ENVM 527 - Society and the Environment (3)

This course focuses on the reflexive relationship between the environment and society. The features of the environment produce both constraint and opportunity for human order and activity. Humans construct the environment framed by political, economic, technological and socio/cultural understanding and interpretation of the environment. Human values, knowledge, and organization are considered powerful influences leading to the tension between exploiting and sustaining the environment. The intrinsic impact of demographic expansion and the consequent pressures on environmental resources and sustainability are critical for environmental understanding. All of these considerations and understandings are further impacted by humans living in a global community where isolationism is virtually impossible when considering land, air, water and shelter needs as basic human rights. At the center of this course of study is the fundamental assumption that “environmental change is as much a social science as a natural science issue” (Howard Newby, 1991 Lecture to British Sociological Association).