Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Classical sociology and environmental issues -- Overview and structure of the book -- Breakdown of chapters -- A note on terminology -- 1 Modern Ideas of Nature and Environment -- The environmental revolution -- Changing sensibilities and attitudes towards nature -- Conclusion -- 2 The Development of Environmental Movements -- Environmental movements as new social movements -- The sociogenesis of environmentalism -- Twentieth-century environmentalism -- Green political parties -- Globalising the environmental movement -- Conclusion -- 3 Theorising the Social and the Natural -- The social construction of environmental problems -- Critical realism and the environment -- Roads beyond the dualistic horizon -- Conclusion -- 4 The Ecocentric Challenge for Society and Sociology -- Ecocentrism -- Ecologism and political ideologies -- Environmental sociology -- Conclusion -- 5 Living with Gaia: Deep Ecological and Social Selves -- Theories of ecological selves -- Ecofeminism and nature -- Sociological theories of social selves -- Conclusion -- 6 Environmentalism in a Risk Society -- Ulrich Beck's risk society thesis -- Risk and the politics of nature -- Risk discourse and Green politics -- Conclusion -- 7 Modernity as an Unfinished Ecological Project -- Green consumption in capitalist societies -- Global sustainable development -- Modernising ecologically -- Conclusion -- 8 Postmodernity, Poststructuralism and Ecological Diversity -- Poststructuralism and Postmodernism -- Green politics as postmodern politics -- Poststructuralist perspectives on environmentalism -- Conclusion: what happened to nature? -- 9 Environment, Self and Society -- Sociology and the 'ecological turn' -- Nature, self and society - 'the triad of basic controls'.

Instead, the book applies certain systems-theoretical concepts-cycles, stocks and flows, leverage points, dynamics and feedback loops-to cities and communities (these two are consistently conflated throughout) in an attempt to show how city planning and local governance can produce sustainable urban development.

How are human societies changing the global environment? Is sustainable development really possible? Can environmental risks be avoided? Is our experience of nature changing?This book shows how questions about the environment cannot be properly answered without taking a sociological approach. It provides a comprehensive guide to the ways in which sociologists have responded to the challenge of environmental issues as diverse as global warming, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss and marine pollution. It also covers sociological ideas such as risk, interpretations of nature, environmental realism, ecological modernization and globalization. Environmentalism and green politics are also introduced. Unlike many other texts in the field, the book takes a long-term view, locating environmental dilemmas within the context of social development and globalization. The Environment: A Sociological Introduction is unique in presenting environmental issues at an introductory level that assumes no specialist knowledge on the part of readers. The book is written in a remarkably clear and accessible style, and uses a rich range of empirical examples from across the globe to illustrate key debates. A carefully assembled glossary and annotated further reading suggestions also help to bring ideas to life. The book will be a valuable resource for students in a range of disciplines, including sociology, geography and the environmental sciences, but also for anyone who wants to get to grips with contemporary environmental debates.

In recent years, national and international medical and mental-health associations typically have emphasized the potential harmfulness of professional care for unwanted same-sex attraction (SSA or homosexuality) and behavior. State legislatures in the US and legislative bodies in other countries either have passed or are considering passing laws which would penalize professionals who provide professional care for unwanted SSA—to minors and/or adults—including the loss of the license to practice. This paper was written as a response to the present situation in the UK. The paper reviews the universal ethics of all medical and mental-health professionals to avoid harm and do good (non-maleficence/non-malfeasance and beneficence); discusses the documented potential for harm when using every mental-health treatment for every presenting problem; clarifies steps taken by the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity (Alliance), its clinical and research divisions, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality Institute (NARTH Institute) and its international division, the International Federation for Therapeutic Choice (IFTC), to promote ethical professional care for unwanted SSA; clarifies the injustice and presumed ideological biases of the medical and mental-health associations' warning about the potential for harm for psychotherapy only for unwanted SSA and not all psychotherapy approaches; and documents that the research purporting to show this harmfulness, in the research authors own words, does not do so. Recommendations to promote scientific integrity in the conduct and reporting of relevant research are offered.

