Society and Environment
Overview
- Introduction to environmental sociology: Environmental problems and society
- The material conditions of life: How consumption, the economy, technology, development, population, and the health of human bodies shape environmental situations
- The treadmill of production and consumption
- Political economy
- Demography and community
- The role of ideas: How culture, ideology, moral values, risk, knowledge, and social experience influence the way we think about and act toward the environment
- The social construction of nature
- Environmental discourse and practice
- The risk society
- Moving to action: How we might better resolve environmental conflicts, taking both the material and the ideal into account
- Democracy and the politics of sustainability
- Ecological governance
- Sustainable communities
The course will employ a variety of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some of the following: lectures, seminar presentations, audio-visual materials, small group discussions, research projects, in-class and community dialogues, research papers, seminar presentations, and public writing.
Evaluation will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific criteria during the first week of classes.
Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in the course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.
An example of a possible evaluation scheme would be:
| Sustainability dialogue | 20% |
| Dialogue proposal | 5% |
| Midterm exam | 15% |
| Final exam | 15% |
| Op-Ed or other public writing | 10% |
| Seminar presentation | 15% |
| Ecological footprint | 10% |
| Participation | 10% |
| Total | 100% |
Students may conduct research with human participants as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans.
At the conclusion of the course, the successful student will be able to:
1. Explain perspectives on human-nature relations influenced by their social, economic, political, cultural, historical, physiological and bio-geographical contexts.
2. Apply various approaches to environmental sociology, and what conceptions of education, knowledge, self, and community underlie these various approaches.
3. Identify considerations that are crucial to developing environmental programs and practices that are ethically and democratically justifiable.
4. Critically analyze their own understandings and experiences of nature and their place in it.
5. Demonstrate understanding of the following themes:
- Nature: human construction or unmediated reality? The interplay of material and ideal factors.
- Social and global dimensions of environmental ethics such as wilderness preservation movements, wise use movements, and environmental justice movements.
- Dimensions of ecological thought such as ecofeminism, deep ecology, transpersonal ecology, and bioregionalism.
- Critiquing goals such as sustainable development, sustainable communities, and sustainable consumption.
- Citizenship and engagement including the important influence of democratic institutions and commitments in our environmental practices.
- Place and narrative including the mind-body concept, mind-body-place and privilege, place-centered education, community action, and policies focused on sustainability.
- Policies and programs developed by government, industry and other institutions at the regional, provincial, national, and international levels.
Texts will be updated periodically. A typical example is:
Bell, Michael Mayerfeld and Loka Ashwood (most recent edition). An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Requisites
Course Guidelines
Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.
Course Transfers
These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca
| Institution | Transfer details for SOCI 2270 |
|---|---|
| Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) | KPU SOCI 2XXX (3) |
| Simon Fraser University (SFU) | SFU SA 2XX (3) |
| Thompson Rivers University (TRU) | TRU SOCI 2620 (3) |
| University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) | UBCO SOCI_O 2nd (3) |
| University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) | UBCV SOCI_V 2nd (3) |
| University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) | UFV SOC 299 (3) |
| University of Victoria (UVIC) | UVIC SOCI 2XX (1.5) |
| Vancouver Island University (VIU) | VIU SOCI 2nd (3) |
Course Offerings
Winter 2025
| CRN | Days | Instructor | Status | More details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
CRN
13724
|
Fri | Instructor last name
Ashe
Instructor first name
Siobhan
|
Course status
Open
|