Sustainability

Environmental and natural resource problems are not only biophysical in nature but intersect with social, political, economic, belief, value, and knowledge systems. The goals of this course are to introduce students to sociological questions that address the sources and implications of environmental and natural resource problems. The course focuses on the ways that social and environmental systems intersect, and how they are mutually constitutive. The course introduces students to the societal systems that create and exacerbate environmental problems (such as market processes, consumption patterns, political institutions) and how people respond to these problems (environmental concern and beliefs, individual and organizational behavior, social movements, green markets, political change). After taking this course, students should be better prepared to identify core systemic causes and potential pathways to address complex environmental and natural resource problems from local to global scales.