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Synopsis
Written in an engaging and accessible manner by one of the leading scholars in his field, Environment and Social Theory, completed revised and updated with two new chapters, is an indispensable guide to the way in which the environment and social theory relate to one another.
This popular text outlines the complex interlinking of the environment, nature and social theory from ancient and pre-modern thinking to contemporary social theorizing. John Barry:
- examines the ways major religions such as Judaeo-Christianity have and continue to conceptualize the environment
- analyzes the way the non-human environment features in Western thinking from Marx and Darwin, to Freud and Horkheimer
- explores the relationship between gender and the environment, postmodernism and risk society schools of thought, and the contemporary ideology of orthodox economic thinking in social theorising about the environment.
How humans value, use and think about the environment, is an increasingly central and important aspect of recent social theory. It has become clear that the present generation is faced with a series of unique environmental dilemmas, largely unprecedented in human history.
With summary points, illustrative examples, glossary and further reading sections this invaluable resource will benefit anyone with an interest in environmentalism, politics, sociology, geography, development studies and environmental and ecological economics.
Booknews
Barry (politics, the University of Keele) introduces ways in which the environment has been used and abused, constructed and contested within social theory. He begins with an overview of the place of environment within the history of social theory, then examines the value and role of environment in classical 19th-century theory. Moving on to the 20th century, he looks at gender, contemporary social theory, postmodern approaches to the environment, and the possibility of a green social theory. Includes numerous b&w historical and contemporary illustrations and political cartoons. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)