Boston College
Environmental Sociology I
SC 562
Fall Semester 2013
© Dr. Brian J. Gareau
LOCATION: McGuinn, Room 413
Fridays 3:00-5:30
OFFICE: McGuinn, Room 412
OFFICE PHONE: (617) 552-8148
OFFICE HOURS: To be decided
EMAIL: gareau@bc.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course reviews some of the major literatures and lines of research in environmental sociology. The
literature emphasized here 1) pioneered the formation of environmental sociology, 2) directed its various
trajectories, and 3) represents recent developments. Early environmental sociology works include those of
Catton, Dunlap, Freudenberg, Buttel, Schnaiberg, Merchant, and others. Contemporary trajectories explored
include ecological modernization, treadmill of production, ecology of the world-system, world polity theory,
eco-Marxism, eco-feminism, actor-network theory, risk society, ecological modernization, environmental
justice, critical studies of global environmental governance, and political ecology.
REQUIREMENTS
Please print out and read the assigned readings for the day they are due, so that we may have
a complete discussion with maximum participation each week. Class participation counts for
15% of your final grade.
There are two major writing assignment: First, a 4-6 pp. midterm paper in which I will ask you
to answer some questions relating to the readings. Second, a Final Paper that is due at the
end of the course. We shall be conferring about topics and lengths of these final papers.
SIX REQUIRED BOOKS
1. Who Speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change.
Maxwell T. Boykoff. 2011. CUP: Cambridge
2. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. Carolyn Merchant,
Harper & Row: New York, 1989
3. Shopping Our Way to Safety. University of Minnesota Press. Szasz, Andrew. 2007
4. Nature’s Metropolis. Cronon, William. 1991. W.W. Norton
5. From Precaution to Profit: Contemporary Challenges to Environmental Protection in the
Montreal Protocol. Gareau, Brian J. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013
6. Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and South. Guha, R.; Martinez-Alier, J.
Earthscan: London, 2000
ELECTRONIC READINGS:
© Brian J. Gareau 2012
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Course readings are available to view online, download, and print on Blackboard Vista.
ATTENDANCE/PARTICIPATION:
SC 562 is a seminar-format class that combines lecture with group discussion. Students’ final grade
will depend, in part, on the quality of their participation in class discussion. Obviously, adequate
participation requires regular attendance. You must be respectful of other’s viewpoints, experiences,
orientation, etc. when discussing the concepts in this class. Debate is inevitable and useful, but be
respectful. If you are not, you will be asked to withdraw from the course.
Each of you will be expected to keep abreast of the reading, prepare and make presentations on
materials during the scheduled sections. We have a good deal of material to cover, so the
success of the seminar depends on the active participation of everyone. During the first meeting
we shall organize ourselves and generate a schedule of presentations.
You must come prepared with a two-page write-up on the day’s reading every class. Make
notes, comments, questions, and critiques of the readings. Readings should be studied before the
class for which they are assigned. These assignments count for your attendance, and you may not
turn them in late or in absentia from the class. These write-ups will make valuable notes for your
exams and potential future work on globalization issues.
Required readings are, of course, required, and recommended readings are recommended.
Depending on your area of specific interest, you might find some of the recommended readings very
relevant to your own pursuits. If so, talk to me about making them more central to your course
experience and/or writing assignments (including the course paper). All the required and
recommended articles are available on Blackboard Vista. If the recommended reading is a book, it is
on reserve at O’Neill Library.
NOTE: THERE ARE NO unexcused absences permitted during the semester. For each absence,
your participation and write-up grades will be lowered (e.g., for example, if we have 10 write-ups due
this semester, with one absence you will receive a maximum score of 90% on write-ups and
participation). The only "excused" absences are those presented to me in writing (a) by a health care
practitioner certifying that you had a sound medical reason to be absent from class (and note that
the BC Infirmary does not give out such notes) or (b) by your Dean certifying that you had a serious
personal reason to be absent from class. Job interviews do not count as a legitimate absence, but
rather a conscious choice you make to miss class.
© Brian J. Gareau 2012
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ASSESSMENT
All grades in SC 562 are based on the percentages shown in
Table 1.
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND ASSOCIATED
GRADES.
Students are responsible for the work listed in Table 2.
TABLE 2. STUDENT WORK & PERCENTAGE
OF GRADE EARNED
Midterm Paper
20%
Final Paper
25%
Team-led Discussion
20%
Daily Reading Summaries
20%
In-class Participation
15%
TABLE 1. GRADE SCALE
Letter Grade
% Range
A
93-100
A-
90-93
B+
87-90
B
83-87
B-
80-83
C+
78-80
C
73-78
C-
70-73
D+
67-70
D
63-67
D-
60-63
F
<60
You must come prepared with a one to two-page write-up on the day’s reading every class.
