Abstract
The study of environmental sociology as a distinct subfield within sociology has been gaining momentum in European universities in recent years. While it is arguable that environmental sociology first developed in the United States in the early 1970s, the study of environment-society relations has spread with the creation of the Research Committee on Environment and Society (RC 24) within the International Sociological Association and the Environment and Society Network within the European Sociological Association.
And yet many departments may feel inhibited from offering courses in environmental sociology due to a lack of teaching materials. A recent content analysis of sociology textbooks found that environmental sociological themes are not well represented in conventional introduction to sociology classes (Lewis and Humphrey, 2005). With increasing interest among students in environmental issues, the question arises how to teach about the theory and methodology of environmental sociology. Until recently, no comprehensive textbook was available to instructors to help organise and unify course curricula. Now, several texts have appeared that aspire to form the basis for introductory environmental sociology classes.
Before such texts were published, environmental sociology instructors generally had to assemble piecemeal reading lists of the many important articles and books that had shaped the field over the decades. In a sense, the new textbooks seek to institutionalise the teaching of the field much as the publication of books like the International Handbook of Environmental Sociology (1997) sought to canonise the literature of the field (Foster, 1999). The textbooks (or books that can serve as valuable references for students) on the market now include the Handbook of Environmental Sociology (2001), Sociological Theory and the Environment (2002), Controversies in Environmental Sociology (2004), New Developments in Environmental Sociology (2005), and Environmental Sociology: from Analysis to Action (2005). Many of these books are quite specialised and expensive for university students, however.
Michael Bell's book, An Invitation to Environmental Sociology (2004), distinguishes itself from these other textbooks as an introduction for European students by offering a well-rounded and accessible introduction into the major topics of environmental sociology. Bell writes in a conversational style and uses many international examples that are relevant for students outside North America. The use of English in the text is generally straightforward, making it relatively easy to teach to students for whom English is a second language.
The book is organised into ten chapters divided between three sections covering the material, ideological and philosophical, and practical aspects of human-nature relations. Bell focuses the book on debates over values and behaviour surrounding sustainability, environmental justice, and the rights and beauty of nature.
For those who identify themselves as environmental sociologists, it is very common to be asked, ‘What is environmental sociology?’ Bell opens his book with this question and gives a good introductory answer. He explains that he studies the interaction between the natural environment and society, and echoes pioneering American ecologist Aldo Leopold when he defines his field as ‘the study of community in the largest possible sense’ (1).
Why the focus on community? Because ‘nature is inescapably social. Nature is a social and political phenomenon as much as a physical one’ (193). Thus Bell suggests the boundaries of sociological inquiry should be expanded from the study of humans residing within built environments to the study of human interaction with living and non-living nature within ecosystems. Society and nature are mutually defining and referential.
Not only do people often wonder what environmental sociology is, they question why a sociologist would study the natural environment at all. Bell offers a simple and succinct answer: ‘Environmental problems are problems of society, and problems of society require social solutions’ (226). Especially in the early twenty-first century, global environmental issues like climate change are becoming increasingly important ethical, political and economic questions. Sociologists can help policy-makers and citizens understand the issues and make informed public and personal decisions about the environment.
Each chapter continues to ask and answer the question ‘What is environmental sociology?’ At the heart of Bell's answer to this question are the ideas of dialogue and interaction. Environmental sociology is important because the natural environment is a social actor. There is a feedback loop: human influence on environmental quality is based on our behaviour and attitudes toward nature. And changes in environmental quality have real social impacts.
The role that the environment plays in our lives depends upon our interactions with it. The environment is not a given. We shape the significance it has. The environment is, in effect, a different place depending upon how we wish to use it and how we envision what it is. An environmental resource is only a resource if, because of our technical and social relations and because of our ideas, we find it to be a resource. It is we who make resources as much as it is the environment that provides them to us. It is we who make the environment as much as it is the environment that makes us (103).
Bell's environmental sociology returns perpetually to the idea of dialogue. In the contemporary world, there are great debates over environmental issues – such as their origins, their impacts, and possible solutions. Environmental problems exist at local, national and international levels. There are dialogues – in other words, causes and effects, exchanges of information, expressions of ideology, and competition among interpretations – within and between different interest groups. There is dialogue at the micro level between our bodies and the food we eat, and dialogue at the macro level between the industrial agricultural system and the resources like soil and water upon which it is based. Social conflicts arise over the politics and economics of resource use and environmental protection. These environmental conflicts mirror other social conflicts such as those based on class, gender and race. Therefore, Bell concludes, ‘What we want is not just dialogue, but broad and open dialogue’ that promotes democratic decision-making and social justice for the good of human communities and the ecosphere at large (233).
