Sociology 560 is the foundations course for environmental sociology. We will begin our study by examining the historical precursors to and eventual emergence of this relatively new subarea in sociology, assessing its strengths and weaknesses and attempting to determine the critical characteristics of a sociological subfield. Then we'll conduct a survey of topics that have typically been addressed in sociological studies of environmental issues. These topics include environmental concern, disasters, health issues, and risk assessment. We'll evaluate this work in light of the characteristics we'll have earlier determined are necessary to define a subfield. Finally, we'll examine a stream of recent work in environmental sociology that converges around a political economy perspective. There is a continuing theme in this work that involves environmental conflict in the context of the contradictory roles of the liberal democratic state and the consequent unequal distribution of environmental problems.
The objectives of this course are:
Reading Materials
The following books are available at the bookstores.
In addition, the required articles that are listed in the Course Schedule will be available for copying.
The final course grade will be determined on the basis of your participation in class and a 15-page term paper. The proper execution of the term paper depends on your fulfillment of several related requirements.
First, your topic must be approved by me via a 300-400 word description of what you would like to do, due the week of September 18. Also required are: a 5-page outline of your paper; an abstract to be submitted to the Southern Sociological Society for possible presentation at the April 1997 meetings in Atlanta; an early draft; frequent sharing of your research topic with class members for their edification and input; and a presentation of your paper to the class. Due dates for these steps are posted in the Course Schedule.
The purpose of these interactions with me about your paper is to allow me frequent and early input on your paper with the goal of your production of an 'A' paper. If your paper is accepted for presentation at the SSS meetings, I will continue to help you with revisions after the semester ends and as long as necessary. Several students who have gone through this process have published their papers in journals.
Week 1: INTRODUCTION AND ORGANIZATION
Week 2:
I. THE EMERGENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY AS A FIELD
1979. Dunlap, Riley E. and William R. Catton, Jr. "Environmental
Sociology." Annual Review of Sociology 5:243-273.
1987. Buttel, Frederick H. "New Directions in Environmental
Sociology." Annual Review of Sociology 13:465-488.
1992/93. Dunlap, Riley E. and William R. Catton, Jr. "Toward an
Ecological Sociology: The Development, Current Status, and Probable
Future of Environmental Sociology." The Annals of the International
Institute of Sociology 3:263-284.
1996. Buttel, Frederick H. "Environmental and Resource Sociology:
Theoretical Issues and Opportunities for Synthesis." Rural Sociology
61:56-76.
1996. Gramling, Robert and William R. Freudenburg. "Environmental
Sociology: Toward a Paradigm for the 21st Century." Sociological
Spectrum 16:347-370.
Week 3:
II. RESEARCH TOPICS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY
A. Environmental Concern
1980. Van Liere, Kent D. and Riley E. Dunlap. "The Social Bases of
Environmental Concern: A Review of Hypotheses, Explanations and
Empirical Evidence." Public Opinion Quarterly :181-197.
1991. Dunlap, Riley E. and Rik Scarce. 1991. "The Polls - Poll Trends:
Environmental Problems and Protection." Public Opinion Quarterly
55:651-671.
1991. Dunlap, Riley E. "Public Opinion in the 1980s: Clear
Consensus, Ambiguous Commitment." Environment 33:10-15, 32-37.
1992. Jones, Robert Emmet and Riley E. Dunlap. "The Social Bases of
Environmental Concern: Have They Changed Over Time?" Rural
Sociology 57:28-47.
1996. Davidson, Debra J. and William R. Freudenburg. "Gender and
Environmental Risk Concerns: A Review and Analysis of Available
Research." Environment and Behavior 28:302-339.
Week 4:
B. Disasters
BOOK 1988. Edelstein, Michael R. Contaminated Communities: The
Social and Psychological Impacts of Residential Toxic Exposure.
Boulder: Westview Press.
1991. Blocker, T. Jean, E. Burke Rochford, Jr., and Darren E.
Sherkat. "Political Responses to Natural Hazards: Social Movement
Participation Following a Flood Disaster." International Journal of
Mass Emergencies and Disasters 9:367-382.
1992. Blocker, T. Jean and Darren E. Sherkat. "In the Eyes of the
Beholder:Technological and Naturalistic Interpretations of a Disaster."
Industrial Crisis Quarterly 6:153-166.
1992. Aronoff, Marilyn and Valerie Gunter. "Defining Disaster: Local
Constructions for Recovery in the Aftermath of Chemical
Contamination." Social Problems 39:345-365.
1993. Kroll-Smith, Steve and Stephen R. Couch. "Symbols, Ecology,
and Contamination: Case Studies in the Ecological-Symbolic Approach
to Disaster." Research in Social Problems and Public Policy 5:47-73.
Week 5:
Due: 300-400 words on proposed research paper.
C. Environment and Health
1984. Freudenburg, Nicholas. "Citizen Action for Environmental
Health: Report on a Survey of Community Organizations." American
Journal of Public Health 74:444-448.
1987? Couto, Richard A. "Failing Health and New Prescriptions:
Community-Based Approaches to Environmental Risks." ??
1991. Freudenburg, William R. and Timothy R. Jones. "Attitudes and
Stress in the Presence of Technological Risk: A Test of the Supreme
Court Hypothesis." Social Forces 69:1143-1168.
