology involving a paradigmatic and methodological shift away from a solely anthropogenic focus (Catton and Dunlap 1978a, 1978b, 1980; Dunlap and Catton 1979, 1983). They called for a purposeful move away from the dominant human exceptionalism perspective in sociology toward one that incorporates ecological entities and processes. It has been over forty years since these articles were published, and a diverse body of scholarship has emerged in environmental sociology.

      It is important to know that sociology was not the only or first discipline to breach the nature-society divide. Human geographers were examining the relationships between people, place, and the environment long before environmental sociology existed. Anthropologists were also examining how people lived and related to their surroundings. In addition, human ecology, a subfield related to multiple disciplines, focused on relationships between humans and the biophysical world. In the past few decades, new areas of study have also emerged that cross the nature-society divide. Political ecology, a subdiscipline in geography, examines nature-society relations, focusing on power, marginalization, and political economy. Ecologists have also developed approaches to study the resilience of social-ecological systems. In summary, as the nature-society divide has been increasingly deemed false, scholars in a range of disciplines have developed new theories and approaches to examine nature and society together.

      In sociology, theories explain how society functions or how people act and relate to each other. Some theories explain how society works at a macro scale and focus on how the structures of social institutions, policies, and economic systems shape society. For example, Marxist theory posits that the mode of production, or how our economy is organized, creates a social order that results in specific class relations, power dynamics, and social and environmental outcomes. Other theories focus on individuals or groups of people and how they behave or interact with each other. For many years, social scientists debated whether it is the structure of our social order or choice and individual agency that most influence human behavior. Most scholars now agree that both are very important and that they are in many ways related. The ideas, beliefs, and choices of individuals are shaped and reinforced by the social order; and the ideas, beliefs, and actions of individuals are critical to either maintain or alter the social order.

      A variety of different social science methods are used in environmental sociology. These include both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative studies include examining survey and public opinion data to better understand attitudes, values, and beliefs. Surveys are also useful to understand behaviors. In addition, quantitative studies have looked at both social and biophysical data together to better understand correlations, drivers, and impacts. Quantitative work usually involves large data sets and statistical analysis, and has been used in some cases to test different social theories. Qualitative work in environmental sociology includes discourse or policy analysis, focus groups, and personal interviews to examine framing, influences, rationales, and justifications. While quantitative analysis might be better suited to understand what is happening and to what extent, as well as opinions, attitudes, and correlations, qualitative work is often needed to understand why people do or think what they do, and to expose influences that might otherwise be overlooked. Many publications in environmental sociology also focus on applications of theory to specific environmental issues; they may not use any primary data. All of this work contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the impacts on, drivers of, and solutions to environmental issues. Throughout the book, specific studies will be highlighted along with the methods used to illustrate the range of research conducted.

      Similarly, approaches from environmental sociology can be applied to studies that might be topically more associated with other subdisciplines. This includes science and technology studies (e.g., Lidskog and Sundqvist 2018), urban studies (e.g., Scanu 2015), migration (e.g., Ransan-Cooper 2016), and development (e.g., Givens et al. 2016, Westoby and Lyons 2016). Overall, the approaches from environmental sociology can be applied much more widely than the topics that were originally the focus of the subdiscipline. These approaches are also increasingly important in interdisciplinary work. There is growing recognition of the benefits of not only crossing the nature-society divide but also of being open to using theories, frameworks, and approaches from a variety of different social and natural science disciplines. As a result, interdisciplinary projects have received increasing levels of funding over the past few decades and will continue to be a vital part of environmental research. As we face escalating existential threats, the theories and methods used by environmental sociologists will be vital to interdisciplinary efforts to understand and address our environmental crisis.


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