| COURSE NUMBER: |
SOCI 319 |
| COURSE TITLE: |
Sociology and the Environment |
| NAME OF
INSTRUCTOR: |
Dr. Randy Haluza-Delay |
| CREDIT WEIGHT
AND WEEKLY TIME DISTRIBUTION: |
credits 3(hrs lect 3 - hrs sem 0 - hrs lab 0) |
| COURSE
DESCRIPTION: |
Understanding
society requires understanding both the collective impact of humans on
the environment and the natural world on humanity. This course will
address the role of social structures as cause, impediment and solution
to environmental problems. Topics are focused on Canadian cases and
include the social construction of nature, sustainable societies,
environmental justice, and environmental movements.
Prerequisites: Three credits in sociology at the
introductory level
|
| REQUIRED TEXTS: |
- Bell, Michael M. 2011. An Invitation to
Environmental Sociology (4TH ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine
Forge.
- NOVEL: Callenbach, Ernest, 1973. Ecotopia.
Berkeley, CA: Banyan Tree Books. (Several editions since.)
|
| MARK
DISTRIBUTION IN PERCENT: |
|
| Major Project |
40% |
| Ecotopia Preparation & Participation |
15% |
| Exam 1 |
20% |
| Exam 2 |
20% |
| 2 small writing reflections | 5% |
|
|
100% |
|
| COURSE OBJECTIVES: | In SOCI 319 you will:
- Analyze
your life as a person in a socio-ecological environment. Come to an
understanding of the connections between the practices of your everyday
life, your thoughts and beliefs, and our collective social milieu.
- Develop
a theoretical language that can help in analysis of environmental
issues and in describing a way forward toward addressing environmental
issues.
- Consider barriers and motivations for reordering unjust
social and environmental relations on the way to taking action to
steward creation.
|
| COURSE OUTLINE: |
- Intro to the course, getting
started, who are you? what do you think?
- Thinking through
the problems: Key Issues
-
Current global conditions: Millennium Assessment. environmentalism ‐ social movement, organizations
- Intro to Environmental Sociology-Organizing the Ecological Society;
- Individuals as Cause & Solution?
- L2-Ecological
Footprint
-
L3-values-attitudes
- Consumption
- L4 & L5 –
Consumption.
-
field Trip - Earth's
general Store
- Is Christianity the
cause of environmental degradation? (L6)
-
Ecotopian Imaginings
- Population
- Treadmills of Production
- Environmental Justice(L7 L8)
- The Social Construction of
Nature and environmental Problems (L9).
- L-“Nothing here to care about.”
- Social Dimensions of Environment (localization, Transition Towns, bioregionalism?)
- Haluza-DeLay: Ecological
Peacemaking; Agape as a compassionate sense of Place
|
THE KING'S UNIVERSITY