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NRU-HSE, National Research University - Higher School of Economics,

Moscow

Department of Sociology

Master Programme “Complex Social Analysis”

Course “Environmental Sociology (Social Ecology)”, 2016/2017

Course, 8 Credits

Title of the course:

Environmental sociology - human use of natural resources and

environmental consequences

Time: January-March 2017

Author of the course plan and teacher:

Karl Bruckmeier

kbrukm@hse.ru

Language: English (examination essay can be written in English or Russian)

Course plan

1. Aims of the course

The course provides basic knowledge (part 1) and in-depth knowledge (part 2) about

environmental problems in modern societies and the human use of natural resources

(renewable and non-renewable resources). The perspective is interdisciplinary with

environmental sociology as basic subject area. Knowledge from different disciplines is

used to analyse and assess environmental and resource use problems (potential

exhaustion of fossil resources, degradation of the global environment, availability of

certain natural resources). The analysis of exemplary problems of human resource use

and their environmental consequences (intended and non-intended) aims to understand

the challenges of resource management, the relevance of natural resources for the further

development of economy and society, and potential solutions to environmental problems.

After having finished the course students shall be able

(a) to understand the environmental problems in modern societies in the contexts

of social, political and economic action;

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(b) to understand the main problems with availability, use, management,

recycling of natural resources;

(c) to analyze the problems of natural resource use in concrete local, regional or

national contexts of economy and relevant policies;

(d) to argue individually and critically (orally and in written form) about main

environmental problems in modern society (in the epoch of “the

anthropocene”).

2. Course program (themes)

The course includes lectures, discussions and workshops (student presentations of course

literature) and requires from the students individual reading of the course literature, group

work for the workshop sessions, and an individual examination essay.

Part 1: Introduction – development of environmental sociology

Theme 1. Environmental sociology – overview: history/development, themes and

methods

Origins/history - a new subdiscipline of sociology (since the 1970s in USA, UK, France,

Germany): themes – environmental problems, environmental awareness, natural

resources and resource use practices

Basic concepts, approaches and methods – knowledge generation

Theme 2. Main perspectives and authors

- William Catton and Riley Dunlap - the HEP/NEP-paradigms

- A. Mol and G. Spaargaren - ecological modernization and environmental movements

- Ulrich Beck - risk society

- Oleg Yanitzky - environmental movements in Russia

- John Hannigan et al - Social construction of nature (social constructivism)

- Immanuel Wallerstein and James Rice - World System Theory and ecologically unequal

exchange

Theme 3. Neighbouring fields and overlapping discourses

Environmental sociology as part of a broader field of interdisciplinary environmental

social sciences:

- Human, cultural and social ecology

- Natural resource management

- Environmental and Ecological Economics

- Environmental history

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Part 2: Deepening – Problems and themes of environmental research

Theme 4. Environmental sociology – thematic perspectives

- Environmental awareness, value changes (“postmaterial values”) and changes of

lifestyles, environmental movements (industrial countries, Southern countries –

ecofeminism, environmentalism of the poor)

- Technological change and system change (ecological modernization, ”greening of the

economy”, “dematerialization”)

- Poverty, population growth and development (Malthusian questions)

- Quantifying and measuring natural resource use and its impacts (social and

environmental impact analysis; indicators for human resource use; risk, vulnerability and

resilience)

Theme 5: Environmental sociology - problems and risks

- Problems of natural resource use in the history of human societies (scarcity, overuse,

distribution)

- The emergence of environmental problems/risks in industrial/modern societies

(industrial pollution of the environment, agricultural pollution of the environment,

lifestyles and private consumption/households)

- Economic globalization and global environmental change: biodiversity reduction,

climate change, land use change

- Ecological distribution conflicts and unequal exchange – industrialized countries and

“the global South”

Theme 6. Global change – problems and solutions

- Social-ecological Systems/SES – Integration of World System, and Earth System

- Global environmental governance

- Sustainable development and the future global society – scenarios

The course program is specified in a detailed session/work plan for every year when the

course is given (including an updating of the course literature and the themes)

3. Literature for the course

The literature used in the lectures, discussions and workshops includes English texts from

environmental sociology, social ecology and neighboring disciplines. The literature will

be handed out to the participants in form of electronic or paper copies.

