Emergence, Development, Nature, Significance & Scope OF Environmental Sociology PDF

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EMERGENCE, DEVELOPMENT, NATURE, SIGNIFICANCE & SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY...

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EMERGENCE, DEVELOPMENT, NATURE, SIGNIFICANCE & SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY a) Emergence of environmental sociology Environmental sociology as a field of study began in the 1970s in response to growing societal awareness of environmental issues and the resulting social mobilisation in support of environmental protection. Sociological research in the early twentieth century focused on the environmental movement's origins, composition, and activities; the levels and social bases of public support for environmental protection; and the dynamics of government policymaking. One of these projects was environmental sociology, which involved the application of established sociological concepts to environmental issues. On Man in His Environment, published in 1971, is widely regarded as the first publication to explicitly use the term "environmental sociology." Dunlap first encountered the term a few years later in Klausner's work. Beginning in the 1960s, Klausner, a sociologist and clinical psychologist, conducted a series of studies on human behaviour under conditions of stress. Environmental sociology is a diverse field due to the complexity of the issues addressed. While no single point of view is taken, there are numerous parallels between the various perspectives that enable a more thorough examination of the subject. The growing assertions of "growth limits" were bolstered by the 1973–1974 energy crisis, which provided a new context for sociological research on environmental issues. As resource-based growth constraints became more prevalent, as did rapidly accumulating evidence of environmental contamination's critical nature, some sociologists examined the relationships between modern industrial societies and their physical environments. Concerns about how contemporary societies affect their environments, as well as how these societies may be affected by changing environmental conditions, sparked societal-environmental studies and a growing recognition of the critical nature of true "environmental sociology." Environmental sociology did not develop in a vacuum, and human ecology served as a springboard for sociologists interested in the emerging field. Additionally, rural sociologists have written extensively about natural resources. Rural sociologists have spent decades studying agriculture, forestry, recreation, mining, and other primary industries. Nevertheless, each of sociology's three 'founding fathers' – Durkheim, Weber, and Marx – addressed some aspect of nature and society in their work, but their conclusions were not conclusive.

Dunlap and Catton establish a distinction between "environmental sociology" and "real environmental sociology." The former reflected a "normal science" approach to environmental issues, incorporating sociological perspectives on public attitudes toward environmental issues and the environmental movement. The latter was reserved for then-rare studies of "interactions" or "relationships" between environmental and social phenomena, such as analyses of the societal consequences of energy shortages or the links between social strata and environmental degradation, which defied the disciplinary convention of excluding non-social variables. By this point, environmentalism's renaissance and the environmental movement had reawakened public concern about environmental issues. Rachel Carson's best-selling exposé of the ecological devastation caused by agricultural pesticide use, Silent Spring (1962), was a major catalyst for this a decade earlier. The origins of environmental activism can be traced to a growing sociological awareness of environmental issues. Silent Spring, a 1962 book by Rachel Carson that chronicled the harmful effects of toxic pesticides on birds and other animals, is widely regarded as the movement's inception. Later in the 1960s, the 'hippie' movement became the first widely popular subculture to incorporate environmental themes. Environmental studies had begun to educate certain sociologists about the realities of environmental problems and ecological constraints by the mid1970s. This appeared to necessitate reexamining widely held sociological domain assumptions, such as physical environments' apparent insignificance in interpreting social behaviour. In the late 1970s, Catton and Dunlap embarked on a crusade to persuade sociologists to adopt their New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), which sought to bridge the divides between established divisions in sociological theory. This new paradigm emphasised a less "anthropocentric" (human-centered) and more "ecocentric" (environment-centric) approach, serving as an academic counterpart to green thinking more broadly. Buttel, Catton, and Dunlap assert that the field of environmental sociology remained dormant throughout the Reagan administration. While Buttel dismisses environmental sociology as "another sociological specialisation," Catton and Dunlap argue that renewed interest in environmental issues,

