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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sociology and the Environment
John Hannigan
INTRODUCTION
• Will examine:
 Environmental value conflict
 The environmental movement (attitudes,
concerns, behaviours, social base,
mobilization, and ideological divisions)
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 Risk and risk assessment
 Political economy of the environment
 Social construction of environmental
problems*
16-3
SOCIOLOGY AND
THE ENVIRONMENT
• Initially, sociology’s focus was on nurture, not nature
• Most early sociologists subscribed to humanexceptionalism paradigm:
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 Worldview that focuses on 
 Steadily evolving social progress
 Increasing prosperity and material comfort
 Class mobility for all segments of society
 But ignores environmental costs of economic
growth*
16-4
SOCIOLOGY AND
THE ENVIRONMENT
• 1970s  Environment became a
sociological issue
 Impetus from increased societal attention to
urban decay, pollution, overpopulation, and
resource shortages
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• Environmental sociology has developed
from multiple nuclei (interests), but one
unifying element:
 Recognition of a key value conflict between
environmentalists and their opponents* 16-5
ENVIRONMENTAL
VALUE CONFLICT
•
Difference between environmentalists and
mainstream population rooted in two main
environmental paradigms:
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1. Dominant paradigm: Emphasizes moral imperative
of material wealth creation and moral conviction
that humans have inalienable right to dominate
nature
2. Alternative environmental paradigm: Rejects views
in dominant paradigm and stresses need to adopt
small-scale, decentralized economic and political
structures in harmony with nature*
16-6
COUNTER-PARADIGMS
OF THE ENVIRONMENT
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16-7
BRIDGING THE GAP?
• Major attempt to bridge differences between the two
paradigms is located in idea of sustainable
development:
 Economic development that meets needs of present
without compromising ability of future generations to
meet their own needs
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• Proponents argue is possible to have continued
economic growth without harming the environment
 But many environmentalists are critical of concept,
emphasizing difficulty in maintaining balance
between economic growth and environmental
sustainability*
16-8
ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES,
CONCERNS, AND BEHAVIOURS
•
Are three methods for measuring people’s
environmental view of the world:
1. Utilize new environmental paradigm (NEP) scale
(12 items that measures respondents’ extent of
agreement with various statements)
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2. Ask respondents how worried or upset they are
regarding series of environmental problems
3. Ask respondents to weigh tradeoffs between, for
example, environmental protection and jobs*
16-9
AVERAGE SCORES ON THE
NEW ENVIRONMENTAL
PARADIGM SCALE
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16-10
ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES,
CONCERNS, AND BEHAVIOURS
•
Two complementary hypothesis address question
of whether public concern with environmental
quality has changed since first survey results
carried out in early 1970s:
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1. Broadening-base hypothesis: Predicts
environmental concern will eventually diffuse
throughout all groups
2. Economic-contingency hypothesis: Suggests
broadening of social bases of environmental
concern depends on prevailing economic
conditions*
16-11
SUPPORT FOR
HYPOTHESES?
• Little research support for either hypothesis:
 In North America, concern for environmental issues
has remained stable for last two decades
 Income and occupational prestige only weakly
related to environmental concern
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• Best predictors of concern with environmental
quality:
 High levels of education, youth, political liberalism,
and urban residence
• Most people indicate concern for environment but
will behave responsibly only if it is not appreciably
more expensive or inconvenient to do so*
16-12
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT:
SOCIAL BASE AND COMPOSITION
• Composition of 19th century environmental
movement::
 In the United States  Largely the elite
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 In Canada  Small group of dedicated civil
servants who convinced government to
undertake state initiatives*
16-13
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT:
SOCIAL BASE AND COMPOSITION
• Composition of modern environmental movement
that emerged in late 1960s and early 1970s:
 Well-educated professionals from urban and
suburban backgrounds, and college students from
white-collar backgrounds
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 More recently, environmentalists identified as
members of “new middle class,” including
teachers, professors, social workers, etc.
 Often become involved with issues faced by
population they serve*
16-14
ENVIRONMENTAL
MOVEMENT: MOBILIZATION
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•
Local communities pass through four stages in
process of challenging environmental polluters:
i.
Come to view themselves as “victims” of some
corporate environmental crime
ii.
Make individual appeals to government
regulatory agencies to take action or force end to
the “crime”
iii. Become disillusioned with slow pace or absence
of official action; begin to seek environmental
justice
iv. Become organized and increase democratic
pressure on government regulators*
16-15
ENVIRONMENTAL
MOVEMENT: MOBILIZATION
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•
To convince people to participate, members
develop frames (interpretation of events and
meanings) with which to interpret environmental
events
•
Are three elements of successful framing:
i.
Diagnostic framing (identifies a problem and
assigns blame)
ii.
Prognostic framing (offers proposed solution to
problem)
iii. Motivational framing (puts out call to take specific
corrective action)*
16-16
CONTEMPORARY
ENVIRONMENTAL FRAMES
• Contemporary environmental frames frequently
constructed around image of impending global
collapse:
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 In early 1970s  Threat framed as concern over
possibility of exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity
(i.e., optimum population size Earth can support
under present environmental conditions)
 In 1980s  Threat framed as “biosphere crisis”
generated by global climatic changes resulting from
increased emissions of “greenhouse gases”*
16-17
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT:
IDEOLOGICAL DIVISIONS
•
Is philosophical split among environmentalists:
i.
Value-oriented environmentalists: Focus on
changing people’s value orientations
Stress viewing survival of all living and nonliving
things as components of healthy ecosystems

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ii.

