For Understandable Reasons, the Founders of Sociology Paid Little Attention to ‘’ Environmental Issues’’. However Modern-Day Sociologists Do. Discuss the Sociology of the Environment in Terms of Globalisation, Consumption and Sustainability.
Jessamy O’Dwyer
18/10/2012
Introduction to Sociology
Mark: A-
Essay Qs. For understandable reasons, the founders of sociology paid little attention to ‘’ environmental issues’’. However modern-day sociologists do. Discuss the sociology of the environment in terms of globalisation, consumption and sustainability.
Introduction
Over the course of this essay I will address the area of environmental sociology in two parts. Firstly, I hope to explain why the field of environmental sociology was not an area of relevance to the founders of sociological thought. Then in the second part of the essay I will go on to discuss the birth of the field of environmental sociology.
Within this new subfield sociologists have written at great length about the many environmental issues facing the world today. Many of these issues are overlapping and interconnected. I will address three of these challenges I believe to be most acute; (1) Globalisation, (2) Human consumption, and (3) Sustainability.
Sociology in context
The founders of Sociology (Marx, Durkheim and Weber) paid little attention to environmental issues because they were not seen as relevant or particularly problematic to society at the time, and therefore were not considered as topics of significance to classical social scientists. Instead they focused on matters such as poverty, stratification, social inequality, class systems, industrial development, religion and government. The detrimental impact of human beings on our natural surroundings were not yet acknowledged and the “natural landscape was taken for granted, simply as the backdrop to the much more pressing and urgent social problems generated by industrial capitalism” (Glidden’s, 2007).
The Emergence of Environmental Sociology
It wasn’t until the late 1960s that environmental issues were first recognised as relevant challenges in the field of sociology. In the United States the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act highlighted the strain
18/10/2012
Introduction to Sociology
Mark: A-
Essay Qs. For understandable reasons, the founders of sociology paid little attention to ‘’ environmental issues’’. However modern-day sociologists do. Discuss the sociology of the environment in terms of globalisation, consumption and sustainability.
Introduction
Over the course of this essay I will address the area of environmental sociology in two parts. Firstly, I hope to explain why the field of environmental sociology was not an area of relevance to the founders of sociological thought. Then in the second part of the essay I will go on to discuss the birth of the field of environmental sociology.
Within this new subfield sociologists have written at great length about the many environmental issues facing the world today. Many of these issues are overlapping and interconnected. I will address three of these challenges I believe to be most acute; (1) Globalisation, (2) Human consumption, and (3) Sustainability.
Sociology in context
The founders of Sociology (Marx, Durkheim and Weber) paid little attention to environmental issues because they were not seen as relevant or particularly problematic to society at the time, and therefore were not considered as topics of significance to classical social scientists. Instead they focused on matters such as poverty, stratification, social inequality, class systems, industrial development, religion and government. The detrimental impact of human beings on our natural surroundings were not yet acknowledged and the “natural landscape was taken for granted, simply as the backdrop to the much more pressing and urgent social problems generated by industrial capitalism” (Glidden’s, 2007).
The Emergence of Environmental Sociology
It wasn’t until the late 1960s that environmental issues were first recognised as relevant challenges in the field of sociology. In the United States the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act highlighted the strain
Bibliography: Books: * Giddens, Anthony, Sociology 4th edition, Polity Press, 2001, Ch * Hardisty, Paul E, Environmental and Economic Sustainability, CRC Press, 2010, Ch. 2. * Alamar. K and Murali. N, Environmental Management, Sustainable Development and Human Health, Taylor and Francis Group, London, 2008. * Dreher. A, Gaston. N, Martens. P, Measuring Globalisation; Gauging its’ Consequences, Springer Science + Business Media, LLC, 2008. * National Environmental Policy Act, 1969 http://www.epa.gov/region1/nepa/ (accessed 7/10/12) * Environmental Protection Agency, Irelands Environmental Challenges and Priorities Report, 2012 http://www.epa.ie/ (accessed 4/10/12)