Ecological Contributions to Sociology

Universalising Sociology: Lessons From Radhakamal Mukerjee

“…Although it is true that Mukerjee uses the term ‘sociology’, ‘the social sciences’, and ‘social science’ at times not without ambiguity and also that he relegates at times sociology to the status of one of the social sciences, most clearly in his ‘General Theory of Society’ (Mukerjee, 1955b), the overall drift of his writings as we have seen assigns a special status to sociology. The outline of his Integral Sociology (in four volumes) that he drew confirms this contention (Mukerjee, 2000, I, pp. xx–xxiv).…”

Thinking against empire: Anticolonial thought as social theory

“…In his writings of the 1920s, Mukerjee landed upon what can be thought of as an “ecological” theory of the social, but unlike the social ecology of the early Chicago school and some anthropological ecologies of the time, Mukerjee's approach was offered a more critical lens. In one of his founding declarations, he writes: “man and the region [that is, nature] are not separate but mutually inter‐dependent entities, plastic, fluent, growing.” He opposes his conception directly to the so‐called “human ecological” approach which, he says, “has been concerned almost entirely with biotic factors, with the effects of man upon man, disregarding often enough the trees and animals, land and water….an undue prominence has been given in history and economics to these purely human influences.” He goes on to argue that what is needed is a sociology that stresses not only “the intimate ecologic inter‐relations of man but…also…his close alliance with the entire range of ecologic forces, his co‐operation in the conservation of the land, in the use of water, in the management of forests and rivers, or in the domestication and use of his live‐stock and the control of insects bacteria and parasites” (Mukerjee, 1930, p. 286).…”

Sociologies of Personal Relationships and the Challenge of Climate Change

“…This reminder is necessary because the fundamental entanglements of relational selves, social worlds, political agency and creative world-making are obfuscated by some sociological theorising. Having laid this aside, I indicate possibilities of deeper engagement between sociologies of personal life and environmental sociologies through overlap in their empirically grounded theoretical directions, including the renewed emphasis on relationality, interests in re-critiquing the 'individualization thesis', efforts to transcend separation of micromacro social worlds in usages of 'practice' and, finally, in mutual areas of concern with I/we boundaries Sociology engages with environmental 'big issues' at multiple levels, but, despite Radhakama Mukerjee's early plea for an ecological sociology (Mukerjee 1930a(Mukerjee 1930b, ecology is not routinely integrated into core sociological business or across its specialisms (Macnaghten andUrry 1998, Murphy 1995). Indeed, concern with natural world environmental issues has been somewhat ghettoised (Grundman andStehr 2010, Lever-Tracey 2008).…”

“…Sociology engages with environmental ‘big issues’ at multiple levels, but, despite Radhakama Mukerjee’s (1930a, 1930b) early plea for an ecological sociology, ecology is not routinely integrated into core sociological business or across its specialisms (Macnaghten and Urry, 1998; Murphy, 1995). Indeed, concern with natural world environmental issues has been somewhat ghettoised (Grundmann and Stehr, 2010; Lever-Tracy, 2008).…”