Sociology of the Environment and Risk (SY0034)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : SPS-3-SYENVIR

Sociology has traditionally paid little attention to environmental issues and ecological risks. Yet in the final decade of the twentieth century environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the rest were claiming to have won the support of something like 8 per cent of the UK population, a membership far greater than that of the political parties. Elsewhere in Europe, 'Greens' were elected to parliament and the European Commission pressed ahead with environmental reforms, affecting such issues as air quality and drinking water standards. Media interest in the issue seemed unbounded. Environmentalism had become a major social issue. And it has stayed that way, in part thanks to more recent anxieties over climate change, GM foodstuffs and BSE.

This course sets out to examine the environmental problems faced by contemporary society - North and South - and to investigate their socio-cultural causes. As well as assessing these problems, it asks why they have come to widespread attention only in recent years. In other words, it investigates also the socio-economic roots of environmentalism as a social movement and a political philosophy. The green movement's relationship to other movements (such as the women's and civil rights movement) will also be considered. The course additionally examines the conceptualisation of ecological risks (for example the 'risks' from GM crops). It concludes by asking how environmental issues can be incorporated into the core concerns of the discipline of sociology and by exploring the implications of environmentalism for contemporary social theory.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Sociology, (School of Social and Political Studies, Schedule J)

Other subject areas

Environmental Courses, (School of GeoSciences, Schedule N)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Tuesday	16:10	18:00	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Have reviewed the nature of the environmental problems facing contemporary industrialised and underdeveloped societies;

2. Be enabled to investigate the social origins of environmental problems;

3. Be able to analyse the rise of the environmental movement and toconsider the comparative sociology of that movement in different cultures;

4. Be able to analyse crticially how ecological risks are
conceptualised;

5. Be able to explore the implications of environmentalism for contemporary social theory.