Environmental Sociology: From Analysis to Action Third Edition

King and Auriffeille’s edited volume contains sociological work examining human-environment interaction through a critical lens. By engaging readers in such crucial areas as political economy (domestic and global), environmental inequality, industrial disasters, and the politicization of science/knowledge, this volume cultivates an awareness and deepens an understanding in some of the fundamental theoretical and empirical questions driving the field of environmental sociology today. This book is a must-read for students across the social sciences who want to learn about some of our most important environmental problems from critical sociological perspectives. — Aaron M. McCright, Michigan State University, co-author of The Risk Society Revisited

From the psychological to political, this anthology articulates how societal factors are the very basis from which environmental problems emerge and are resolved. The authors help us see inside the most acute and difficult of these factors―from persistent inequalities to the disasters they create―therefore offering a window through which we can see opportunities for change. — Sabrina McCormick

The new edition of Environmental Sociology: From Analysis to Action includes a number of great case studies to inspire students, and encourage them to see how creative and innovative solutions to ecological problems already exist. It’s a read full of accessible and important readings by leaders in the field of environmental sociology. New additions related to food and transit justice, as well as in-depth explorations of recent ecological disasters make it a timely and important book. — Amy Lubitow, Portland State University

This reader, a collection of almost two dozen essays, surveys issues and presents contemporary research in environmental sociology. The essays ask crucial questions about how social forces affect how we see, understand, and ultimately engage nature. To this end, they connect issues like toxic waste or the limits of green economics to racism, food justice, sexism, and class. Their social context is the United States. The essays are organized into eight sections that open with an exploration of the concept of nature. The following sections consider how political economy structures environmental crises and solutions, how social inequalities produce environmental harm, emotions and identity in the social construction of our environments, disasters and industrial society, globalization, science as the producer of both risk and knowledge, and finally ideas for ecologically sensitive social action. The contributors, including luminaries like John Bellamy Foster and Alison Hope Alkon, are mostly sociologists working in universities. ― Book News, Inc.