The Environment and a Globalizing Sociology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/cjs4157Abstract
Abstract. The challenges for sociology posed by global environmental crises are two-fold. First, the growing prevalence of environmental dilemmas in global society demand that a globalizing sociology also be an environmental sociology. This requires the discipline to refine its ability to integrate environmental influences into its conceptual frameworks on social change. Second, the effectiveness of society’s strategic responses to environmental crises depends on the degree to which understanding the generation of environmental problems and responding to them are sociologically informed. Consequently, sociologists can make important contributions to environmental improvement, through sociological research on environmental discourses within civil society. However, this can only be done if the first challenge is addressed. In this paper, we highlight coupled socioecological systems functioning in an embedded hierarchy of local, regional, and global scales. Strategic environmental response depends particularly on governance structures and the production and accessibility of knowledge and we focus our discussion on these two domains. Global environmental changes have introduced multiple sources of challenge for nation-states and for the ways in which democratic participation in governance becomes operative. The dramatic shifts in governance fomented by environmental concern in and of themselves require sociological attention; sociologists also have a role in evaluating the efficacy of these organizational networks for addressing environmental crises. Second, we turn our attention to the means by which these environmental changes have challenged the production of knowledge about the environment. For example, the limits of traditional methods of scientific inquiry accompany an erosion in society’s confidence in science as a harbinger of progress, all the while simultaneously pushing science — however reluctantly for scientists themselves — into a position of political prominence. We close with suggestions for future sociological attention to governance and knowledge, and the ways this projects sociology more effectively into the global milieu in which environmental change will be increasingly salient. Résumé. Les défis que constitue la crise environnementale pour la sociologie présentent un double aspect. Tout d’abord, la prévalence des dilemmes environne mentaux dans une société mondiale exige d’une sociologie mondialisante qu’elle soit également une sociologie environnementale. Cela exige donc que cette discipline soit davantage en mesure d’intégrer à ses cadres conceptuels les influences que peuvent avoir les changements environnementaux sur les changements sociaux. En second lieu, l’efficacité potentielle des interventions stratégiques d’une société en regard des crises environnementales dépend de la mesure dans laquelle la sociologie éclaire notre compréhension de la source des problèmes environnementaux et de la manière d’y réagir. Par conséquent, les sociologues sont en mesure d’apporter d’importantes contributions à l’amélioration de l’environnement, en amenant la recherche sociologique à s’appuyer sur les discours environnementaux qui ont cours dans la société civile. Toutefois, on ne peut y arriver que si l’on aborde le premier défi. Dans cet article, nous mettons brièvement en lumière les moyens par lesquels les systèmes, social et écologique, sont mutuellement constitutifs, c’est-à-dire qu’ils sont des systèmes socio-écologiques associés qui fonctionnent dans une hiérarchie enchâssée d’échelles locale, régionale et mondiale. Ensuite, parce que la stratégie d’intervention environnementale dépendra en particulier des structures de gouvernance ainsi que de la production et de l’accessibilité des connaissances, nous analysons en détail ces deux domaines. Les changements environnementaux à l’échelle planétaires ont introduit de nombreux défis de tous types pour les nations-États et quant aux manières dont se met en oeuvre la participation démocratique à la gouvernance. Deuxièmement, nous étudierons les moyens par lesquels les changements environnementaux mondiaux ont, dans le même ordre d’idées, remis en question la production de connaissances sur l’environnement. Par exemple, les limites des méthodes traditionnelles d’investigation scientifique sont mises à jour, en même temps qu’elles propulsent la science sur la scène politique. D’autres formes de connaissances agissent également comme des « contre-connaissances » envers la dominance épistémique de la science sur l’environnement. Nous terminons l’article par quelques suggestions quant à l’attention de nature sociologique qu’il faudra porter dans le futur à la gouvernance et à la connaissance, et par un examen de la façon dont cela projette la sociologie tout de bon dans le milieu planétaire dans lequel les changements environnementaux seront de plus en plus marquants.Downloads
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