1991. Phil Brown. "The Popular Epidemiology Approach to Toxic
Waste Contamination." Pp. 133-155 in Communities At Risk: Collective
Responses to Technological Hazards, edited by Stephen Robert Couch
and J. Stephen Kroll-Smith. NY: Peter Lang.
1993. Kroll-Smith, Steve and Anthony E. Ladd. "Environmental
Illness and Biomedicine: Anomalies, Exemplars, and the Politics
of the Body." Sociological Spectrum 13:7-33.
Week 6:
D. Environmental Risk
1987. Fowlkes, Martha R. and Patricia Y. Miller. "Chemicals and
Community at Love Canal." Pp.55-78 in The Social and Cultural
Construction of Risk, edited by B.B. Johnson and V. T. Covello. D.
Reidel Publishing Company.
1988. Clarke, Lee. "Explaining Choices Among Technological Risks."
Social Problems 35:22-35.
1989. Fiorino, Daniel J. "Environmental Risk and Democratic Process:
A Critical Review." Columbia Journal of Environmental Law 14:501-547.
1993. Freudenburg, William R. "Risk and Recreancy: Weber, the
Division of Labor, and the Rationality of Risk Perceptions." Social
Forces 71:909-932.
Week 7:
Discussion of research topics.
III. THEORETICAL CONVERGENCE ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY APPROACH
A. The Political Economy Perspective on the Environment
BOOK 1994. Freudenburg, William R. and Robert Gramling. Oil in
Troubled Waters: Perceptions, Politics, and the Battle Over Offshore
Drilling. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
1990. Schnaiberg, Allan. "The Political Economy of Environmental
Problems and Policies:Consciousness, Conflict, and Control Capacity."
To be published eventually in Handbook of Environmental Sociology,
edited by Riley Dunlap and William Michelson.
1993. Cable, Sherry and Michael Benson. "Acting Locally: Environmental
Injustice and the emergence of Grass-roots Environmental
Organizations." Social Problems 40:464-477.
Week 8:
due: 5-page outline of research paper.
B. Environmental Regulation and Policy
BOOK 1994. Barnett, Harold C. Toxic Debts and the Superfund
Dilemma. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
BOOK 1996. Wells, Donald T. Environmental Policy: A Global
Perspective for the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ:Prentice-Hall.
1987. Yeager, Peter C. "Structural Bias in Regulatory Law
Enforcement: The Case of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
Social Problems 34:330-344.
1990. "Environmental Quality and the State: Some Political-Sociological
Observations on Environmental Regulation." Pp.357-378 in
The Political Sociology of the State: Essays on the Origins,
Structure, and Impact of the Modern State. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
1992. Capek, Stella M. "Environmental Justice, Regulation, and the
Local Community." The International Journal of Health Services
22:729-746.
Week 9:
Discussions of research papers.
C. Environmental Conflict
Environmentalism and the Environmental Movement
BOOK 1992. Dunlap, Riley E. and Angela G. Mertig, editors.
American Environmentalism:The U.S. Environmental Movement, 1970-1990. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis.
BOOK Wapner, Paul. Environmental Activism and World Civic
Politics. Albany: SUNY Press.
1986. Morrison, Denton E. and Riley E. Dunlap. "Environmentalism
and Elitism: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis." Environmental
Management 10:581-589.
Week 10
Grassroots Conflict
1991. Erikson, Kai. "A New Species of Trouble." Pp.11-29 in
Communities At Risk: Collective Responses to Technological Hazards,
edited by Stephen Robert Couch and J. Stephen Kroll-Smith. NY:
Peter Lang.
1994. Brown, Phil and Susan Masterson-Allen. "The Toxic Waste
Movement: A New Type of Activism." Society and Natural Resources
7:269-287.
1993. Bailey, Conner and Charles E. Faupel. "Movers and Shakers and
PCB Takers: Hazardous Waste and Community Power." Sociological
Spectrum 13:89-115.
1992. Cable, Sherry. "Women's Social Movement Involvement: The
Role of Structural Availability in Recruitment and Participation
Processes." Sociological Quarterly 33:35-50.
1993. Krauss, Celene. "Women and Toxic Waste Protests: Race,
Class and Gender as Resources of Resistance." Qualitative Sociology
16:247-262.
1995. Brown, Phil and Faith I. T. Ferguson. "'Making a Big Stink:'
Women's Work, Women's Relationships, and Toxic Waste Activism."
Gender and Society 9:145-172.
1989. Krauss, Celene. "Community Struggles and the Shaping of
Democratic Consciousness." Sociological Forum 4:227-239.
1991. Cable, Sherry and Beth Degutis. "The Transformation of
Community Consciousness: The Effects of Citizens' Organizations on
Host Communities." International Journal of Mass Emergencies and
Disasters 9:383-399.
Week 11:
Due: First draft of research paper.
D. Environmental Justice
BOOK 1995. Edited by Jonathan S. Petrikin. Environmental Justice.
San Diego: Greenhaven Press.
1993. Capek, Stella M. "The 'Environmental Justice' Frame: A
Conceptual Discussion and an Application." Social Problems 40:5-24.
1995. Cable, Sherry and Thomas Shriver. "Production and
Extrapolation of Meaning in the Environmental Justice Movement."
Sociological Spectrum 15:419-442.
Week 12-15:
CLASS PRESENTATIONS