Sociology of Environment, Syllabus

Sociology of Environment, Syllabus

Environmental Sociology - Summer 2004 - Robert G. Lee, Professor

Environment and Society - SOC 337 - Fall, 2004 - Prof. Dr. Furjen Deng

Sociology of Environment, Energy, and a Sustainable Society
FALL 2004 - SOC 4090-001 Topics in Sociology:
Visiting Professor Koichi Hasegawa - Kokugakuin University, Tokyo, Japan
The course will focus on the sociological analysis of structures of environmental problems, especially the interaction and process of pollutants; the effects of pollution on human lives (i.e., victims and their suffering); and activists and policymakers.
We will first review the cultural differences of the concept of nature, and the interaction of human society and the natural surroundings. Then we will examine the social characteristics of the major types and some typical cases of
environmental degradation, industrial pollution, traffic pollution, everyday activities pollution and global environmental pollution. Using the theoretical concepts of recent social movements research: political opportunity structure, cultural
framing and mobilizing structure, we can explain the political, cultural and social factors which give voice to victims and environmental protest movements. We also will consider the global context of recent environmental issues and energy issues.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - AT WASHINGTON & JEFFERSON COLLEGE - http://www.washjeff.edu
220. AGROECOLOGY
This course teaches ecology in the context of agriculture whereby ecological principles are applied within the "managed"
ecosystems of agricultural landscapes. Emphasis is placed on sustainable means of growing food within farming systems - food,
fiber, and livestock production practices and their interactions with human socioeconomic conditions. Particular focus is placed
on agroforestry land-use systems within developed and developing countries. Food production systems from various developed and developing countries are analyzed in terms of social, political, and economic equity and energy-use efficiency.

201. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN THE DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING WORLD
This team-taught course makes in-depth examinations of environmental issues from socioeconomic, political, economical, and
ecological perspectives. Case studies of local, regional, national, and international issues are analyzed. Topics covered include
causes and effects of land degradation, links between poverty and environmental degradation, urbanization, globalization, loss of biodiversity, and adoption/enforcement of international environmental protocols. Students work in pairs to research a common issue/problem in a developed and developing country.

260. DIFFUSION OF ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATIONS
This course introduces students to the role of being a professional "change agent" when working with new ideas and change. The focus is on ideas/changes within the environmental conservation/management arena and the attendant social consequences.
Through a mixture of lectures, discussions, case studies, and field experiences students understand the processes by which
innovations are adopted and diffused among people. By the end of the course, students know the methodologies for planning
and implementing change and are able to anticipate and predict the consequences of planned change.

Environment and Social Change http://www.nau.edu/
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Department of Sociology and Social Work

Course Description:
A belief in mastery over nature rather than harmony is one of the most fundamental taken-for-granted aspects of American culture. Environment and Social Change explores the cultural roots of this belief system and the structural arrangements that maintain a master-over-nature worldview. The class explores shifts and challenges to this worldview through exploration into the anti-globalization movement, contemporary environmental movements, sustainable development and the emergence of eco-consciousness.

Course Objectives:
Students will be able to analyze environmental belief systems using a sociological perspective.
Students will be able to analyze environmental belief systems in terms of culture, social structure and stratification.
Students will analyze how the environmental belief systems shape social structure, culture and individual experience.
Students will explore the role of environmental belief systems in social movements and social change.

Course Structure/Approach
Environment and Social Change is designed so as to provide students with hands-on research experience in environmental sociology. Students will complete two research projects. In the first project students explore the cultural roots of environmental belief systems and the structural arrangements that maintain such belief systems. In the second project, students explore social change and the environment.
The course involves primary learning components, reading, lectures, discussions, group work and individual research projects. Students are expected to complete assigned readings prior to the class for which they are assigned, attend all class sessions and participate in discussions and other activities. Although lectures will touch on issues raised by the reading, they will extend and supplement the reading material. Students will have opportunities to articulate their understanding of the materials and engage in social analysis of the environment and social change. Class sessions may also include guest speakers, videos, exercises and slide-show presentations.

Required Reading

Merchant, Carolyn. (1980). Death of Nature.

Rifkin, Jeremy. (1991). Biosphere Politics: A New Consciousness for a New Century.

Bowers, C. A. (1997). The culture of denial : why the environmental movement needs a strategy for reforming universities and public schools.

Bryner, Gary C. (2001) Gaia's wager : environmental movements and the challenge of sustainability.

Jamison, Andrew. (2001) The making of green knowledge : environmental politics and cultural transformation.

Recommended Optional Materials/References:

Badiner, Allan Hunt. (1990). Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology.

Barth, Gunther. (1990). Fleeting Moments: Nature and Culture in American History.

Berry, Wendell. (1977). The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture.

Devall, Bill and Sessions, George. (1985). Deep Ecology.

Haraway, Donna J. (1995). Cyborgs and Symbionts: Living Together in the New World Order.

Nash, Roderick F. (1989). The Rights of Nature.

Ross, Andrew. (1994). The Chicago Gangster Theory of Life: Nature's Debt to Society.

Romanyshyn, Robert D. (1992). Technology as Symptom and Dream.

Shepard, Paul. (1982). Nature and Madness.

Shepard, Paul. (1991). Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature.

Short, John Rennie. (1991). Imagined Country: Society, Culture and Environment.

