S0504 Society and Environment

Since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, human society has witnessed an unprecedented pace of technological and economic development. Yet these achievements have exacted a considerable price: the equally unprecedented destruction of our natural environment. Natural and biological resources are depleted at an ever-growing rate, and the accumulation of pollution and toxic wastes poses genuine threats to human health and prosperity. Moreover, these risks are becoming increasingly global in scale.\r\n

Environmental problems are usually couched in terms of the natural and life sciences (e.g. what geophysical, chemical and ecological changes constitute \'pollution\'), and they are presumably resolved by technological innovation. Yet environmental problems are ultimately social problems: they are caused by social (especially economic) practices that reflect underlying and deeply entrenched social values; they affect society and individuals in diverse, usually detrimental ways (public health, productivity, social welfare); and they can be solved only by modifying those the root causes of environmental destruction – our current social values and practices.

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This course takes a social perspective toward environmental problems. It inquires what changes in individual behavior, social processes and social institutions – whether at the local, national or global level – are required to cope successfully with environmental problems, and why. As many of these questions are of inherent interest to the entire spectrum of disciplines in the social sciences, the course adopts an interdisciplinary perspective appropriate to the analysis these complex issues.

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The course is based on lectures and in-class discussions. Requirements: active participation in class discussions, preparation of an integrative essay paper.