Social Theory and the Environment

aeo One of the first major attempts to assess the contributions of contemporary social theory to the study of environmental issues. aeo Analyses the work of some of the most influential contemporary thinkers, including Anthony Giddens, Andre Gorz, Jurgen Habermas and Ulrich Beck. Environmental degradation is no longer a peripheral concern of the social sciences and contemporary politics: it is an unavoidable and pressing reality. This book seeks to establish whether contemporary social theory can help us understand the structural origins of environmental degradation and environmental politics. The book opens by arguing that the historical bequest of classical social theory is very limited. Marx, Weber and Durkheim lived long enough to witness the environmental consequences of modern economic growth but died too soon to witness its long term consequences and the growth of political resistance. Goldblatt attempts to transcend the limits of that tradition through a critical investigation of the work of Anthony Giddens, Andre Gorz, Jurgen Habermas and Ulrich Beck. Social Theory and the Environment analyses the roles of capitalism, state socialism and industrialism in generating environmental degradation; the environmental implications of urbanism and globalisation; the integration of environmental questions with political economy; and the structural origins of environmental movements. It concludes with a discussion of the relationship between conceptions of socialism in social theory and its relevance to contemporary environmental politics. Wide ranging and carefully argued, this challenging text will be of particular interest to students of social and political theory, ecology and enviromental studies. This book establishes whether contemporary social theory can help us understand the structural origins of environmental degradation and environmental politics.

This book establishes whether contemporary social theory can help us understand the structural origins of environmental degradation and environmental politics.