Sociology 415
Sociology of the Environment
Fall 2003
Professor: Dr. Stephen Zehr
Office: LA 3009
Phone: 465-1203
Office Hours: MW 2:00 - 4:00 P.M.
SYNOPSIS
This course considers sociological theory and empirical studies of reciprocal relationships
between societies and natural environments. We consider several general issues about the
interaction of humans and the natural environment (e.g., does it make sense to consider the social
and natural as distinct from each other) and focus extensively on causes and consequences of
environmental disorganization (or what we commonly refer to as environmental problems).
The list of topics for the course include the following: (1) theoretical approaches to the
sociology of the environment; (2) human material and ideological causes of environmental
disorganization; (3) population growth and environmental consequences; (4) environmental
inequality; (5) globalization/localization of environmental disorganization; (6) the U.S.
environmental movement; and (7) social impact assessments. Students should leave the course
with a basic understanding of these issues and hold skills and knowledge useful for analyzing
environment and society issues.
FORMAT
The course will proceed through a combination of assigned readings, class discussions, and
lectures. Students are expected to complete assigned readings before class and be ready to
discuss them and make connections to other ideas and events. They also should attend carefully
to lecture material so that thoughtful, interesting, and relevant questions and comments can be
made in class.
OFFICE HOURS
An important resource in your education is personal interaction with faculty (as well as with
other students). Office hours are a good time for this interaction, so I encourage you to take
advantage of them. You will find me approachable, friendly, helpful, and not intimidating.
TEXTBOOKS
Alan Irwin, Sociology and the Environment. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2001.
This book presents some of the theory for the course. It discusses both Ulrich Beck’s notion of
the risk society and the social constructionist approach to understanding the environment. It
addresses in some detail how the social is integrally connected to what becomes defined as
environmental problems. It considers both the globalization and localization of the environment
and the importance of contextual constructions of meanings about the natural environment.
David Pellow, Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 2002.
This book provides a detailed and historical case study of environmental injustice. It extends
traditional sociological approaches to understanding environmental inequality (e.g, focusing on
the distribution of toxic waste sites across class and race lines) by looking at inequalities in
means used to handle environmental problems. For example, although we partially deal with the
problem of expanding dump sites by recycling, workers who handle recycled materials and are
subjected to their dangers tend to be drawn disproportionately from minority groups and lower
social classes.
Benjamin Kline, First Along the River: A Brief History of the U.S. Environmental Movement.
San Francisco: Acada Books, 1997.
The environmental movement is an example of a social movement. It can be defined simply as
an organized attempt to bring about social change in how we interact with the natural
environment. This book addresses the U.S. environmental movement, hitting upon some of the
important features of its development. In class, we will expand upon this book by identifying
some of the key changes in the movement from the 1960s to the present.
Other readings will be placed on reserve in the library and in the sociology lab (LA 1010).
EVALUATION REQUIREMENTS
1. Three essay exams will be given in the course. Each exam will cover approximately 1/3 of the
course material. Each exam will count as 25 points toward your final grade.
2. A formal 10-15 page research paper that meets guidelines distributed in class. Emphasis will
be placed on conducting original research. To receive credit, this paper must follow correct
referencing procedures (a guide will be distributed in class) and be carefully and clearly
written. The paper is worth 30 points toward your final grade.
3. Class attendance: Since most socialization takes place through social interaction (and all
college courses involve socialization into a culture), face-to-face contact with the professor and
other students is essential to your education. Attendance will be taken. You should not miss a
classes except when absolutely necessary (e.g., sickness). You will receive the total 10 points
through attendance at 23 or more (excluding exam days and one day that the professor will miss)
complete classes. Each day less (for any reason) will lower your grade in this category by 1
point. Attendance credit cannot be given if you are not here, no matter what the excuse. Please
note that the professor will attend the Society for Social Studies of Science meetings and will
miss 16 October.
4. Classroom participation: Class participation is defined (by me) as quality contributions to
topics under consideration. This might include raising an important question, answering
questions raised in class, relating course material to issues and events in your everyday life,
contributing to discussions, and providing an informed critique of course material. Off-the-cuff
opinions generally are not quality contributions, unless you can provide some support for them.
