18-24 February Course orientation Week 1

Lecture files:
• Welcome to SOC165 – Explanation of syllabus, grading policy, etc.

Required reading:
• Syllabus
• Chapter 4 of the Sociology student writer’s manual
• Pages 108-110 of the Sociology student writer’s manual (in Chapter 5)

Activities:
• Submit skills questionnaire
• Submit the statement on academic honesty
• Short essay on plagiarism

• Take practice quiz

Essay on plagiarism, Skills survey, and Statement on Academic Honesty (due by February 26)

 

25 February – 2 March Introduction to environmental sociology Week 2

Lecture files:
• Introduction to Environmental Sociology

Required reading:
• Bell Chapter 1: Environmental problems and society
• Giddens: Sociology and the environment

Activities:
• Week 2 quiz


3-9 March Consumption, materialism, and modern society Week 3

Lecture files:
• Consumption, materialism, and modern society

Required reading:
• Bell: Consumption and materialism (Chapter 2)
• Slater: Themes from the sociology of consumption
• Union of Concerned Scientists: The consumer’s guide to effective environmental choices (chapter 1)

Required video:
• Mathis Wackernagel: The ecological footprint
• Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

Activities:
• Week 3 quiz

 

10-16 March The treadmill of production Week 4

Lecture files:
• ToP theory

Required reading:
• Bell: Money and machines (Chapter 3)
• Buttel: The treadmill of production

Activities:
• Week 4 quiz

Essay on Treadmills of Consumption and Production (due by March 24)

 

 

17-23 March Reading week: Marx and the environment Week 5

Required reading:
• Dickens: Marx and the environment
• Murphy: Environmental accountability under state socialism
• Burkett: On some common misconceptions about nature and Marx

Activities:
• Week 5 quiz

 

 

 

24-30 March Sustainability Week 6

Lecture files:
• Sustainability

Required reading:
• Bell: Population and development (Chapter 4)
• Prugh and Assadourian: What is sustainability, anyway?
• Interview with Julian Simon

Required video:
• Vandana Shiva: Defending biodiversity
• Patrick Holden: Sustainable agriculture 
• Monsanto Company: Global benefits of plant biotechnology (youtube)
• Bonnie Bucqueroux: Curing America’s eating disorder (youtube)

Activities:
• Week 6 quiz

 

31 March – 6 April Health, environmental justice, and risk Week 7

Lecture files:
• Health, environmental justice, and risk

Required reading:
• Bell: Body and health (Chapter 5)
• Bell: Risk (Chapter 9)

Required video:
• Vyvyan Howard: The chemical industry and toxicology
• Vyvyan Howard: Rising cancer rates (parts 1 & 2)

Activities:
• Week 7 quiz

 

7-13 April Films about environmental justice Week 8

Lecture file:
• Introduction to this week’s films

Required reading:
• Selva: Toxic shock
• Bullard: Can Americans trust the government to protect them?
• Slade: Electronic waste a ticking time bomb

Required videos:
• The digital dump: Exporting high-tech re-use and abuse to Africa
• Exporting harm: The high-tech trashing of Asia
• “Mountaintop removal” coal mining in the US Appalachian Mountains (youtube)
• Greenpeace: The Mexican electronics industry

Activities:
• Week 8 quiz

Essay on Sustainability and Environmental Justice (due by April 20)

 

 

14-20 April Ideology of environmental domination Week 9

Lecture files:
• Ideology of environmental domination

Required reading:
• Bell: The ideology of environmental domination (Chapter 6)

Required video:
• A Rocha: Why should Christians care for creation?

Activities:
• Week 9 quiz

 

21-27 April Ideology of environmental concern Week 10

Lecture files:
• Ideology of environmental concern

Required reading:
• Bell: The ideology of environmental concern (Chapter 7)
• Buttel: Ecological modernization as social theory

Required video:
• Michael Braungart: “Cradle to cradle” design
• Remembering Rachel Carson

Activities:
• Week 10 quiz

 

28 April – 4 May The social construction of nature Week 11

Lecture file:
• The social construction of nature

Required reading:
• Bell: The human nature of nature (Chapter 8)

Activities:
• Week 11 quiz

Essay on Ideology and Social Constructionism (due by May 15)

 

 

5-11 May Sociological perspectives on global climate change Week 12

Lecture file:
• Introduction to An inconvenient truth

Required reading:
• Gore: Ten simple things you can do to help stop global warming
• Monbiot: Save the planet in 10 steps
• Cohen: Some inconvenient truths about the politics of environmental crisis
• Morris: What Al Gore hasn't told you about global warming
• Kelly: The hidden opportunity in global warming
• Šimůnek and Růžička: Vaclav Klaus on climate change
• Jackson: Insurance industry feels the heat of global warming

Required video:
• An inconvenient truth
• Interview with Bjorn Lomborg about climate change


12-18 May Peak oil and Western society Week 13

Lecture file:
• Introduction to The end of suburbia and peak oil theory

Required reading:
• ExxonMobil: Peak oil?
• Luttwak: The truth about global oil supply
• Worldwatch special section on peak oil

Required video:
• The end of suburbia: Oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream
• Colin Campbell: The future of oil
• Richard Heinberg: Peak oil (parts 1 & 2)

 

19-25 May Environmental problems and solutions Week 14

Lecture file:
• Addressing environmental problems as social problems

Required reading:
• Bell: Organizing the ecological society (Chapter 10)
• Kunstler: The long emergency
• Kennedy: Crimes against nature

Required video:
• Bill McKibben: “Proactive localism”
• Lester Brown: Creating a sustainable economy (parts 1 & 2)

Activities:
• Week 14 quiz

 

22 June 2008 * * * Final essay due 23.59 * * *