Success-oriented environmentalists: Focus on
taking actions that prevent environmental harm
Primarily concerned with direct effects of
industrial pollution and other activities that
damage physical environment*
16-18
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT:
ALTERNATIVE ECOPHILOSOPHIES
• Deep ecology: Environmental ethic emphasizing
“biocentric approach” that views all species in
nature as having equal value
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• Advocates biocentric egalitarianism: Since all
things on earth have equal right to exist, humans
have no special rights or privileges that allow them
to subdue and destroy their natural surrounding
• Opposes anthropocentrism that characterizes
much of environmental movement, and the
present domination of nature by rational science*
16-19
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT:
ALTERNATIVE ECOPHILOSOPHIES
• Ecofeminism: Environmental ethic that
views androcentrism (malecentredness) as root of ecological
destruction
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• Ecofeminists identify distinct feminine
approach to environmental concerns;
i.e., one that is nurturing, cooperative,
communal, and sensitive to nature*
16-20
DEEP ECOLOGY AND
ECOFEMINISM: COMPARISON
• Both express need for developing new human
consciousness and vision
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• Differ on view of cause of current environmental
crisis:
 Deep ecologists point to gender-neutral
anthropocentrism, while ecofeminists claim
androcentrism is the main culprit
• Other difference: Deep ecologists reject
ecofeminists’ claim for women’s unique capacity to
construct more enlightened approach to
environment*
16-21
POLITICAL ECONOMY OF
THE ENVIRONMENT
• Political economists argue environmental
problems derive less from decisions of individual
consumers and more from relentless economic
development pursued by industrial capitalists and
the state
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• Environmental problems and policies are shaped
by the treadmill of production:
 Characterized by inherent need of our economic
system to yield profits by creating consumer
demand, regardless of the environmental
consequences*
16-22
POLITICAL ECONOMY OF
THE ENVIRONMENT
• Corporate producers create demand (and
thereby material culture) through medium of
advertising
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• The state buttresses treadmill of production by
providing businesses with economic incentives
and access to natural resources
 Despoiling of environment not limited to
capitalist states but extends to any states where
unbridled industrialism is accompanied by lack
of environmental responsibility
 Examples: Soviet-style societies and China*
16-23
TREADMILL OF PRODUCTION
IN ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL
SOCIETIES
• Is pervasive conflict between treadmill of
production and rising public demands for
protecting environment
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• One approach to resolving contradiction
between economic growth and
environmental protection is environmental
management:
 Moderate government intervention that
affords limited protection to environment
without seriously curtailing economic
development*
16-24
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
IN LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES
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•
Are three sources of environmental degradation:
i.
Treadmill of production  Exerts major influence
on developing nations that also wish access to
consumer culture
ii.
“Unsustainable impoverishment”  Forces the
poor to engage in ecologically-damaging practices
simply for survival
iii. Environmental violations of high-income countries
 Exacerbate global warming and increase
potential for ecological catastrophes in poor
nations*
16-25
RISK AND RISK
ASSESSMENT
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•
Risk: Refers to probability that a particular
hazard will actually occur
•
Increasingly, risks are environmentally-related
and calculated by medical and scientific
experts rather than individuals in course of
everyday life
•
i.
ii.
iii.
Sociologists are particularly interested in:
Organizational basis of risk
Community perception of risk
Social distribution of risk*
16-26
i. ORGANIZATIONAL
BASIS OF RISK
• Increasingly, source of risk has shifted to largescale organizations that are largely beyond
individual control
 Are structural arrangements in organizations that
make accidents inevitable
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• Technological accidents in nuclear power facilities,
petrochemical plants, etc. are “normal” and
inevitable consequences of profit-driven, high-risk
systems
• Organizations also are the groups that respond to
accidents, thereby amplifying the risk*
16-27
ii. COMMUNITY
PERCEPTION OF RISK
• Best predictor of whether people are likely
to perceive risk:
 Degree to which they trust ability of expert
institutions, including local industries
themselves, to manager danger
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• Environmental risk perception also linked to
people’s participation in family life,
neighbourhood social networks, and
community affairs*
16-28
iii. SOCIAL DISTRIBUTION
OF RISK
• Marginal groups in society bear disproportionate
burden of environmental risk
 Example: Racial and ethnic minorities, women, lowincome urban dwellers, and residents of isolated
rural regions
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• Disadvantaged communities are overrepresented as
risk sites because of inability of the economically
poor and political powerless to resist corporate
polluters
• The disadvantaged also are primary victims of
pollution because they live closest to sources of
pollution*
16-29
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
• Suggests environmental problems rarely arise
spontaneously but are discovered, presented,
promoted, and kept alive by policy entrepreneurs
in science, environmental movement
organizations, and the media
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• These “environmental claims-makers” invest
considerable time and resources in elevating
various environmental problems onto national and
international agendas for action*
16-30
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
• Are three central tasks in constructing
environmental claims: Assembling, presenting,
and contesting
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• To secure public attention and support, policy
entrepreneurs must surmount series of hurdles
related to these three tasks, including:
 Acquiring a measure of scientific credibility
 Identifying positive incentives for taking action
 Recruiting support of institutional sponsors*
16-31
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
• Social constructionists depict
environmental problems as passing
through series of stages, from initial
discovery to waning of public interest
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• Depiction based on earlier political
science concept of issue-attention cycle:
Five-stage sequence through which
“career” of most social problems is
deemed to pass*
16-32
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
• Recent research suggests environmental issues
rise and fall in response to several factors:
 Clarity and viability of scientific evidence
 Ability of claims-makers to sustain a sense of
dramatic crisis
 Rise of competing new environmental problems
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• Social construction of environmental problems
does not occur in isolation, but rather reflects
synergy between social definition and power
inequality**
16-33