particularly those with a global scope, rekindled interest in environmental sociology in the United States and abroad during the 1990s. In their introduction to the Handbook of Environmental Sociology, Riley Dunlap, William Michelson, and Glen Stalker discuss the 'diversity' and 'richness' of sociological work on the physical environment. Among the competing paradigms are human ecology, political economy, social constructionism, critical realism, ecological modernization, risk society theory, environmental justice, actor-network theory, and political ecology. The majority of early European environmental research concentrated on environmentalism and the environmental movement, which were sparked by the political ascension of the "greens" In the United Kingdom, where environmental concern was frequently purely theoretical, the relationship between society and nature was weighed against established sociological perspectives on class and industrialism. However, by the 1980s, empirical environmental research was thriving in the United Kingdom, owing in part to the Global Environmental Change Programme's encouragement. During the 1990s, as the Environmental Justice Paradigm gained traction in the United States, environmental sociology expanded its opportunities. In numerous ways, this parallels the birth of the Environmental Justice Movement. That is, just as the Environmental Justice Movement grew by appropriating environmental justice frames and contextualising them within a new environmental justice identity, the Environmental Justice Movement grew by appropriating environmental justice frames. Since the early 1990s, Japan and Korea have engaged in environmental sociology. Nobuko Iijima, a pioneering environmental researcher in Japan, focused her Master's thesis on the impact of Minimata disease on the local community. Environmental Sociology Research Group was established in 1995 in response to a 1993 international conference on "Environment and Development." in Korea. Ulrich Beck's Risk Society is an example of this type of theoretical soliloquy. Beck examined environmental threats from the perspective of macrosociology, or the study of large-scale social change. Buttel regards environmental sociologist Schnaiberg's 1980 'treadmill of production,' as well as two additional environmental sociological concepts, Foster 1999'metabolic rift,' and Mol, Arthur, P J, 1997'ecological modernization,' as promising.

Environmental sociology at its best, in our opinion, examines both environmental and social processes comprehensively. The explanation scheme and methods for each feature incorporate theoretical and practical considerations. This type of research is uncommon among sociologists because it necessitates an in-depth understanding of the environments under investigation, as well as adherence to the theoretical and methodological requirements for conceptualising and measuring them empirically. Given that this is still a sociological investigation, environmental phenomena must be compared to social causes and explanations. b) Environmental Sociology's Nature and Scope The field of environmental sociology recognises that physical environments have an impact on human cultures and behaviour. As a result, environmental sociologists challenge the conventional sociological assumption that social facts can only be explained by other social facts. Indeed, it is the recognition of "environmental" factors as important for sociological investigation that distinguishes environmental sociology as a distinct field of study.

Environmental Sociology's Characteristics Catton and Dunlap define environmental sociology as "the study of the connection between the environment and society." Environmental sociology is concerned with the reciprocal interactions between the environment and society. It's also widely acknowledged that this differs significantly from a "sociology of the environment" which applies mainstream sociological concepts to environmental conflict, politics, movements, and knowledge claims. Environmental sociology, according to the thesis, muddles clear conceptual distinctions between society and the environment, necessitating a major rethinking of social theory and procedure. Environmental sociology is centred on the study of interactions between the environment and society. Because such interactions are complex and varied, environmental sociologists study a wide range of phenomena. Recently, an analytical framework was presented to clarify the field's scope and categorise the phenomena it studies. It is based on Duncan's concept of the "ecological complex," which he developed from biologists' concept of "ecosystem" in order to apply general ecology principles to sociology and human ecology.

Sociological human ecologists have traditionally focused on the social organisation as a whole, rather than the organization's role in allowing populations to adapt to their environments. Furthermore, environmental sociologists have discovered that sociological human ecologists frequently overlook or ignore ecosystem components that are not human or derived from human behaviour. Environmental sociology, according to Catton and Dunlap, should investigate how humans influence their environments as well as how they are affected by them. As an initial attempt to investigate the relationship between society and the environment, they created a new ecological paradigm. The integration of environmental forces as objective variables in social explanations is a deliberate attempt to counter traditional sociology's claimed anthropocentrism. Dunlap and Catton go on to say that viewing environmental sociology as the study of environmental–society relationships allows for a shift in analytical focus away from symbolic constructions of environmental problems and toward material explanations of their causes, consequences, and potential solutions. Anthony Giddens endorsed this position when he stated that the early pioneers of sociology, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, paid little attention to what we now call "environmental issues," Buttel, on the other hand, believes that Marx, Durkheim, and Weber's work had an underlying environmental dimension that was never brought to light due to the preference of their American translators and interpreters for social structural explanations over physical or environmental ones. However, efforts have been made to demonstrate that classic sociologists such as West, Bellamy Foster, Dickens, and Dunlap understood the relationship between society and the environment in their theories. As a result, Giddens believes that sociology's contribution to the study and analysis of environmental issues can be summarised as follows: first, sociology can help us understand how human behaviour patterns affect the natural environment; second, sociology can help us understand how environmental problems are distributed. Finally, sociology can help us assess policies and plans aimed at resolving environmental problems.

