What is Environmental Sociology?
Environmental Sociology is the study of how social systems interact with ecosystems; or how biological communities of interacting organisms interact with their physical environment.
Environmental Sociology is a subfield of Sociology whose practitioners are include ecological variables, considerations and contexts in their analyses and have chose to develop sociological analysis at the intersection of social and ecological systems.
Environmental Sociology was officially recognized in 1976, emerged alongside the national ecology movement, both started in late sixties.
Environmental Sociology is an immense field. It encompasses the understandings of multiple ecosystems and multiple social systems, and how they interact--all of which is very complex. Trying to understand one ecosystem or one social system is hard enough. Trying to understand multiple of each is more difficult, then trying to understand how they interact becomes…even more difficult!
It may be obvious how we effect ecosystems, for example through the infrastructure we construct in our environment and the patterns of our mechanisms for our societal waste, and perhaps less pronounced is how ecosystems effect us. Yet, ecosystems determine what areas are inhabitable, our language and our social lives.
the environment affects us: case study
"Eskimos have over 50 words for snow, 70 for ice. The Sami people, who live in the northern tips of Scandinavia and Russia, use at least 180 words related to snow and ice, the Sami also have as many as 1,000 words for reindeer. These refer to such things as the reindeer’s fitness (“leami” means a short, fat female reindeer), personality (“njirru” is an unmanageable female) and the shape of its antlers (“snarri” is a reindeer whose antlers are short and branched). There is even a Sami word to describe a bull with a single, very large testicle: “busat.”
All languages find a way to say what they need to say!!” says Matthew Sturm, a geophysicist with the Army Corps of Engineers in Alaska." --Dave Robson, Washington Post
In western tradition we often see society and nature as two different domains. Society happens in some places; nature happens in others. Society and nature are even studied largely by different people. In trying to establish itself Sociology put a lot of effort into defining itself as something distinct from natural sciences, as a "social" science.
What is our relationship with nature?
The "natural look," natural skin. "Natural" is commodified and sold. But...can nature actually be commodified? Does processing nature make it less "natural?"
Our relationship with nature is complicated. We filter nature through our social constructionism. We constantly negotiate meaning and construct reality regarding us and nature; this process is called naturework.
It is naturework when we domesticate some animals and not others.
Why are dogs domesticated? Why not cute and smart pigs?
naturework
Naturework is a theory that includes the work that is done to transform “nature” into culture.
Theory discussed next module: here.
institutionalization
Institutionalization When a concept, for example, a value or mode of behavior, becomes embedded within and is perpetuated by the normal operations of an organization, social system or society as a whole. Processes which establish schemas, rules, norms and routines
Status quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regards to social or political issues. In the sociological sense, it generally applies to maintain or change existing social structure and values.
By default the status quo results in environmental harm. We must go out of our way to be environmentally friendly. (Bell and Carolan 2004)
What are some of the reasons environmental harm has become institutionalized? Is it perhaps because we bifurcate ourselves from nature?
"According to a Nielsen Company audience report, the average person in the United States spends approximately 10 hours and 39 minutes each day. This average of 10 hours and 39 minutes includes our daily use of smartphones, computers, video games, radios, tablets and TVs."-Source
Our hyperconnected brains, with technology always on, tend to be very adept at finding answers to questions in part because we are used to navigating collective intelligence. However, we also are used to and thus, demand, instant gratification, we are less likely to retain information, in part because we know the "web" is always there and we are easily distracted and develop less face-to-face social skills. -Source
Depression is on the rise. Could it be related to our increased separation from the natural world? The rate of antidepressant use among teens and adults increased by almost 400% between 1988 and 2008 (National Center for Health Statistics). -Source
the treadmills
“Perhaps no single idea is more deeply embedded in modern political culture than the belief that economic growth is the key to meeting most important human needs.” -David Korten
Human beings are social creatures, and, according to Abraham Maslow, a sense of belonging is the first need we attend to once we are fed, clothed, sheltered and safe. If we have to consume to belong, most of us will do so. And as long as we believe we don’t belong, we will continue to consume until we feel we do belong. This is the engine that drives the treadmill of consumption.
As such, our country’s economic wealth relies on maintaining movement in the treadmill of production, and our leaders believe growth in our economy relies on increasing the speed of this treadmill. This is the engine that drives the treadmill of production.
According to the treadmill logic individuals and corporations run in place at a faster and faster pace in an effort to keep up in the increasingly globalized game of competition. Both treadmills have a huge appetite for natural resources.
As the treadmill of consumption speeds up around us, we make a subconscious decision to keep up, or a conscious decision to step off.
Treadmills will be revisited in the module on Consumerism here.
Credits:
Created with images by Nathan Anderson - "Known as the "Rock Harbor Marsh" in Cape Cod Massachusetts" • composita - "wintry backcountry skiiing ski tracks" • William Hook - "iPhone X Screen" • Chris Lawton - "untitled image" • Sophie07 - "tree branches fog" • rihaij - "cat siamese cat play" • Claudio_Scott - "boxing kickboxing muay thai" • William Iven - "woman holding an iphone" • Anh Nguyen - "Model: @queanh.ng"