Environmental Sociology: Debates, Topics, and Analysis

Wilson-Short Hall, Room 201

Monday, 2:50-5:40

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the field of environmental sociology. Over the past half century, the field has grown from a peripheral subfield to a dynamic, central subject within sociology. The field now contributes to broader social theory, provides the foundation for policy debates, and is part of the intellectual core of the environmental movement. We will explore the field’s place in sociology and its history, the macro-debates that have shaped the field, and survey some of the many subtopics within the discipline. The field has been heavily influenced by work done within our very own Department of Sociology, and we will explore the work of the department’s many contributions to the field. Perhaps most importantly, this course is meant to demonstrate to you how to do “good” environmental sociology. The various works we explore in this course are, first and foremost, exemplars of the types of thinking, writing, and analysis that we ought to aspire.

The learning outcomes for this course are as follows. Students will be able to (1) explain the major theoretical debates within environmental sociology; (2) explain key findings from several prominent subtopics; and (3) evaluate the criteria for a significant empirical contribution within environmental sociology.

Grades for this course will be determined by two or three factors, for which the third is voluntary. The only required portion of the course grade will come from participation (i.e. attendance and respectful dialogue in class). As this is a small graduate course, participation is central to our experience, and I hope that you will all take ownership of the course and the experience.

In addition, you are required to do at least one other assignment, both due at the end of the term. The first is an annotated bibliography. For the bibliography, you will provide a 4-5 sentence summary of each reading at the end of the semester. This is meant to provide you with a resource to use in the future (e.g. writing manuscripts or potential A-exam questions—hint, hint). Likewise, the exercise will help you distill and recall the material we cover in the course. Alternatively, you may submit a research prospectus at the end of the semester. This may be less useful for those of you early in your time here, but it may prove more useful for students who wish to receive feedback on a research idea they hope to pursue. Details on the prospectus format will be provided. Lastly, you have the option of submitting both. They will be given equal weight in your course grade.

Lastly, there are two optional elements to this course. The first is that we may, collectively, develop and pursue a research project as a class for the purposes of publication. This is an experimental idea on my part, so we will discuss on the first day how this might work and we will wait and see what develops. Classroom discussions are an excellent way to discover research ideas, and pursuing one of those ideas together may prove fruitful. The other optional element of this course is for students to take one hour prior to class (either immediately before or at some other time) to discuss the material together, without my presence. We will discuss how this might work on the first day of class.

Course Schedule and Readings

Aug 19: Catton Jr, William R., and Riley E. Dunlap. "Environmental sociology: A new Introduction to paradigm." The American Sociologist (1978): 41-49. the field Buttel, Frederick H. "New directions in environmental sociology." Annual review of sociology 13, no. 1 (1987): 465-488.

Pellow, David N., and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. "An environmental sociology for the twenty-first century." Annual Review of Sociology 39 (2013): 229-250.

Boström, Magnus, and Debra J. Davidson, eds. Environment and Society: Concepts and Challenges. Springer, 2018. Chapter 1, “Conceptualizing Environmental-Society Relations”

Scott, Lauren and Erik W. Johnson. 2017. “From Fringe to Core? The Integration of Environmental Sociology.” Environmental Sociology 1(3): 17-29.

Bohr, Jeremiah, and Riley E. Dunlap. "Key Topics in environmental sociology, 1990– 2014: results from a computational text analysis." Environmental Sociology 4, no. 2 (2018): 181-195.

Aug 26: Symons, Jonathan. 2019. “Ecomodernism”, pg. 25-82 Classic Debates Part I: Buttel, Frederick H. 2000. “Ecological Modernization as Social Theory.” Geoforum Modernity and 31(1):57–65. ecomodernism York, Richard, and Eugene A. Rosa. "Key challenges to ecological modernization theory: Institutional efficacy, case study evidence, units of analysis, and the pace of eco- efficiency." Organization & Environment 16, no. 3 (2003): 273-288.

York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas Dietz. "Footprints on the earth: The environmental consequences of modernity." American sociological review (2003): 279-300.

