Sociological Theory After the End of Nature
Social Processes
Environmental and Climate Change
Robert J. Brulle,
Robert J. Brulle
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Search for more papers by this authorRobert J. Brulle,
Robert J. Brulle
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 15 May 2015
Abstract
Anthropogenic climate change poses a fundamental challenge to the cultural beliefs and social structure of global social order. However, the social sciences treat the natural world as a passive backdrop in which the human project unfolds, and focus primarily on the relation between social facts. In a world where human activities are being manifestly impacted by a continuously shifting climate, it is no longer adequate to only look to human social interactions to gain an understanding of how social order is constituted and changed. This realization has led a number of scholars across the range of social sciences to identify a need to move beyond anthropocentric social sciences. This essay provides an overview of the major efforts to create a social science that integrates social and natural facts within the field of sociology. Three areas of foundational research in this area are discussed, including the reinterpretation of sociological classics, the development of constructed society/nature hybrids, and the creation of linked society–natural systems models. Examples of empirical research demonstrating these approaches are then provided. The essay concludes with a survey of ongoing sociological theory projects on this topic.
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Further Reading
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- Roberts, J. T., & Parks, B. (2007). A climate of injustice: Global inequality, north–south politics, and climate policy. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
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