Wiley.com
Print this page Share

Society and Nature: Changing Our Environment, Changing Ourselves

ISBN: 978-0-7456-2795-3
Hardcover
304 pages
February 2004, Polity
List Price: US $83.25
Government Price: US $53.28
Enter Quantity:   Buy
Society and Nature: Changing Our Environment, Changing Ourselves (0745627951) cover image
Other Available Formats: Paperback

Society and Nature is a lively and highly accessible introduction to the sociology of the environment. The book provides a comprehensive guide to contemporary issues and current debates – including society, nature and the enlightenment, industry and environmental transformation, commodification, consumption, the network society and human identity, human biology, citizenship and new social movements.

Combining insights from contemporary sociology, politics, developmental biology and psychology, Peter Dickens suggests that environmental degradation is largely due to humanity’s narcissistic demand that the environment be made into a commodity to be consumed. Meanwhile, human biology is also being modified: people’s bodies are being rebuilt in ways that reflect their class positions. People and their surroundings have always adapted according to the demands of society. But modern capitalist society is changing the environment and its people in profound, potentially catastrophic, ways, shaping both human and non-human nature in its own image.

The book contains a number of student features to interest and guide the reader as well as an attractive and clear layout. It will be particularly useful for students and teachers of sociology, human ecology, environmental studies and social theory.

Dickens' insight won his work the American Sociological Association's Outstanding Publication Award 2006, in the Environment and Technology section.

Related Titles

Special Topics

by Ulrich Beck, Johannes Willms, Michael Pollack (Translated by)
by David C. Wilson, Ian Silverman
by Judy Wajcman
by Jonathan Tonge
by Joseé Boveé, François Dufour
Back to Top