Fisher, Dana R., and William R. Freudenburg. "Postindustrialization and environmental quality: An empirical analysis of the environmental state." Social forces 83, no. 1 (2004): 157-188.

Sep 4: Rudel, Thomas K., J. Timmons Roberts, and JoAnn Carmin. 2011. “Political Economy of Classic Debates the Environment.” Annual Review of Sociology 37: 221-238. Part II: Political economy and Foster, John Bellamy. "Marx's theory of metabolic rift: Classical foundations for the environment environmental sociology." American journal of sociology 105, no. 2 (1999): 366-405.

Gould, Kenneth, David Pellow, Allan Schnaiberg. 2008. “The Treadmill of Production” Chapter 1-5.

Moore, Jason W. 2017a. “The Capitalocene, Part I: On the Nature and Origins of Our Ecological Crisis.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 44(3):594–630.

Sep 9: Jorgenson, Andrew K. and Brett Clark. 2012. “Are the Economy and the Environment Classic Debates Decoupling? A Comparative International Study, 1960-2005.” American Journal of Part III: Sociology 118:1-44. Decoupling and consumption York, Richard, and Julius Alexander McGee. "Understanding the Jevons paradox." Environmental Sociology 2, no. 1 (2016): 77-87.

Schor, Juliet B. The overspent American: Why we want what we don't need. New York: Harper Perennial, 1999. Chapters 1-3.

Szasz, Andrew. Shopping our way to safety: How we changed from protecting the environment to protecting ourselves. U of Minnesota Press, 2007. Introduction; Chapters 6-7.

Sep 16: McCright, Aaron M., and Riley E. Dunlap. "Anti-reflexivity." Theory, Culture & Society Beyond the 27, no. 2-3 (2010): 100-133. classics: Theory new and old Brechin, Steven R., and Weston Henry Fenner IV. "Karl Polanyi’s environmental sociology: a primer." Environmental Sociology 3, no. 4 (2017): 404-413.

John Bellamy Foster and Hannah Holleman. 2012. “Weber and the Environment: Classical Foundations for a Post-exemptionalist Sociology.” American Journal of Sociology. 117 (6):1625-1673

Greider, Thomas, and Lorraine Garkovich. "Landscapes: The social construction of nature and the environment." Rural sociology 59, no. 1 (1994): 1-24.

Fisher, Dana, and Andrew Jorgenson. 2019. “Ending the Stalemate: Toward A Theory Of Anthro-Shift.” Sociological Theory.

Sep 23: Jorgenson, Andrew K. "Unequal ecological exchange and environmental degradation: a Global theoretical proposition and cross‐national study of deforestation, 1990–2000." Rural perspectives Sociology 71, no. 4 (2006): 685-712.

Bunker, Stephen G. and Paul Ciccantell. 2005. Globalization and the Race for Resources. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Ch. 1, 3.

Givens, Jennifer, Xiaorui Huang, & Andrew Jorgenson. (2019). Ecologically unequal exchange: A theory of global environmental injustice. Sociology Compass, 13(5), e12693.

Frank, David John, Ann Hironaka, and Evan Schofer. 2000. “The Nation-State and the Natural Environment over the Twentieth Century.” American Sociological Review 65:96– 116.

Sep 30: Frickel, Scott, and James R. Elliott. Sites Unseen: Uncovering Hidden Hazards in American Cities. Russell Sage Foundation, 2018. (Selections TBD) Urban environmental Rudel, Thomas K. 2009. “How Do People Transform Landscapes?: A Sociological sociology Perspective on Suburban Sprawl and Tropical Deforestation.” American Journal of Sociology. 115(1):129-154.

Taylor, Dorceta. (2009). The environment and the people in American cities, 1600s-1900s: disorder, inequality, and social change. Duke University Press. (Selections TBD)

Rice, Jennifer L., Daniel Aldana Cohen, Joshua Long, and Jason R. Jurjevich. "Contradictions of the Climate‐Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco‐Gentrification and Housing Justice." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2019).