Typically, students who provide the best contributions are those who come to class well-prepared
and who keep their minds active in the classroom. Class participation will be considered as extra
credit (to a minimally significant degree, but not to be assumed – i.e., it might transform a grade
from a B to a B+) in your final grade.
* No extra credit assignments will be given. Grades on exams and final grades will not be
curved. Any cheating or plagiarism will result in an automatic F (0 points) on the relevant
work.
There are a total of 115 points. The percentage of total points that you receive will hold the
following letter grade equivalent.
90-100 A
85-89 B+
80-84 B
75-79 C+
70-74 C
65-69 D+
60-64 D
59 or below F
If any member of the class feels that s/he has a disability, please advise the instructor of desired
accommodations by the end of the first week of class or as soon as you have written
documentation. The instructor will work with you and the staff of Disability Support Services to
provide reasonable accommodations to ensure that you have a fair opportunity to perform and
participate in class.
TOPICS AND READINGS
(N.B. Topics and readings may be subject to change)
1. Introduction: Discussion on the social connection to the natural environment
Begin reading the Irwin book
2. Sociological theories
A. Human ecology perspective
B. Marxist/Political economy
B. Ecological modernization
C. Ulrich Beck’s risk society thesis
Irwin chapter 2 is relevant here
D. Social constructionist perspective
1. Traditional approach
2. Co-construction of nature/society and hybrid development
Irwin book should be completed. You may skip chapter 6.
3. Sources of environmental disorganization
A. Material causes
1. private ownership, production, and consumption: discussion of
capitalism/environmental disorganization linkage
2. treadmill of production and treadmill of consumption
Read Allan Schnaiberg, David N. Pellow, & Adam Weinberg, “The
treadmill of production and the environmental state.” Ch. 23 in Craig R.
Humphrey, Tammy L. Lewis & Frederick H. Buttel (eds.), Environment,
Energy, and Society: Exemplary Works. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth/Thomson.
B. Population growth
Read Charles L. Harper, “Population, environment, and food.” Ch. 5 in his
Environment and Society: Human Perspectives and Environmental Issues. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Read John Bongaarts, “Can the growing human population feed itself?” Ch. 11 in
Humphrey et al. (cited above)
C. Urbanization and suburbanization
Read Molly O’Meara, “Exploring a New Vision for Cities.” Ch. 8 in Lester R.
Brown, Christopher Flavin, & Hilary French, State of the World 1999. New
York: W. W. Norton, 1999, pgs. 133-150.
D. Ideology
1. Christianity and environmental domination
Read Michael Bell “The ideology of environmental domination.” Ch. 5
in his An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Pine Forge Press, 1998.
2. Individualism
4. Inequality in the distribution of environmental disorganization
A. Patriarchy and ecofeminism
B. Environmental classism and racism
Read the Pellow book for this section
5. Globalization/localization of environmental disorganization
6. Case studies of environmental problems that illustrate the above issues
A. Acid rain
B. Ozone depletion
C. Global warming
7. The U.S. environmental movement
The Kline book should be read for this section
8. Social impact assessments
Soc 415: Sociology of the Environment
Fall 2003
Dr. Zehr
Research paper assignment
DIRECTIONS
Choose one of the projects listed below for your paper. Alternatively, you can propose
your own research project and, WITH THE PROFESSOR’S APPROVAL, make it the basis for
your paper. All papers must follow appropriate referencing and bibliographic procedures
(described in a separate handout). Failure to do this will result in no credit for the paper. You
will be asked to redo it.
You must get started on the paper early in the term! To eliminate procrastination, you are
required to regularly turn in progress reports on the paper according to the schedule below. Each
paper will be an individual effort. However, feel free to discuss your progress and problems with
the professor at any time.
Any plagiarism will result in an automatic F grade. If you are uncertain about what
constitutes plagiarism, consult with the professor or other guides on this matter.
