Social science and nature. A review of environmental sociology in Germany

Lange, Hellmuth

doi:10.1016/s1240-1307(02)80165-0

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is because of developments among environmental advocates within society, perhaps best illustrated by the institutionalisation and ‘mainstreaming’ of the German Greens, who have developed from a radical activist network of local green groups (see Huber, 1982 ) into a significant national institutionalised political force and architect of Germany’s renewable energy policy. In addition, European environmental sociology has developed a more ‘reflexive bias’ ( Lange, 2002 ), following a stronger institutionalisation of environmental NGOs and green parties in the arenas of power. European environmental sociology seems to have a significantly higher degree of science–user interactions than its US counterpart, with environmental sociologists more often working closely together with various (also hegemonic) user categories, sometimes in applied ways.…”

Section: Worlds Apart? An Identification and Contextual Explanationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a global environmental sociology? Legacies, trends and future directions

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A current debate on environmental sociology involves how the subdiscipline should conceptualise and investigate the environment and whether it should be prescriptive and deliver policy recommendations. Taking this debate as a point of departure this article discusses the current and future role of sociology in a globalised world. It discusses how environmental sociology in the US and Europe differ in their understandings of sociology’s contribution to the study of the environment. Particular stress is placed on how these two regions differ with respect to their use of the tradition of sociological thought, views on what constitutes the environment and ways of institutionalising environmental sociology as a sociological field. In conclusion, the question is raised of whether current versions of environmental sociology are appropriate for analysing a globalised world environment; or whether environmental sociology’s strong roots in European and US cultures make it less relevant when facing an increasingly globalised world. Finally, the article proposes some new rules for a global environmental sociology and describes some of their possible implications for the sociological study of climate change.

show abstract

Section: Worlds Apart? An Identification and Contextual Explanationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a global environmental sociology? Legacies, trends and future directions

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…: 5-6), in the early years of the new subdiscipline? 29 Environmental sociology can be viewed as an academic advocate for the American environmental movement (Lange, 2002). The preeminence of science in Catton and Dunlap's definition of environmental sociology as a field can also be linked to what Eyerman and Jamison (1991) call the cognitive praxis of social movements.…”

Section: Socio-historical Analysis Of the Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not as natural as it seems: the social history of the environment in American sociology

Alexandrescu

2009

History of the Human Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article argues against Catton and Dunlap’s claims that the natural environment has been ignored or downplayed in American sociology before the emergence of environmental sociology in the 1970s. By reviewing a collection of 86 sociology textbooks between 1894 and 1980, the article provides quantitative evidence regarding the scope and types of references to the natural environment in mainstream sociology. The bulk of the article is based on an interpretive-historical analysis of the different representations of the environment in the textbook literature. This analysis is carried out from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge, whereby sociological ideas about nature are interpreted in terms of their intellectual milieu and social context. The main finding is that the ‘natural environment’ has been interpreted in different ways and has been put to a variety of epistemological and ideological uses — particularly positivism and functionalism — throughout the history of the discipline.

show abstract

“…First, the European social science studies on environmental NGOs and protests, on environmental attitudes and public concern, and concerning environmental politics, as well as those on multinational companies and the environment, large-scale technology, and class analyses, were less strongly linked to the sociological discipline (e.g., Lowe & Rüdig, 1986) and, if they were clearly sociological, they emerged later (cf. Lange, 2002;Spaargaren, 1987). 8 In Germany, for instance, studies on the deleterious effects of large-scale technology/technological systems were prominent, especially also from a neo-Marxist perspective (cf.…”

Section: Historical Development: Time Framesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental sociology in Europe progressed rather slowly in the beginning (cf. Lange, 2002, for Germany). 9 European environmental sociology-as a clearly identifiable and selfnamed subdiscipline-started to really take off during the second phase of American environmental sociology, during the late 1980s and early 1990s (cf.…”

Section: Historical Development: Time Framesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Political engagement in European environmental sociology is no longer automatically coined as critical toward the state and economy, or as providing automatic support for grassroots activism. In addition, European environmental sociology turned into a more "reflexive bias" (Lange, 2002), following a stronger institutionalization of environmental NGOs and green parties in the arenas of power, again with the United Kingdom as an inbetween case.…”

Section: Political Engagement Of Environmental Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

From Environmental Sociologies to Environmental Sociology?

Mol

2006

Organization & Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

U.S. environmental sociology has gone through a very different development path compared with its European counterpart. U.S. environmental sociology was dominant in establishing the field and setting the terms for the development and identity of this subdiscipline. Whereas U.S. environmental sociology still sets the tone in terms of internal organization, structure, and interaction, arguably Northwest European environmental sociology has been more innovative in the last decade of the former millennium with respect to theoretical and conceptual contributions. Although we can still witness significant differences between the environmental sociologies of the two continents, these differences are diminishing. During the past decade, a remarkable degree of interaction, exchange, and social learning has taken place between the two academic communities, facilitated by various aspects of globalization. The question of whether we are moving to one environmental sociology should, however, also take other—and especially the emerging Asian—environmental sociologies into account.

show abstract

Social science and nature. A review of environmental sociology in Germany

Cited by 6 publications

References 42 publications

Towards a global environmental sociology? Legacies, trends and future directions

Towards a global environmental sociology? Legacies, trends and future directions

Not as natural as it seems: the social history of the environment in American sociology

From Environmental Sociologies to Environmental Sociology?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About