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Environmental Sociology

The technology we need most badly is the technology of community—the knowledge about how to cooperate to get things done. There is no way forward, at least if we’re serious about preventing the worst ecological nightmares, that doesn’t involve working together politically to make changes deep enough and rapid enough to matter.

Bill McKibben, NY Review of Books, Nov 16, 2006: 25

sailboats in a harbor at night

Gloucester, MA

 

Overview

Environmental Sociology examines the interaction between nature and society—how lives are shaped by environmental conditions and how social decisions affect the environment. Topics include the role of government, the economy, and social institutions in causing and addressing environmental crises; how social inequalities (class, race, gender, ethnicity) operate in the creation and aftermath of environmental disasters and how environmental justice might be realized.

Subjects: Sociology