John Hannigan’s definitive textbook offers a distinctive, balanced coverage of environmental issues, policies and action. This revised fourth edition has been expanded and fully updated to explore contemporary developments and issues within global environmental sociology.
Environmental Sociology reconciles Hannigan’s widely cited model of the social construction of environmental problems and controversies, which states that incipient environmental issues must be identified, researched, promoted and persuasively argued in the form of "claims", with an environmental justice perspective that stresses inequality and threats to local communities. For example, this new edition explores the interconnections between indigenous communities and environmental activists via a study of the difficult relationship between Aboriginal people and environmentalists in Australia. The updated fourth edition also discusses new direct action protest groups, such as Extinction Rebellion, who have reframed the discourse around the "climate emergency" using apocalyptic language and imagery. Environmental Sociology also signposts exciting new directions for future research. The fourth edition re-interrogates the classical roots of environmental theory with a focus of the work of Alexander von Humboldt. Hannigan also asserts the need for environmental sociologists to turn their attention to "The Forgotten Ocean", arguing that the discipline should incorporate cutting-edge concepts such as marine justice, striated space and volumetrics.
Environmental Sociology is a key text for students and researchers in environmental studies, political ecology, social geography and environmental sociology.
Author(s): John Hannigan
Edition: 4
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 239
City: London
Cover
Endorsement
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Figures
Tables
Abbreviations
Preface and Acknowledgements
1 Planet in Peril
Limits of Growth
Runaway Climate Change
Collapse
Consuming the Planet to Excess
Constructing Catastrophe
Conclusion
Further Reading
Online Resources
Key Terms
References
2 Environmental Sociology: Key Perspectives and Controversies
Why Environmental Sociology Was Slow to Develop
Backlash Against Geographical and Biological Determinism
Sociologists as Hucksters for Development and Progress
Classical Sociological Theory and the Environment
Émile Durkheim
Max Weber
Karl Marx
Roads Not Taken
Contemporary Theoretical Approaches to Environmental Sociology
Two Foundational Explanations for Environmental Degradation and Destruction
Ecological Explanation
Political Economy Explanation: the Societal-Environmental Dialectic and the Treadmill of Production
A Hybrid: Critical Human Ecology
Reflexive Modernisation/risk Society Thesis
Ecological Modernisation
Two Normative Theories of Modernism and Environmental Improvement
A Major Controversy: the Realism Versus Constructivism Debate
The Case Against Constructionism
Constructionists Reply
Health and Environmental Threats Do Not Always Follow a Unidirectional Path.
Prospects for Reconciliation
Conclusion
Further Reading
Online Resources
Key Terms
References
3 Social Construction of Environmental Issues and Problems
Constructing Social Problems
Constructionism as an Analytic Tool
Nature of Claims
Claims-makers
Claims-making Process
Key Tasks /processes in the Social Construction of Environmental Problems
Defining Environmental Problems
Assembling Environmental Claims
Presenting Environmental Claims
Contesting Environmental Claims
Audiences for Environmental Claims
Necessary Factors for the Successful Construction of an Environmental Problem
Conclusion
Further Reading
Key Terms
References
4 Environmental Discourse
Studying Environmental Discourse
A Typology of Environmentalist Discourse
Arcadian Discourse
Wilderness as a Discursive Invention: the “Back to Nature” Movement in Early Twentieth-Century America
Ecosystem Discourse
Environmental Justice Discourse
Emergence and Growth
Discourse, Power Relations and Political Ecology
Discourse and Political Ecology
Conclusion
Further Reading
Online Resources
Key Concepts
References
5 Media and Environmental Communication
Manufacturing News
Organisational Routines and Constraints
Media Discourse
Mass Media and Environmental Coverage
Production of Environmental News
Constructing “Winning” Environmental Accounts in the Media
Mass-mediated Environmental Discourse
Climate Change and the Media
Conclusion
Further Reading
Online Resources
Key Terms
References
6 Science, Knowledge and Environmental Problems
Science as a Claims-Making Activity
Scientific Uncertainty and the Construction of Environmental Problems
Identifying Environmental Problems as Scientific Issues
Coming Out: Communicating New Environmental Problems to the World
Science and Environmental Policy-Making
Epistemic Communities
Policy Windows
Scientific Roles in Environmental Problem Solving
Regulatory Science and the Environment
Conclusion
Further Reading
Online Resources
Key Terms
References
7 Risk Construction
Risk and Culture
Sociological Perspectives On Risk
Social Definition of Risk
Arenas of Risk Construction
Power and the Social Construction of Environmental Risk
Risk Construction in Cross-National Perspective
Conclusion
Further Reading
Online Resources
Key Terms
References
8 Biodiversity Loss: The Successful “Career” of a Global Environmental Problem
Contextual Factors
Assembling the Claim
Presenting the Claim
Contesting the Claim
Conclusion
Further Reading
Online Resources
Key Terms
References
9 Fear of Fracking
A Short History of Fracking
Constructing Fracking as an Environmental Problem
Assembling the Claim
Presenting the Claim
Contesting the Claim
Framing Contests
Conclusion
Further Reading
Online Resources
Key Terms
References
10 Conclusion
Environmental Sociologists Enthusiastically Answered this Call for Action.
The Forgotten Ocean
Further Reading
References
Notes
Planet in Peril
Environmental Sociology
Social Construction of Environmental Issues and Problems
Environmental Discourse
Media and Environmental Communication
Science, Knowledge and Environmental Problems
Risk Construction
Biodiversity Loss
Fear of Fracking
Conclusion
Name Index
Subject Index