General Outline:
1. In the first paragraph, provide the general thread of argument, ideas, concepts, and/or themes that
run through the readings for the week.
2. In the body of the paper, discuss in detail some of the key concepts and arguments. Discuss the
readings in an integrative way; put the current readings in conversation with previous readings. Dig
deep into the readings; do not provide a superficial summary. Rather, engage with the reading
by giving a critical review of what you choose to focus on.
3. Then, give your view on some of these concepts. Which concepts/arguments make sense to you?
Which do not? Use readings from previous weeks to support your claims.
4. This assignment will take some time to master, but it is a valuable skill, so work hard at it.
Students are also required to lead the discussion with a 10-15 minute formal presentation several
times throughout the course.
© Brian J. Gareau 2012
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ORGANIZATION OF THE CLASS BY WEEK
WEEK ONE: Friday 6 September NO CLASSES
WEEK TWO: FRIDAY 13 SEPTEMBER
Theme: Course overview: Syllabus, readings, assignments, and expectations. Assign seminar leaders.
WEEK THREE: FRIDAY 20 SEPTEMBER
Overview of the field and Origins of Environmental Sociology (I suggest reading in chronological order)
1. Buttel, Frederick H. 1987. “New Directions in Environmental Sociology.” Annual Review of
Sociology
2. Dunlap, Riley E. and William R. Catton Jr. 1979 “Environmental Sociology” Annual Review of
Sociology
3. Dunlap, Riley and William R. Catton, Jr 1994. “Struggling with Human Exceptionalism: The
Rise, Decline and Revitalization of Environmental Sociology” The American Sociologist
4. Dunlap, Riley E. and Eugene A. Rosa. 2000 “Environmental Sociology” in EF Borgatta and
RJV Montgomery (eds) The Encyclopedia of Sociology 800-813
Recommended:
Kautsky, K., The agrarian question. Zwan Publications: London, 1988 [1899]
1.
2.
Chaëiìanov, A.V., The theory of peasant economy. In Rhorner, D.; Kerblay, B.H.; Smith,
R.E.F., Eds. R. D. Irwin: Homewood, Illinois, 1966
3.
Marx, K., Capital, vol. I. In The Marx-Engels reader, Second ed.; Tucker, R.C., Ed. W.W.
Norton & Company: New York, 1978 [1867]; pp 294-438.
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
WEEK FOUR: Friday 27 September
Paradigmatic Perspectives in Environmental Sociology
1. Catton, William R. and Riley E. Dunlap. 1978. “Environmental Sociology: A New
Paradigm” The American Sociologist 13
2. Buttel, Frederick H. 1978. “Environmental Sociology: A New Paradigm?” The American
Sociologist 13
3. Catton, William R. and Riley E. Dunlap. 1978. “Paradigms, Theories and the Primacy of the
HEP-NEP Distinction” The American Sociologist 13
4. Benton, Ted. 1991. “Biology and Social Science: Why the Return of the Repressed Should be
Given a (Cautious) Welcome” Sociology 25
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
© Brian J. Gareau 2012
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WEEK FIVE: FRIDAY 4 OCTOBER
Classical Theoretical Perspectives in Environmental Sociology
1. Foster, John Bellamy. 1999. “Marx’s Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for
Environmental Sociology.” American Journal of Sociology
2. Sunderlin, William D. 1995. “Managerialism and the Conceptual Limits of Sustainable
Development” Society and Natural Resources
3. Foster, John Bellamy, and Hannah Holleman. 2012. Weber and the Environment: Classical
Foundations for a Postexemptionalist Sociology. American Journal of Sociology 117(6): 16-40
4. Buttel, Frederick H. 2000. “Classical Theory and Contemporary Environmental Sociology”
in G. Spaargaren and A. Mol and FH Buttel (eds) Environment and Global Modernity
Recommended:
1. Redclift, Michael and Graham Woodgate. 1994 “Sociology and the Environment:
Discordant Discourse?” Pp. 51-66 in M. Redclift and G. Woodgate (eds) Social Theory and the
