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The Emergence of Environmental Sociology: Contributions of Riley E. Dunlap and William R. Catton, Jr.
Author(s) -
Freudenburg William R.,
Gramling Robert
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1989.tb00119.x
Subject(s) - reductionism , sociology , environmental sociology , field (mathematics) , dualism , determinism , darwinism , context (archaeology) , epistemology , social science , environmental ethics , subject (documents) , biology , philosophy , paleontology , mathematics , library science , computer science , pure mathematics
Human beings have a dualistic relationship with the environment, being subject to physical and biological limits and yet being unique in the capacity for culture and symbolic communication. Sociology reflects this context and adds another dualism, drawing heavily from the concepts and perspectives of biological ecology, but reacting almost violently against “reductionism” of any sort, specifically including social Darwinism and environmental determinism. During much of the twentieth century, the predominant trend within sociology was for scholars to downplay or even ignore the importance of the environment, particularly in the United States. This trend was ultimately counterbalanced by sociological responses to the environmental movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and by the efforts of selected sociologists‐particulady Riley Dunlap and William Catton‐who helped bring together the field of “environmental sociology.” Given the finite nature of many natural resources and the ways in which human activities depend upon and affect the environment, the field of environmental sociology is likely to be an increasingly important one in the years to come.