Throughout the book, Bell links diverse sociological traditions to the study of environmental issues. He refers to many sociologists including Merton, Cottrel, Bakhtin, Beck, Weber, Marx, Erikson, and Habermas, showing how their analyses illuminate the human-nature relationship. He also refers to economists like Thorstein Veblen and Julian Simon to highlight alternative perspectives on the issues. Many sociology students may be unfamiliar with such thinkers, let alone with their relevance to environment-related social science.
Bell's book is especially valuable to students outside North American because it introduces a range of topics that are central to environmental sociology in the USA but may be little known elsewhere. For example, Bell explains the concept of the ‘treadmill of production’ theory of environmental problems. He discusses the phenomenon of ‘greenwashing’ – pseudo-environmental marketing by corporations – and explores the social and ecological impacts of globalisation. Bell talks about eco-feminism and raises issues of environmental justice.
Indeed, environmental justice – a poorly developed field of study in Europe – is an important concept in Bell's book. He gives examples like hazardous waste dumping in the USA, the Bhopal industrial accident in India, and pollution in a Native American community in Canada to show the intersection between race, poverty, political power, and environmental quality. He coins the term ‘invironment’ to refer to ‘the zone of the body's perpetual dialogue with the environment,’ such as the public health issues that arise from modern lifestyles and social organisation (108). For example, breast milk in women around the world is now almost universally contaminated with chemical pollutants. This shows the nexus between modern production and consumption patterns and personal and public health (117).
If there is anything missing from the current edition of An Invitation to Environmental Sociology, it is more history about the development of the field. While environmental sociology is often seen as emerging in the USA in the early 1970s, the social science of human-nature interactions has a longer history. Also, even in sections about environment-related ideology Bell does not devote much space to examination of ecological ethics or deep ecology. Perhaps such omissions can be rectified in future editions.
Hannigan's Environmental Sociology (2006) complements Bell's textbook in many ways, and may be a useful additional text for teaching introductory environmental sociology. The first chapters improve upon Bell by providing a good overview of the historic development of the field of environmental sociology, including discussion of major schools of contemporary thought. The book then takes up several substantive themes that parallel Bell's chapters, and develops them more fully than in Bell's treatment. Hannigan for example devotes chapters to topics such as environmental discourses, risk theory, biodiversity loss, and media and communication.
The first edition of Environmental Sociology (1995), subtitled “A social constructionist perspective,” secured Hannigan's place in the 1990s as a leading exponent of a social constructionist approach to environmental sociology – a discipline which continues, at least in the USA, to be rooted in materialist-realism. While Hannigan has expanded the second edition of Environmental Sociology, it contains significant sections about social constructionism and discourse analysis. Bell's text deals explicitly with the social construction of nature, but Hannigan explores this theme in much more depth, and from different points of view.
Hannigan provides a judicious treatment of the debates between constructionists and realists, and expresses cautious optimism that the debate has simmered down. “I have deliberately dropped the original subtitle of the book,” he writes, because “in recent years, the tone of the realist-constructionist conflict has moderated and environmental sociologists have put their energies into seeking some type of synthesis” (ix). The second edition concludes with speculation that a useful framework for analysing society-nature relationships is emergence theory, an interpretation of the processes by which complex structures are formed from micro-level patterns of behaviour. Therefore, Hannigan's book is a helpful tool to enhance students’ familiarity with debates about the proper scope of the field and recent synthetic developments.
In summary, Bell's book serves well as the core text for an introductory course, presenting a range of information in a readable manner. Hannigan's book is an excellent supplementary text for undergraduates, though it is somewhat denser and may make tougher reading for students for whom English is a second language. It is a valuable resource for instructors to consult in preparation for lecturing, even if not presented to students as a required text.
Despite growing interest in environmental issues throughout Europe, environmental sociology is still not offered as part of the curriculum in many university sociology departments. Perhaps this is because it is still a relatively young sub-discipline and until recently there have been few teaching resources. But with the publication of new textbooks such as Environmental Sociology and An Invitation to Environmental Sociology, hopefully more academic institutions will include courses on environmental sociology to train the next generation.