Wilber, Ken. (1995). Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution.

Course Outline:

Week 1: Introduction to Environment and Social Change

Week 2 ? Week 5: Environmental Belief Systems

Reading: Merchant?s Death of Nature

Week 6 ? Week 8: Maintaining Destructive Practices

Reading: Bowers: The Culture of Denial

Week 9 ? 11: Environmental Movements and Sustainability

Reading: Bryner, Gaia's wager

Week 12 ? 16: Cultural Transformations

Reading: Rifkin, Biosphere Politics: A New Consciousness for a New Century

Reading: Jamison, The making of green knowledge : environmental politics and cultural transformation

Environment and Society - SOC 337 - Fall, 2004
Professor: Dr. Furjen Deng

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Using sociological perspectives, this course examines the interactions between the biophysical environment in which we live and the human society we have created. We analyze the social causes and consequences of the contemporary environmental problems. Social responses to these problems are also examined.

Topics covered will include:

an overview of the extent and human causes of the environmental problems,
sociological research,
the development of environmental sociology,
traditional sociological perspectives on environmental issues,
environmental sociology's core: the new human ecology,
public attitudes toward environmental issues,
the evolution of environmental movement, and
environmental policies.

TEXTS:

1.Humphrey, Craig R., Tammy L. Lewis, and Frederick H. Buttel. 2002. Environment, Energy, and Society: A New Synthesis. CA: Wadsworth.

2. Frey, R. Scott. 2001. The Environment and Society: Reader. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0-205-30876-7

3. A pack of lecture notes is on sale at Copy Time (phone #: 295-6343).

Introduction and Overview : Scope of the course, requirements

The Extent of Environmental Problems
Sept 13 (Readings: Notes, Topic 1; Humphrey, Lewis and Buttel, Chapters 1 ,3,4 & 5; Frey, Chapters1,10 and 11)

The Human Causes of Environmental Problems
(Readings: Notes, Topic 2; Humphrey, Lewis and Buttel, Chapters 2:37-39 & 7; Frey, Chapter 4)

Sociological Research (Readings: Notes, Topic 3)

Introduction to the Field of Environmental Sociology
(Readings: Notes, Topic 4; Humphrey, Lewis and Buttel, Chapters 1:19-29 & 2;Frey, Chapter 2)

Environmental Sociology's Core: the New Human Ecology
(Reading: Notes, Topic 5; Humphrey, Lewis and Buttel, Chapter 1:25; Frey, Chapter 9)

Environmental Concern and Awareness among the Public: Trends and Correlates
Nov 1 (Readings: Notes, Topic 6; Humphrey, Lewis and Buttel, Chapter 6; Frey, Chapter 5)

The Evolution of Environmental Movement
(Readings: Notes, Topic 7; Humphrey, Lewis and Buttel, Chapters 1:10-13, 2:44-45 & 6; Frey, Chapter 6)

From "NIMBY" TO "NIABY": the Grassroots Environmental Movement
(Readings: Notes, Topic 8; Frey, Chapter 3)

Environmental Policy
(Readings: Notes, Topic 9; Humphrey, Lewis and Buttel, Chapter 8; Frey, Chapter 7)

Social Movements and Environmental Issues - http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~cruzza/sm-sy.htm

Environmental Sociology - Summer 2004
Instructor: Robert G. Lee, Professor, Sociology of Natural Resources - u.washington.edu
Course Description
This course will examine the sociological origins and consequences of environmental risks, hazards, and change. Case studies will be employed to illustrate the roles in environmental debates played social constructionists and realists. Class discussions will focus on the processes through which environmental problems are constructed, legitimated, and regulated by social representations such as ecosystem, community, and the free market economy. Using examples related to a variety of issues, students will study and discuss human ecology as a means of assessing whether current institutional framing of environmental problems promotes ecological adaptability.

Key Questions to be Examined:

Do people respond to nature or to an image of nature constructed via social processes?

Are humans part of the ecosystem (e.g. extrinsic vs. intrinsic components)?

Are ecosystems, communities, and markets "real?"

Is free market regulation of natural resources a "natural process?"

Why are many environmental threats not treated as environmental problems?

How is the framing of environmental problems rooted in Western culture?

What role do social movements play in framing environmental problems?

How do the mass media amplify (or frame) environmental problems?

What happened to environmental problems after 9-11?

Are ecoterrorists members of an apocalyptic, nativistic social movement?

How is the future of society likely to address emerging environmental risks and hazards?

Required Readings

William Cronon, ed. 1995. Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

Robert W. McChesney, 1997. Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy. New York: Seven Stories Press.

Ulrich Beck, Risk Society: Toward a New Modernity. London, Newbury Park, and New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Selected articles on electronic reserve.

Suggested readings (environmental sociology):

John A. Hannigan. 1995. Environmental Sociology: A Social Constructionist Perspective. London and New York: Routledge.

Charles L. Harper. 1996. Environmental Sociology: A Human Perspective. Upper Saddle River: NJ: Prentice Hall.

Craig Humphrey and Frederick Buttel. 1982. Environment, Energy and Society. Malabor, FL: Robert E. Krieger Publishers.

Riley E. Dunlap and Angela Mertig. 1992. American Environmentalism. Bristol, PA: Taylor and Francis.