Microsociological Perspectives for Environmental Sociology

This book, the first of its kind, addresses the domination environmental sociology by macrosociological perspectives, bringing together leading theorists and empirical researchers to develop and employ microsociological perspectives in an effort to better understand environmental issues. Demonstrating the potential of a variety of micro-level perspectives, including symbolic interactionism, actor-network theory, cognitive sociology, social pragmatism, phenomenology, and non-representational theory, to inform and illuminate a range of environmental issues, Microsociological Perspectives for Environmental Sociology constitutes a significant step toward redressing the existing theoretical and methodological imbalance within environmental sociology. With case studies covering a range of environmental issues, such as the treatment of waste, human-animal relations, environmental social movements, environmental identities and lifestyles, eco-tourism, the conceptual framing of land, water, and natural resources, and even human conceptions of outer space, this book opens the field up to new approaches, initiating much needed dialogue and collaboration between environmental sociologists and micro-theoretical sociologists. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, geographers and anthropologists with interests in the environment and research methods.

Bradley H. Brewster is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at Graceland University, USA.

Antony Puddephatt is Associate Professor of Sociology at Lakehead University, Canada and co-editor of Ethnographies Revisited: Constructing Theory in the Field.