European new social movement (NSM) theory was developed to describe and explain the apparently unique character of the wave of collective action that began in the 1960s and continues to this day. Key characteristics of NSM theory are a post-industrial orientation, middle-class activist core, loose organizational form, use of symbolic direct actions, creation of new identities, and a "self-limiting radicalism." The theory's claims to movement innovation were later criticized by many as exaggerated and ahistorical. However, the filtering down of key NSM elements into social movement studies has led to changing definitions of what social movements actually are and opened up new opportunities for the integration of religious movements into the social movements mainstream. Using the case of radical Islam, and with particular reference to the terrorist social movement organization al-Qa'ida, this article argues that drawing on key features of NSM theory should lead to a better understanding of radical Islam as well as a more realistic explanation of its continuing development and transformation.

Post-September 11th 2001, academic attention on 'Islamic' terrorism is increasingly concentrating upon national and global security, political instability within majority-Muslim nation-states and perceived civilizational conflict between religio-cultural entities. Attempts to explain contemporary 'Islamic' terrorism within social science have tended to focus upon processes associated with increasing globalization and interlinked forms of cultural, economic, political and social changes. Clearly these are important, but many predate the emergence of the terror groups under investigation, failing to account for the prominent role of relatively highly educated and wealthy members. Underlying these accounts is an assumption that the rectification of poverty, introduction of democracy, universal education and improved proactive security arrangements will eradicate terrorism. However, the measures being implemented by national and international actors to improve security and address militancy and terrorism are contributing to an amplification of the beliefs and behaviour they are seeking to prevent and change. In other words, recent terrorism is in part an unintended consequence of intentionally preventative measures. This paper focuses on the impact of anti-terror measures on identity formation and in particular the relationship between such measures and the development of al-Qa'ida and associated groups. The impact of government policies designed to undermine the appeal of militant Islam within nation-states and actions undertaken in association with the American-led war on terror are assessed. The sociological concept of the 'unintended consequences' of intentional action is invoked here to help identify the social processes underlying recent terrorist activity. These processes are contributing to the ongoing creation and maintenance of 'Islamic' terrorism across a range of different nation-states.

An interesting issue is raised by Steve Fuller's 'Will Sociology Find Some New Concepts' in the previous issue of this journal. This is the extent to which the research programmes of sociologists are or should be influenced by particular, significant events. If this is a call for scientific open-mindedness in the interpretation of violent forms of terrorism and their causes, then it is good advice for us all. However, there is a danger that the interpretation of 'significance' will be shaped by the specific reception of events in the relatively rich nations, thus paradoxically tying sociological work to the vagaries of contemporary politics in similar ways to some of those contributions that Fuller rightly criticises. The main issue here we suggest, is not that of failing to see that real world events can confound our expectations, but of understanding and explaining events of many different kinds within ongoing research programmes, as this is what constitutes the real value of the sociological contribution to knowledge.

Commentaries on September's acts of terrorism have tended to rely upon secular accounts to explain both the terrorism and the wider, less violent Islamic resurgence. This has meant that the explanatory focus has been upon threats to Muslims, the negative impact of globalization and interrelated modernization and the role of America within global relations and the Middle East in particular. These generalisations are problematic because they fail to explain the broader appeal of Islam, the character and contemporary nature of Islamic movements and in the instance of the terrorists and al-Qa'ida, the relatively wealthy and educated backgrounds of a significant number of the terrorists. As a corrective, the paper expands the focus to include the awareness of contemporary problems and the historical origins and successes of Islam that are both seen to legitimise the need for a radical form of Islam, interpreted as a comprehensive way of life. This awareness has been significantly aided through contemporary developments in technology, mass communications and transport networks allied to the rapid growth of education across Muslim countries. These factors, rather than diminishing the appeal of religion, as secularists have argued, are instrumental in the Islamic resurgence generally and specifically in facilitating terrorist activity.