Pellow, David. (2004). Garbage wars: The struggle for environmental justice in Chicago. Mit Press. (Selection TBD)

Oct 7: Sherman, Jennifer. "“Not Allowed to Inherit My Kingdom”: Amenity Development Rural places and and Social Inequality in the Rural West." Rural Sociology 83, no. 1 (2018): 174-207. natural resources Freudenburg, William R. "Addictive Economies: Extractive Industries and Vulnerable Localities in a Changing World Economy." Rural Sociology 57, no. 3 (1992): 305-332.

Quisumbing King, Katrina, Spencer D. Wood, Jess Gilbert, and Marilyn Sinkewicz. "Black agrarianism: The significance of African American landownership in the rural South." Rural Sociology 83, no. 3 (2018): 677-699.

Greenberg, Pierce. "Disproportionality and Resource‐Based Environmental Inequality: An Analysis of Neighborhood Proximity to Coal Impoundments in Appalachia." Rural Sociology 82, no. 1 (2017): 149-178.

Carolan, Michael. The real cost of cheap food. Routledge, 2018. Chapters 1, 6, and 8

Oct 14: Dunlap, Riley E., Kent D. Van Liere, Angela G. Mertig, and Robert Emmet Jones. Environmental "New trends in measuring environmental attitudes: measuring endorsement of the new attitudes ecological paradigm: a revised NEP scale." Journal of social issues 56, no. 3 (2000): 425-442.

Inglehart, Ronald. 1995. “Public Support for Environmental Protection: Objective Problems and Subjective Values in 43 Societies.” PS: Political Science and Politics 28(1):57- 72.

Dunlap, Riley E., and Richard York. "The globalization of environmental concern and the limits of the postmaterialist values explanation: Evidence from four multinational surveys." The Sociological Quarterly 49, no. 3 (2008): 529-563.

Pampel, Fred C., and Lori M. Hunter. "Cohort change, diffusion, and support for environmental spending in the United States." American Journal of Sociology 118, no. 2 (2012): 420-448.

McCright, Aaron M., and Riley E. Dunlap. "The politicization of climate change and polarization in the American public's views of global warming, 2001–2010." The Sociological Quarterly 52, no. 2 (2011): 155-194.

Oct 21: Ekberg, Merryn. "The parameters of the risk society: A review and exploration." Current Risk sociology 55, no. 3 (2007): 343-366.

Perrow, Charles. 1984. Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. New York: Basic Books. Introduction, Ch. 1, 2, 3.

Freudenburg, William. (1993) Risk and recreancy: Weber, the Division of Labor, and the Rationality of Risk Perceptions. Social Forces, 71, 909-932.

Alario, Margarita V., and William R. Freudenburg. "Environmental risks and environmental justice, or how titanic risks are not so titanic after all." Sociological Inquiry 80, no. 3 (2010): 500-512.

Cable, Sherry, Thomas E. Shriver, and Tamara L. Mix. "Risk society and contested illness: the case of nuclear weapons workers." American Sociological Review 73, no. 3 (2008): 380-401.

Oct 28: Farrell, Justin. (2014). Moral outpouring: Shock and generosity in the aftermath of the Disasters BP oil spill. Social Problems, 61(3), 482-506.

Howell, Junia, and James R. Elliott. "Damages done: The longitudinal impacts of natural hazards on wealth inequality in the United States." Social Problems 66, no. 3 (2019): 448- 467.

Fothergill, Alice, and Lori A. Peek. "Poverty and disasters in the United States: A review of recent sociological findings." Natural hazards 32, no. 1 (2004): 89-110.

Fothergill, Alice, Enrique GM Maestas, and JoAnne DeRouen Darlington. "Race, ethnicity and disasters in the United States: A review of the literature." Disasters 23, no. 2 (1999): 156-173.

Freudenburg, William R. "Contamination, corrosion and the social order: An overview." Current Sociology 45, no. 3 (1997): 19-39.

Nov 4: Kennedy, Emily Huddart, and Liz Dzialo. "Locating gender in environmental Gender and the sociology." Sociology Compass 9, no. 10 (2015): 920-929. environment Davidson, Debra J., and William R. Freudenburg. "Gender and environmental risk concerns: A review and analysis of available research." Environment and behavior 28, no. 3 (1996): 302-339.