Global Environment
2. Benton, Ted. 1989. “Marxism and Natural Limits.” New Left Review 178:51-86.
3. Smith, A., The Wealth of Nations. Everyman's Library Edition ed.; Knopf: New York, 1991
[1776]
4. Kautsky, K., The Agrarian Question. Zwan Publications: London, 1988 [1899]
Seminar Leaders:____________________________________________________
WEEK SIX: Friday 11 October
MIDTERM PAPER GUIDELINES EMAILED THIS WEEK TO THE CLASS
Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives I: The Risk Society vs. Ecological Modernization
1. Buttel, Frederick H. 2000. "Ecological Modernization as Social Theory." Geoforum 31:57-65
or
2. Mol , Arthur P. J. and Gert Spaargaren. 2000. "Ecological Modernization Theory in Debate:
A Review," Environmental Politics 9:17-49
and
3. Beck, Ulrich. 1992. “From Industrial Society to Risk Society: Questions of Survival, Social
Structure and Ecological Enlightenment” Theory, Culture and Society 9
or
4. Mol and Spaaragaren. 1993. “Environment, Modernity and the Risk-Society: The
Apocalyptic Horizon of Environmental Reform” International Sociology 8
or
5. Cohen, Maurie. 1997. “Risk Society and Ecological Modernization: Alternative Visions for
Post-Industrial Nations” Futures 2
and
© Brian J. Gareau 2012
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6. Bunker, Stephen G. 1996. “Raw Material and the Global Economy: Oversights and
Distortions in Industrial Ecology” Society and Natural Resources 9
or
7. Foster, John Bellamy. 2012. The Planetary Rift and the New Human Exemptionalism : A
Political-Economic. Critique of Ecological Modernization Theory. Organization &
Environment 25 (3):211-237
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
WEEK SEVEN: Monday 18 October
MIDTERM PAPER DUE
Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives II: Treadmill of Production, World-Systems Theory, World Polity, and SocioStructural Perspectives
1. Barbosa, Luiz C. 1993. “The ‘Greening’ of the Ecopolitics of the World-System: Amazonia
and Changes in the Ecopolitics of Brazil” Journal of Political and Military Sociology 21:107-134
or
2. Bunker, S.G., Modes of extraction, unequal exchange, and the progressive
underdevelopment of an extreme periphery: The Brazilian Amazon, 1600-1980. American
Journal of Sociology 1984, 89, 1017-1064
and
3. O’Connor, James. 1994. “Is Sustainable Capitalism Possible?” in Martin O’Connor (ed) Is
Capitalism Sustainable? Political Economy and the Politics of Ecology
4. Schnaiberg, Allen. (1994). The political economy of environmental problems and policies.
Advances in Human Ecology 3:23-64
and
5. Jorgenson, Andrew (2009). The Transnational Organization of Production, the Scale of
Degradation, and Ecoefficiency: A Study of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Less-Developed
Countries. Human Ecology Review. 16(1): 64-74
or
6. Jorgenson, Andrew and Bret Clark. 20120. “Are the Economy and the Environment
Decoupling? A Comparative International Study, 1960–2005” American Journal of Sociology.
Vol. 118, No. 1:1-44
or
7. Beckfield, Jason. 2003. Inequality in the World Polity: The Structure of International
Organization. American Sociological Review. 68: 401-424
and
8. Shorette, Kristen. 2012. Outcomes of Global Environmentalism: Longitudinal and CrossNational Trends in Chemical Fertilizer and Pesticide Use. Social Forces. 91(1): 299-325
Recommended:
1. Gareau, Brian J. 2012. “Theorizing Environmental Governance of the World System: Global
Political Economy Theory and Some Applications to Stratospheric Ozone Politics.” Journal of
World-Systems Research. 12(2): 187-210
2. Smith, David A. 1994. “Uneven Development and the Environment: Notes on a WorldSystem Perspective” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 20
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Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
WEEK EIGHT: 25 OCTOBER
Societal-Environmental Interactions II: Constructivist Approaches and Controversies
1. Freudenburg, William R., Scott Frickel and Robert Gramling (1995). Beyond the
nature/society divide: Learning to think about a mountain. Sociological Forum 10(3): 361392
2. Murphy, Raymond. 1995. Sociology as if Nature Did Not Matter: An Ecological Critique.
British Journal of Sociology. 46:688-707
3. Greider, Thomas and Lorraine Garkovich. 1994. “Landscapes: The Social Construction of
Nature and the Environment” Rural Sociology 59
4. Freudenburg, William and Robert Gramling. 1993. “Socioenvironmental Factors and
Development Policy: Understanding Opposition and Support for Offshore Oil
Development” Sociological Forum 8
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
WEEK NINE: 1 November
Case Study I: Climate Change
1. Who Speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change Maxwell T.
Boykoff. 2011. Cambridge
Recommended:
1. Boykoff, Max and Jules Boykoff (2004) Balance as Bias: Global Warming and the US Prestige
Press. Global Environmental Change. 14: 125-136
2. York, Richard (2008). De-Carbonization in Former Soviet Republics, 1992-2000: The Ecological
Consequences of De-Modernization. Social Problems. 55(3) 370-390
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
WEEK TEN: Monday 8 November
Case Study II: Environmental history
1. Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis. 1991. W.W. Norton.
