Unit name | Environment and Society |
---|---|
Unit code | SOCI20049 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Downer |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Nature and the environment have a complex relationship to social thought. On one hand, they provide the 'stage' for social action: shaping our interactions and identities. (The social and cultural life of cites is different from that of villages, for instance.) On the other hand, they are themselves social constructs: we impute meanings to the environment, for instance, and those meanings shape our interactions with it. (It makes a difference whether we construe it primarily as a resource or as a source of risk, for example.)
Such issues have been of longstanding interest to sociologists (although probably not as longstanding as you might guess). In recent years, however, the issue of climate change has propelled them to new prominence as a topic of sociological concern. In its wake, the environment is increasingly being recognized as a socially transformative force: driving everything from global conflicts to significant cultural shifts. At the same time, those engaging with climate change are increasingly recognizing that social thought is vital to understanding the nature of the problem itself. Tackling global warming ultimately means understanding power of institutions; the public perception of science; the dilemmas of globalization; and much, much more.
In this unit we will be start to explore these issues. We will examine the different ways in which western societies have defined their relationship with the natural world, and how this has affected their interactions with each other and with the environment. We will look at how classical and contemporary sociology deals with the issue of the environment. And we will begin unpack the sociological challenges presented by environmental problems such as climate change.
Aims:
1. to critically examine societal attitudes to issues such as: the natural world; wild and domestic animals; environmental resources; and the cultivation of 'nature', including the human body
2. to articulate the complex interaction between people and nature, and the extent to which modes of social production and consumption are implicated in contemporary environmental crises
3. to outline the various ways in which historical and contemporary social theory has conceptualised 'environment'
4. to explore the development of environmentalism as political ideology.
The unit will be taught through blended learning methods, including a mix of synchronous and asynchronous teaching activities