1. Conduct research in which you investigate the possibility of environmental racism and
classism in Evansville. Your research will involve examining census tracts for racial and
income/occupational data for Evansville. Data for the 2000 census will need to be accessed at
the census tract level. Then, examine one or more relevant features of the environment -environmental “goods” or “bads” -- that might be unequally distributed across these census
tracts. Given the small size of the city, don't pick something that would affect everybody equally
regardless of where they live (e.g., ozone pollution). Rather, pick something that at least
potentially could be unequally distributed (e.g., easy access to parks, toxic waste sites, exposure
to lead-based paints, proximity to brownfields, etc.). This information may come from printed
sources or you may need to do some investigation on your own. Your completed project will be
a paper discussing the results. It should include relevant tables, graphs, and/or maps that clearly
present racial and social class (or just income level) composition of specific census tracts. Or it
may make more sense to group your data by including several census tracts together in a
category. How you present your data needs to be rationally based on the type of environmental
good or bad that you choose to examine.
2. Suppose you are a member of an organization whose objective is to alter public attitudes and
behavior (at a local, regional, national, or international level -- your choice) in their day-to-day
activities, with the goal of reducing emission of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
What strategies would you develop? Discuss how you would attempt to achieve your goal.
Then critique your strategies. How might they fall short of your goal? Draw upon social
constructionist theory and, potentially, political economy theory in this analysis. Build this
theory into your paper. Also, you might draw upon insights from social psychological theories if
you have taken course work in this area. Remember that the main challenge in this paper is to
develop a strategy that will change behavior.
3. Suppose the mayor of Evansville commissions proposals for a fully funded study of
“sustainable development in Evansville” to help inform future decisions. As a sociology of the
environment scholar, you decide to throw your hat into the ring. Write such a proposal. Begin
by reading and thinking about sustainable development. What does it mean? How could it be
applied to the small scale of Evansville? How could it be operationalized so that it can be
empirically studied? Identify the types of sectors such as industry, transportation, recreation,
housing, education, retail, etc. that you would analyze. What specific information in each of
these sectors would you gather? The outcome of the project will be a research proposal (an
example of a research proposal will be available in the Sociology lab). Make certain that the
proposal is grounded in sociological theory from this course, contains a literature review on
sustainable development, operationalizes sustainable development into specific items that can be
studied, and clearly identifies questions that need to be answered. Although normally a proposal
would include a budget, you do not need to develop one for this project.
4. Conduct a photographic study of a sociology of the environment issue. Think of an issue for
which it would make sense to conduct a visual analysis. Follow appropriate visual sociology
methods (see the professor for relevant literature). Photographs, or some other visual format,
should be part of the final paper.
5. One of the major difficulties of dealing with potentially large-scale environmental problems
(e.g., ozone depletion, elimination of biodiversity, global climate change) is the uncertainty in
the risks posed by these problems. In other words, given current levels of knowledge, we don’t
know how and to what extent these problems will affect us economically, socially, culturally, or
in terms of human health. For policy makers, this lack of information poses a problem. Does
one wait until more information is available to develop a control policy when the lack of quick
action might prove disastrous? Or does one take action immediately when it may turn out to be
costly and unnecessary? The goal of this project will be to develop a position paper that might
guide politicians in making decisions under uncertainty. You might employ tools such as the
“precautionary principle”, basic cost/benefit analysis, scenario development, etc. to help guide
the development of this paper. Though it is a position paper, it still needs to be well-grounded in
relevant academic literature.
Due Dates:
23 September: Hand in a ½ page typed description of the paper that you plan to write.
14 October: Hand in a typed list of references (in appropriate format). This should be generated
from computerized searches on relevant searching tools. You may need to request some relevant
materials through interlibrary loan. Do this early in the semester.
11 November: Hand in an extensive outline of your final paper.
25 November: Hand in the first draft of the paper.
9 December: Paper is due at the beginning of class. Do not be late.
Meeting each of these due dates is required. Also, if time permits during the last week of
classes, each of you may be requested to briefly present your results to the rest of the class.