Volatile Places
A Sociology of Communities and Environmental Controversies
1st Edition
Published on 28. March 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-7619-8750-5 (ISBN)
Description
Volatile Places: A Sociology of Communities and Environmental Controversies is a thoughtful guide to the spirited public controversies that inevitably occur when environments and human communities collide. The movie "An Inconvenient Truth" based on the environmental activism of Al Gore and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina are specifically highlighted. Authors Valerie Gunter and Steve Kroll-Smith begin with a simple observation and offer a provocative case study approach to the investigation of community and environmental controversies.
Key Features:
Compels students with personal narrative: Co-author Valerie Gunter, who was teaching at the University of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck, gives her personal standpoint of this tragedy.
Creates a dramatic story around the controversy: Each case study illustrates a local environmental conflict and is written to capture students' attention.
Provides a unique way to view environmental conflicts: The book illustrates the importance of each perspective and local knowledge when making decisions about the environment.
Makes connections with previous chapters: The chapters are integrated to create a strong sense for the multifaceted approach to the study of community and environmental controversies.
Includes portfolios in each chapter as well as concept and theory boxes: Students are inspired to engage in spirited thinking, original research, and action.
Intended Audience:
This text is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Environmental Sociology. It is also an ideal text for Social Problems courses focusing on environmental issues.
Key Features:
Compels students with personal narrative: Co-author Valerie Gunter, who was teaching at the University of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck, gives her personal standpoint of this tragedy.
Creates a dramatic story around the controversy: Each case study illustrates a local environmental conflict and is written to capture students' attention.
Provides a unique way to view environmental conflicts: The book illustrates the importance of each perspective and local knowledge when making decisions about the environment.
Makes connections with previous chapters: The chapters are integrated to create a strong sense for the multifaceted approach to the study of community and environmental controversies.
Includes portfolios in each chapter as well as concept and theory boxes: Students are inspired to engage in spirited thinking, original research, and action.
Intended Audience:
This text is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Environmental Sociology. It is also an ideal text for Social Problems courses focusing on environmental issues.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Thousand Oaks
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7619-8750-5 (9780761987505)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
At the time Hurricane Katrina struck, Valerie J. Gunter was an associate professor in the department of sociology at the University of New Orleans. She spent most of the 2005-2006 academic year as a visiting associate professor at Michigan State University, from which she had received her PhD in sociology in 1994. She has spent over 20 years researching the controversial processed by which environmental issues become registered on community and national political agendas. Articles reporting the results form this research have been published in such journals as Social Problems, The Sociological Quarterly, The American Sociologist, Sociological Inquiry, and Rural Sociology. She is a co-editor of Illness and the Environment: A Reader in Contested Medicine. Professor Kroll-Smith is the Head of the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. He was formerly a research professor of sociology at the University of New Orleans. He has edited and written 5 books on environmental hazards and disasters, health and the environment, and sociologists as expert witnesses. He is the current editor of Sociological Inquiry and the 2004 recipient of the American Sociological Association's Distinguished Contribution Award in the study of Environment and Technology. Kroll-Smith's current work is the problem of race, class, and water in New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane's Katrina and Rita. He also regularly contributes to the growing scholarship on the sociology of sleep.
Content
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. When Environments and Communities Collide
2. The Presence of the Past
3. Trust and Betrayal
4. The Problem of Uncertain Knowledge
5. Perceptions of Fairness
6. Oppositional Activity and Social Capital
7. Social Facts and Brute Facts: Confounding the Social and the Physical
Postscript
References
Index
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
1. When Environments and Communities Collide
2. The Presence of the Past
3. Trust and Betrayal
4. The Problem of Uncertain Knowledge
5. Perceptions of Fairness
6. Oppositional Activity and Social Capital
7. Social Facts and Brute Facts: Confounding the Social and the Physical
Postscript
References
Index
About the Authors