Taylor, Dorceta (1997). “Women of color, environmental justice, and ecofeminism.” In Karen Warren (ed.), Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature. Indiana Univ Pr. pp. 38--81 (1997)

Mueller, J. Tom, and Lauren E. Mullenbach. "Looking for a White Male Effect in Generation Z: Race, Gender, and Political Effects on Environmental Concern and Ambivalence." Society & Natural Resources 31, no. 8 (2018): 925-941.

Norgaard, Kari., & York, Richard. (2005). Gender equality and state environmentalism. Gender & Society, 19(4), 506-522.

Nov 13: Rosa, Eugene A., Gary E. Machlis, and Kenneth M. Keating. "Energy and society." Energy and Annual review of sociology 14, no. 1 (1988): 149-172. climate change Shove, Elizabeth, and Gordon Walker. "What is energy for? Social practice and energy demand." Theory, Culture & Society 31, no. 5 (2014): 41-58.

Fitzgerald, Jared B., Juliet B. Schor, and Andrew K. Jorgenson. "Working Hours and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the United States, 2007–2013." Social Forces 96, no. 4 (2018): 1851-1874.

Brulle, Robert J., and Kari Marie Norgaard. "Avoiding cultural trauma: climate change and social inertia." Environmental Politics (2019): 1-23.

Davidson, Debra J. "Exnovating for a renewable energy transition." Nature Energy 4, no. 4 (2019): 254.

Nov 18: Morello-Frosch, Rachel. 2002. Discrimination and the Political Economy of Environmental Environmental Inequality. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 20: 477- inequality 496.

Taylor, Dorceta. 2014. “Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility” (Selections TBD)

Crowder, Kyle and Liam Downey. 2010. “Inter-Neighborhood Migration, Race, and Environmental Hazards: Modeling Microlevel Processes of Environmental Inequality.” American Journal of Sociology 115(4): 1110-49.

Grant, Don, Mary Nell Trautner, Liam Downey, and Lisa Thiebaud. 2010. “Bringing the Polluters Back In: Environmental Inequality and the Organization of Chemical Production.” American Sociological Review 75(4):479–504.

Auyero, Javier, and Debora Swistun. "The social production of toxic uncertainty." American sociological review 73, no. 3 (2008): 357-379.

Dec 2: Bell, Shannon Elizabeth. 2016. Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Environmental Central Appalachia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Introduction, Ch. 1, 7, 9, movements Conclusion.

McAdam, Doug, and Hilary Boudet. Putting social movements in their place: Explaining opposition to energy projects in the United States, 2000–2005. Cambridge University Press, 2012. (Selections TBD)

Johnson, Erik W., Jon Agnone and John D. McCarthy. 2010. “The Contingent Impact of U.S. Environmental Movement Organizations and Activities on Agenda Setting and Law Passage.” Social Forces 88(5): 2267-2292.

Farrell, Justin. (2013). Environmental activism and moral schemas: Cultural components of differential participation. Environment and Behavior, 45(3), 399-423.

Harrison, Jill Lindsey. 2015. “Coopted Environmental Justice? Activists’ Roles in Shaping EJ Policy Implementation.” Environmental Sociology 1(4): 241-255.

EXTRA TOPICS/READINGS

Society and Hunter, Lori M., and Lesley Rinner. "The association between environmental biodiversity perspective and knowledge and concern with species diversity." Society and Natural Resources 17, no. 6 (2004): 517-532.

Besek, Jordan F., and Richard York. "Toward a Sociology of Biodiversity Loss." Social Currents 6, no. 3 (2019): 239-254.

Norgaard, Kari Marie. "The politics of invasive weed management: gender, race, and risk perception in rural California." Rural Sociology 72, no. 3 (2007): 450-477.

Longo, Stefano B., Brett Clark, Richard York, and Andrew K. Jorgenson. "Aquaculture and the displacement of fisheries captures." Conservation Biology (2019).

Carolan, Michael S. "Society, biology, and ecology: Bringing nature back into sociology’s disciplinary narrative through critical realism." Organization & Environment 18, no. 4 (2005): 393-421.