Sociology of the Environment

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

How are corporations, supply chains, and rapidly changing consumer markets affecting environments around the world? Why do societies so often continue to produce severe hazards, even when majorities of residents say they care about the environment? Why are environmental hazards unequally distributed (both within the U.S. and globally), and what have environmental justice movements sought to do about it? How is climate change reshaping societies, and what are the prospects for effective and equitable transitions? Can technological solutions save the day, or are they a distraction from other pathways to social change? What counts as “nature” and “the environment” anyhow? These are just a few of the questions that can be addressed by taking a sociological perspective on the environment. Often, the “natural” and “social” dimensions of human life are assumed to be polar opposites. In contrast, this course emphasizes the links between environmental conditions and the social structures and practices that underlay them. It will examine the organizational, political, and institutional conditions that produce severe environmental degradation and environmental injustice (that is, the unequal and often racialized distribution of environmental hazards). In addition, the course will examine the conditions that have supported environmental (and environmental justice) movements, reductions in environmental harms, and environmentally beneficial reorganizations of social life. The course is intended to speak not only to students who are already passionate about environmental and/or environmental justice issues but also to students who are interested in the wide-ranging implications of social inequality, processes of social change, and sociological perspectives.