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4. Evaluation

The course is evaluated in the last session, in oral from (discussion in the class) and in

written from (participants answer a questionnaire, anonymous answers).

The evaluation is made public by the teacher who suggests possible changes for the

subsequent course.

5. Examination

The examination includes three parts, all required to pass the course. The first part is

obligatory participation in all lectures and discussions of the course, including active

participation in the discussions. The second part is a group work (presentation and

discussion of texts from the course literature in a workshop session, done in small

working groups). The third part is individual homework in form of an examination essay

written at the end the course (essays can be written in English or Russian).

Session plan and course literature for academic year 2016/2017

Date Sessions, themes and texts for reading Time, room

Part 1: Environmental sociology – history and development

Wednesday

January 11,

2017

Session 1

Introduction:

course themes, discussion and questions – literature,

work, examination

Lecture 1:

Environmental sociology - origins/history of the

subdiscipline: research themes

- multiple origins; North America and Europe

- nature and society: interaction and change (human

ecology)

- environmental awareness and action/resource use

15.10h-17.00h

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- environmental communication, discourses and

problems,

- environmental movements

Discussion: literature, text 1

Wednesday

January 18,

2017

Session 2

Lecture 2:

Environmental sociology, approaches and methods: research and knowledge generation

- basic concepts and perspectives: Catton and Dunlap

HEP/NEP-paradigm

- theories

- research methods

- epistemological approaches: constructivism, realism

Discussion 2: texts 10 (11, 12)

…

Wednesday

January 25,

2017

Session 3

Lecture 3:

Perspectives and authors - environmental reform and ecological modernization:

Buttel, Mol, Spaargaren

- risk society and reflexive modernity: Beck, Giddens

- treadmill of production: Schnaiberg, Foster

- critical environmental sociology: York, Rosa, Rice

Discussion 3: texts 6 (9, 24)

15.10h-17.00h

Wednesday

February 1,

2017

Session 4

Lecture 4:

Perspectives and authors - European environmental sociology

- Environmental sociology in Russia: Yanitsky

Discussion 4: text 2

15.10h-17.00h

Wednesday

February 8,

2017

Session 5

Lecture 5:

Neighbour disciplines and overlapping discourses: interaction society/nature

15.10h-17.00h

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- human, cultural and social ecology;

- common pool resource research

- natural resource management

- environmental policy

Discussion 5: texts 4 (16, 27)

Wednesday

February 15,

2017

Session 6

Lecture 6:

Neighbour disciplines and overlapping discourses: cultural, social, economic and environmental changes

- environmental and ecological economics;

- environmental history

Discussion 6: texts 21 (7, 22)

15.10h-17.00h

Part 2: Environmental sociology – themes and problems

Wednesday

February 22,

2017

Session 7

Introduction part 2:

- Themes

- Oral presentations in workshops

- Basic academic writing: the examination essay

Lecture 7: Environmental sociology – themes: sociological

fields of research

- environmental awareness, value changes

- life-styles and private consumption (households)

- environmental movements (Northern and Southern

countries)

- technological change and system transformation

(ecological modernization),

- ”greening of the economy”, “dematerialization”,

“degrowth”)

Training session:

Basic academic writing (abstracts, research questions

and essay plan)

15.10h-17.00h

Wednesday

March 1,

2017

Session 8

Lecture 8 (15.10-16.10h): Environmental sociology – themes: interdisciplinary

15.10h-17.00h

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themes

quantifying and measuring natural resource use and its

impacts (social and environmental impact analysis;

indicators for natural resource use (risk, vulnerability,

resilience, sustainability);

poverty, population growth and development

(Malthusian questions)

Workshop 1: student presentation – working group

(text 34)

Wednesday

March 8,

2017

Session 9

Lecture 9:

Environmental sociology - problems and risks historical and modern societies

- problems of natural resource use in historical societies

(scarcity, overuse, distribution)

- environmental problems in industrial/ modern

societies: industrial and agricultural damages to the

environment (pollution, deforestation, desertification)

Workshop 2: student presentation – working group

(text 24)

Wednesday

March 15,

2017

Session 10

Lecture 10:

Environmental sociology – global problems and

risks: global problems in the 21st century

- global economic and environmental change:

biodiversity reduction, climate change, land use

change;

- ecological distribution conflicts and unequal

exchange - industrialized countries and “the global

South”

