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Climate change is the most critical research topic among sociologists today. Central to the sociological approach to climate change is studying the relationship between the economy and the environment. The necessary analytical focus in this subsection is the particular impact that a capitalist economy based on constant growth has on the environment (Murphy, 213). Sociologists studying this relationship can focus on the effects of natural resource consumption in production processes and on methods of production and reuse of resources, which, among other things, are aimed at ensuring sustainability. Over the past 50 years, social science research has been used to understand the human drivers of climate change and, more recently, human behavior that contributes to climate change adaptation and mitigation (Spaargaren and Mol, 58). Ecological sociology is a branch of sociology that deals with the interaction between human society and the environment.
Politics, law, and public policy, as well as their relationship to environmental conditions and problems, are also the focus of sociologists’ attention. As structures and institutions that shape corporate and individual behavior, they indirectly affect the environment. Sociologists in these fields explore the extent to which and by what mechanisms laws concerning emissions and pollution are enforced and how people collaborate to shape them. The forms of power that could allow or prevent them from doing so.
Many sociologists study the relationship between social behavior and the environment. There is a significant overlap between environmental sociology and consumer sociology in this field, as many sociologists recognize meaningful and consistent relationships between consumerism and consumer behavior, as well as environmental issues and solutions (Dietz et al., 137). Environmental sociologists also study how social behaviors such as transportation use, energy consumption, and waste and recycling practices affect ecological outcomes and how environmental conditions shape social behavior.
Another critical area of sociologists ‘ attention is the relationship between inequality and the environment. Sociologists study how people treat the environment differently based on relative privilege and wealth. Numerous studies have documented that income and racial and gender inequality increase the likelihood of adverse environmental consequences, such as proximity to waste, pollution, and lack of access to natural resources (Murphy, 194). The study of environmental racism is a unique area of ecological sociology.
A complete understanding of climate change requires sociological imagination — what C. Wright Mills claimed was the ability to see the relationship between individual lives and the influence of larger social forces. Mills calls it a way of seeing, a way of thinking sociologically — seeing intersections between personal and social problems, biography and history, between the individual and the social (Spaargaren and Mol, 63). If at least one person faced climate change, it would be a personal problem, but the fact that climate change is somehow felt, by all means, means that it is a public problem. In the foreseeable future, our biographies will be strongly influenced, guided, and structured by the historical era in which we live — an era associated with unprecedented climate change caused by human activity.
The way sociologists deal with sociology and study social problems begins with their view of how the world works. Based on theory—a set of assumptions and propositions used to explain, predict, and understand—sociologists begin to define the relationship between society and people (Islam and Kieu, 9). Anthropogenic factors influence climate change, while the increase in greenhouse gas emissions is primarily due to human activity. Environmental pressures, such as greenhouse gas emissions and various other environmental impacts, can be simplified into two main driving forces: population and consumption (Dietz et al., 156). Two dominant theories, including the treadmill theory of production and the theory of ecological modernization, illustrated the theoretical polarities found in studying the development-environment continuum.
Climate change has become a major political issue around the world. The climate change movement at the International and national levels is seen as an essential condition for social change. Sociological studies emphasize that civil society institutions can be crucial in initiating social change by mobilizing citizens. Social science disciplines, especially sociology, can improve climate change adaptation policies and practices by studying critical issues related to social vulnerability, inequality, and tensions between and within countries (Islam & Kieu, 11). Sociological Perspectives explain that economic priorities, governance, and differences in values and power have contributed to climate change and have a decisive influence on attempts to solve this problem.
The positions of authoritative persons in sociology may influence my perception of this problem. For example, Marx described this disruption of natural cycles with linear production processes as an “ecological gap” in the “metabolism” between human society and the wild, non-human environment (Spaargaren and Mol, 61). Moreover, scientists such as John Bellamy Foster, Christine Shearer, John Foran, Richard Vidick, and Kari Marie Norgaard can influence my perception (Dietz et al., 145). Dr. William Freudenburg is considered an influential pioneer in this field who made a significant contribution. An Indian scientist and activist, Vandana Shiva is considered by many to be an honorary sociologist-ecologist.
Works Cited
Dietz, Thomas, Rachael L. Shwom, and Cameron T. Whitley. “Climate change and society.” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 46, 2020, pp. 135-158.
Islam, Saudil, and Edson, Kieu. «Sociological Perspectives on Climate Change and Society: A Review.» Climate, vol. 9 no.1, 2021, pp. 7-13. Web.
Murphy, Raymond. Rationality and nature: A sociological inquiry into a changing relationship. Routledge, 2018.
Spaargaren, Gert, and Arthur PJ Mol. “Sociology, environment, and modernity: ecological modernization as a theory of social change.” The Ecological Modernisation Reader. Routledge, 2020, pp. 56-67.
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