Sociology 280: Environmental Sociology

Introduction: (Week 1)

Part 1: Animals (Weeks 2, 3, 4)

Part 2: Tools (Weeks 5, 6, 7)

Part 3: Land (Weeks 8, 9, 10)

Part 4: The Scientific versus the Spiritual Stance

Prof. James Jasper

What relationships have humans had with the physical world? With animals, land, and raw materials? What have we done with them, and what tools have we created with which to do it? In answering these questions we shall take a broad historical and cultural perspective, visiting many cultures in their interaction with the world around them. We shall look at changes over time, asking in what ways they deserve to be called "progress." We shall also look at where we are today, in the United States and elsewhere: what environmental problems we face, where they came from, and what if anything can be done to solve them. Requirements include an in-class midterm and a final exam and a short paper (five to ten pages). The following books are available at the University Store:

Kellert and Wilson, editors, The Biophilia Hypothesis.

Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter.

Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital.

Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey.

Cronon, Changes in the Land.

McMichael, Planetary Overload.

Veldman, Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain (recommended).

Other readings are in the course packet available at Pequod Packets. Two copies of this packet are on reserve at Firestone, as are all required and recommended books.

Week 1: Introduction. Nature as experience, nature as symbol. The many dimensions of how humans relate to the physical world. Why industrial society breeds nostalgia. February 3, 5.

No readings.

Week 2: From Hunting to Agriculture. For two million years, humans lived in small-scale hunting-gathering societies. Around ten thousand years ago, independently in several parts of the world, they began to domesticate plants and animals, initiating a long transition to settled agriculture. February 10, 12.

Readings: Jared Diamond, "New Guineans and their Natural World," and Stephen Kellert, "The Biological Basis for Human Values of Nature," in The Biophilia Hypothesis.

Week 3: From Resource to Companion. In agrarian societies animals were primarily a resource for humans, and often their primary resource. With industrialization, humans began to lose most of their contacts with animals as resources, and to keep them increasingly as pets. Ironically, it was our increasing distance from nature that allowed us to place a higher value on it than our ancestors usually did. February 17, 19.

Readings: Elizabeth Lawrence, "The Sacred Bee, the Filthy Pig, and the Bat out of Hell," in The Biophilia Hypothesis; additional articles to come.

Week 4: The Mixed Community. Humans have always interacted with other species, and there has been considerable adaptation on both sides. Since domestication, especially, we have shaped many species to fit our own practices. Humans and domesticated animals share a community. February 24, 26.

Readings: Mary Midgley, Animals and Why They Matter; Gary Nabhan and Sara St. Antoine, "The Loss of Floral and Faunal Story," in The Biophilia Hypothesis.

Week 5: The Craft of the Hand. Tools--constructed implements and the knowledge to use them--are what gradually, eventually, gave humans advantages over other species. For almost all of human existence, tools were relatively simple extensions of human power, especially human hands. In most crafts, simple tools could be used for a variety of different purposes, depending on the skill of their user. Competition among different tribes, armies, and nations is the key to why innovations spread quickly and inexorably. March 3, 5.

Readings: Harry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital, chapters 1-6, 9, 20; Brian Downing, The Military Revolution and Political Change, chapter 3 (in packet).

Week 6: Technological Systems. With industrialization, tools became technology. Once something that a human could grasp, they were now complex systems outside of ready human control, sometimes even understanding. We create technologies, but do not govern them. March 10, 12.

Readings: Eugen Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, chapter 12 (in packet); Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey; Kai Erikson, "Three Mile Island: A New Species of Trouble" (in packet).

Midterm March 12th. Spring break is week of 16th.

Week 7: Possibilities for Control. A variety of expert and grassroots movements have proposed ways to judge and control technology, none with much success. Suspicion of technology used to be a specialty of those at the bottom of society who were most displaced by it, but in recent decades it has spread through large parts of the middle class as well. March 24, 26.

Readings: Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents, introduction plus chapters 1-2 (in packet).

Week 8: A Populous Habitat. Indigenous peoples often see the land as their habitat, the place where they live, where they must fit in. The land itself, and the plants and animals on it, are often considered sacred. March 31, April 2.

Readings: William Cronon, Changes in the Land.

Week 9: Something to Use Up. Land can also be seen as a resource to be expended in the pursuit of products and profits. This has long been the dominant attitude in the American west, for example. April 7, 9.

Readings: A. J. McMichael, Planetary Overload, chapters 1-5.

Week 10: Are There Limits? Technological progress and economic growth have, for a long time, been seen as the key to all good things. Do they depend on a rate of exploitation of the natural world that cannot be sustained? April 14, 16.

Readings: McMichael, Planetary Overload, chapters 8-10.

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