Environmental Sociology's Purpose

As a result of their interest in classic sociological topics like applied sociology and social movements, many sociologists became interested in environmental issues. Environmental sociology is still a young field, with a diverse range of research interests, little overlap in personnel, and little cross-fertilization of ideas. Because there isn't a lot of empirical research on the subject, a lot of what's already out there is conceptual or theoretical, and most empirical studies haven't been replicated. Environmental sociologists, on the other hand, have churned out a surprising amount of research. The environmental movement has been the subject of numerous sociological studies. Some sociologists emphasised the movement's ties to the earlier "Preservationist Movement," while others emphasised the importance of the Civil Rights and Anti-War campaigns' high levels of political mobilisation. Other factors identified include increased recreational contact with nature, prosperity allowing Americans to focus on aesthetics, and the publication of literature warning of environmental dangers. Some sociologists became interested in environmental issues as a result of their interest in the problems faced by resource management agencies.

Environmental group members' socioeconomic circumstances, as well as their motivations for joining and participating, organisational dedication, and attitudes toward environmental issues and solutions, have all been studied empirically. Many early studies simply measured public levels of "environmental concern," but in recent years, research into the factors that influence environmental attitudes has exploded. In his book Environmental Sociology, K W Knight identifies four major areas of environmental research. That is to say; To begin, environmental sociologists investigate the social factors that influence environmental issues. Academics have developed a number of theoretical frameworks to better understand how social factors such as demographic, political, cultural, and economic factors contribute to environmental concerns. Many empirical studies have been conducted to support the hypotheses derived from such theoretical frameworks. Second, environmental sociology studies the effects of the natural environment on society. The importance of studying both how society shapes its environment and how society impacts its environment was emphasised by early sociologists.

Researchers investigate the effects of natural disasters, particularly in terms of environmental justice, in this topic. Environmental sociology, on the other hand, studies how people react to environmental issues. Researchers are focusing their efforts on identifying patterns and trends in environmental attitudes, such as divergent views on global climate change. Fourth, environmental sociologists are especially interested in learning more about social processes that can help with environmental sustainability. The goal of scholarly work in this area is to find solutions to environmental crises and to evaluate environmental reform theories. Environmental sociology has traditionally focused on describing how society causes environmental problems rather than possible solutions, but this has shifted in recent decades. Environmental sociology has primarily focused on the development, discussion, and empirical examination of environmental reform ideas, as well as studies of potential solutions to environmental crises and the creation of conceptual frameworks for sustainability. Another major area of inquiry that spans the previous four is the human dimensions of global climate change, which has emerged as one of the most important substantive topics studied by environmental sociologists.

c) Environmental Sociology's Importance Environmental sociology is a subfield of sociology that examines the various ways in which people interact with their environment. Sociological research is increasingly focused on the relationship between societal well-being and environmental quality. Environmental sociology is a branch of sociology that focuses on the relationships between the physical environment, social structure, and social behaviour. Environmental sociologists conduct research on the social factors that contribute to environmental problems, as well as the societal consequences of those problems and efforts to address them. They also examine the social processes that contribute to the classification of environmental conditions as social problems. In the 1970s, environmental sociology was dominated by the study of the green movement, energy issues, disaster risks, public attitudes toward environmental issues, environmental policies, and environmental quality as a social issue. Environmental sociology also examines the human causes and social

determinants of environmental pollution, as well as the social consequences of pollution and natural resource depletion, that is, the reciprocal relationships between human societies and their biophysical environment. Environmental sociology encompasses a broad range of issues, including environmental attitudes and the environmental movement, social impact analysis, risk assessment, toxic siting and natural hazard responses, and research. Another critical area of Environmental Sociology research is the inequitable social distribution of environmental hazards, with scholars examining the mechanisms by which socially disadvantaged populations become more vulnerable to environmental hazards such as natural disasters and unequal distribution of natural resources. Additionally, it contributes to the establishment of long-term human-environment relationships and the formulation of equitable methods for addressing environmental degradation. Public sentiment regarding environmental issues and policies, as well as the green movement's influence on these issues. Environmental sociologists conduct research on a variety of topics, including agricultural systems, environmentalism as a social movement, societal members' perceptions of environmental problems, the origins of human-induced environmental decline, the relationship between population dynamics, health, and the environment, and the role of elites in environmental harm. Another critical area of environmental sociology research is the inequitable social distribution of environmental hazards, with scientists examining the mechanisms by which socially disadvantaged communities become more vulnerable to a variety of environmental hazards, such as natural disasters....