Workshop 3: student presentation – working group

(text 23)

15.10h-17.00h

Wednesday

March 22,

2017

Session 11

Lecture 11:

Global change – global problems and solutions: towards solutions

- global governance and integration of world system

15.10h-17.00h

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and earth system (social-ecological systems)

- energy systems and renewable energy sources

- sustainable development and the future global society,

scenarios

Workshop 4, 5: student presentation – working group

(text 26, 12)

Wednesday

March 29,

2016

Session 12

Lecture 12:

The future of environmental sociology - interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity

- sociology and practice

- international trends and developments

Final discussion of the course, evaluation

Delivery of examination essays

15.10-17-00h

Wednesday

March 8 –

Wednesday

March 29,

2017

Writing of the individual examination essay (3 weeks) -

Literature for the course

The literature is available in electronic copies for the participants before the course starts.

Literature/texts for the lectures, discussions and workshops

(a) Books (only selected chapters to read):

1. Hannigan, John, 2006. Environmental Sociology. Second Edition. Routledge: London

and New York.

2. Gross, Matthias; Heinrichs, Harald, eds., 2010. Environmental Sociology: European

Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Challenges. Springer: Dordrecht et al.

3. Electris, C., et al., 2009. The Century Ahead: Four Global Scenarios. Tellus Institute,

Boston.

(b) Articles:

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4. Acheson, James N., 2006. Institutional Failures in Resource Management. Annual

Review of Anthropology, 35, pp. 117-134.

5. Beck, Ulrich, 2000. Risk Society Revisited: Theory, Politics and Research

Programmes (in: Barbara Adam et al., eds., The risk society and beyond: critical issues

for social theory, Sage: London et al., pp. 211-229).

6. Bogatyrev, L. G., et al., 2004. Some Trends in Research on the Biosphere. Russian

Journal of Ecology, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 1–9; Translated from Ekologiya, 1, 2004, pp. 3–12;

in Russian and English.

7. Burke, Bryan E., 2001. Hardin Revisited: A Critical Look at Perception and the Logic

of the Commons. Human Ecology, 29, 4, pp. 449-476.

8. Buttel, Fredrick H., 2003. Environmental Sociology and the Explanation of

Environmental Reform. Organization & Environment, 16, 3. pp.306-344.

9. Catton, William R.; Dunlap, Riley E., 1978. Environmental sociology: A new

paradigm. The American Sociologist, 13, pp. 41-49.

10. Dunlap, Riley, et al., 2000. “Measuring the Endorsement of the New Ecological

Paradigm: A Revised NEP Scale”. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 3, pp. 425-442.

11. Foster, John Bellamy; Holleman, Hannah, 2012. Classical foundations for a post-

exemptionalist sociology. American Journal of Sociology, 117, 7, pp. 1615-1673.

12. Gerst, M.D.; Raskin, P.D.; Rockström, J., 2014. Contours of a Resilient Global

Future, Sustainability, 6 (1), pp. 123-135.

13. Gould, Kenneth A.; Pellow, David, N.; Schnaiberg, Allan 2003. Interrogating the

treadmill of production: Everything you wanted to know about the treadmill but were

afraid to ask. Paper, Madison Symposium on the Treadmill of Production, 46pp.

14. Fischer-Kowalski, Marina, 2003. On the History of Industrial Metabolism (in:

Perspectives on Industrial Ecology, ed. Dominique Bourg & Suren Erkman, Greenleaf

Publishing, pp. 35-45).

15. Haberl, Helmut, et al., 2011. A Socio-metabolic Transition towards

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Sustainability? Challenges for Another Great Transformation. Sustainable Development,

19, pp. 1–14.

16. Janssen, M. A. and Anderies J. M., 2007. Robustness Trade-offs in Social-Ecological

Systems. International Journal of the Commons, 1 (1), pp. 43-65.

17. Leach, M., et al, 2012. Transforming innovation for sustainability. Ecology and

Society 17 (2): 11 (http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04933-170211).

18. Lidskog, R., Mol, A., Osterveer, P., 2015. Towards a global environmental sociology.

Legacies, trends and future directions. Current Sociology. 63(3), pp. 339-368.

19. Lockie, S., 2015. What in Environmental Sociology? Environmental Sociology 1 (3),

pp. 139-142.