Recommended:
1. Mann, C. Chapter 1, “A View from Above,” and Chapter 6, “Cotton and Maize” In 1491
2. Cronon, W., The trouble with wilderness; or, getting back to the wrong nature. In Uncommon ground:
Toward reinventing nature, Cronon, W., Ed. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1995.
3. Slater, C., Amazonia as edenic narrative. In Uncommon ground: Toward reinventing nature, Cronon,
W., Ed. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1995; pp 114-131.
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4. Cronon, W., Changes in the land: Indians, colonists, and the ecology of new england. Hill and Wang: New York,
2003.
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
WEEK ELEVEN: Monday 15 November
Case Study III: Eco-Feminism and Environmental History
1. Merchant, C., The Death of Nature : Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. Harper & Row: New
York, 1989
Recommended
1. (Vista) Thompson, W.R. Climate, Water, and Political-Economic Crises in Ancient Mesopotamia and
Egypt. Chapter 11, In Horrnborg and Crumley (eds) The World System and the Earth System: Global
Socioenvironmental Change and Sustainability Since the Neolithic
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
WEEK TWELVE: Monday 22 November
Case Study IV: Global Political Ecology: Environmentalism for the Whole World
1. Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and South. Guha, R.; Martinez-Alier, J.
Earthscan: London, 2000
Recommended:
1. Gareau, B.J. Definitions of “Ecological Imperialism” and “Domination of Nature”
2. Moore, J. Silver, Ecology, and the Origins of the Modern World Chapter 6, In Hornborg,
McNeill and Martinez-Alier (eds) Rethinking Environmental History
3. Stonich, S.C., I am destroying the land!: The political ecology of poverty and environmental destruction in
Honduras. Westview Press: San Francisco, 1993.
4. Swyngedouw, E.; Heynen, N.C., Urban political ecology, justice and the politics of scale. Antipode
2003, 35, 898-918.
5. Walker, P.A., Reconsidering 'regional' political ecologies: Toward a political ecology of the rural
West. Progress in Human Geography 2003, 27, 7-21.
6. Gareau, B.J., Dangerous holes in global environmental governance: The roles of neoliberal
discourse, science, and California agriculture in the Montreal Protocol. Antipode 2008, 40, 102-130.
7. Gareau, B.J. 2007. “Ecological Values amid Local Interests: Natural Resource Conservation and
Human Survival in Southern Honduras. Rural Sociology.
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
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WEEK THIRTEEN: Monday 29 November
Case Study V: The Sociology of Global Environmental Governance: Ozone Layer Politics and a Global shift in
environmental governance
1. 2013. Gareau, Brian J. From Precaution to Profit: Contemporary Challenges to Environmental Protection
in the Montreal Protocol. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
Recommended:
1.
2.
Okereke, C., Global justice and neoliberal environmental governance : Ethics, sustainable development
and international co-operation. Routledge: London, 2008
Selection of readings on socio-nature on Blackboard Vista
WEEK FOURTEEN: MONDAY 6 DECEMBER
Environmental Justice
1. 2007. Szasz, Andrew. Shopping Our Way to Safety. University of Minnesota Press.
Recommended:
1.
Selections on Blackboard Vista, and
Szasz, A., Ecopopulism: Toxic waste and the movement for environmental justice. University of
2.
Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, 1994
3.
Faber, D., Capitalizing on environmental injustice: The polluter-industrial complex in the age of
globalization. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers: Lanham, 2008
4.
Gould, K.A.; Pellow, D.; Schnaiberg, A., Interrogating the treadmill of production:
Everything you wanted to know about the treadmill but were afraid to ask. Organization
and Environment 2004, 17, 296-316
5.
Bullard, R. (ed) 2007. Growing Smarter: Achieving Livable Communities, Environmental Justice,
and Regional Equity. MIT Press
6.
Haraway, D., Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of
partial perspective. In Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature, Haraway, D., Ed.
Routledge: New York, 1991
Seminar Leaders: ________________________________________________________
FINAL PAPER DUE AT DAY AND TIME NOTED IN THE BC SCHEDULE OF EXAMS
© Brian J. Gareau 2012
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