20. Martens, Pim; Raza, Mohsin, 2010. Is Globalisation Sustainable? Sustainability, 2,

pp. 280-293.

21. Martinez-Alier, J.; Pascual, U.; Vivien F.D.; Zaccai, E., 2010. Sustainable de-

growth: Mapping the context, criticisms and future prospects of an emergent paradigm,

Ecological Economics, 69 (9), pp. 1741-1747.

22. McAfee, K., 2012. The Contradictory Logic of Global Ecosystem Services Markets.

Development and Change, 43(1), pp. 105–131.

23. McDonald, G.W.; Patterson, M.G., 2007. Bridging the divide in urban sustainability:

from human exemptionalism to the new ecological paradigm. Urban Ecosystems, 10,

pp.169-192.

24. Mol, A.; Spaargaren, G., 2005. From Additions and Withdrawals to Environmental

Flows: Reframing Debates in the Environmental Social Sciences. Organization and

Environment, 18 (1), pp. 91-107.

25. Mol Arthur, 2009. Environmental Deinstitutionalization in Russia. Journal of

Environmental Policy & Planning, 11, 3, pp. 223-242.

26. Newell, Peter, 2008. The political economy of global environmental governance.

Review of International Studies, 34, pp. 507-529.

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27. Ostrom, Elinor, 2007. A diagnostic approach to go beyond panaceas. PNAS, 104, 39,

pp. 15181-15187.

28. Rice, James, 2007. Ecological Unequal Exchange: Consumption, Equity, and

Unsustainable Structural Relationships within the Global Economy. International Journal

of Comparative Sociology, 48, 1, pp. 43-72.

29. Spaargaren, Gert; Van Vliet, Bas, 2000. Lifestyles, consumption and the

environment: The ecological modernization of domestic consumption. Environmental

Politics, 9, 1, pp. 50-76.

30. Steffen, W., Crutzen , P. J. and McNeill, J. R., 2007. The Anthropocene: Are

Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature? Ambio, 36 (8), pp. 614-621.

31. Vikhanskiy, O., Churkina, N., Zaverskiy, S., 2012. Business response to environ-

mental challenges: three cases of Russian industrial companies. Oñati Socio-legal Series

[online], 2 (3), 68-88.

32. Yanitsky, Oleg, 2005. The Value Shift of the Russian Greens. International Review of

Sociology -/Revue Internationale de Sociologie, 15, 2, pp. 363-380.

33. Yanitsky, Oleg, 2009. The Shift of Environmental Debates in Russia. Current

Sociology, 57, 6, pp.747-766.

34. Yanitsky, Oleg, 2011. Modernization: the burden of the past. The Sociological

Review, 59, 4, pp. 741-757.

35. York, Richard; Rosa, Eugene; Dietz, Thomas, 2003. Footprints on the Earth: The

Environmental Consequences of Modernity. American Sociological Review, 68, pp. 279-

300.

36. Young, Oran R., et al., 2006. The globalization of socio-ecological systems: An

agenda for scientific research. Global Environmental Change, 16, pp. 304-316.

Additional literature (non-obligatory)

Adger, Neil W., et al., 2001. Advancing a Political Ecology of Global Environmental

Discourses. Development and Change, 32, pp. 681-715.

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Demeritt, David, 2002. What is the `social construction of nature´? A typology and

sympathetic critique. Progress in Human Geography, 26, 6, pp. 767-790.

Goldman, Michael; Schurman, Rachel, 2000. Closing the “Great Divide”: New Social

Theory on Society and Nature. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, pp. 563-584.

Lakoff, George, 2010. Why it matters how we frame the environment. Environmental

Communication, 4, 1, pp.70-81.

Marks, Robert B. 2002. The Origins of the Modern World (Rowman & Littlefield,

Lanham et al.

Martinez-Alier, Joan, 2009. Social Metabolism, Ecological Distribution Conflicts, and

Languages of Valuation. Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 20, 1, pp. 58-87.

Sawin, Janet L.; Moomaw, William R., 2009. Renewable Revolution: Low Carbon

Energy by 2030. Worldwatch Institute: Worldwatch Report, 52 pp.

Walker, Gavin, 2005. Sociological theory and the natural environment. History of the

Human Sciences, 18, 1, pp. 77-106.