Breakthroughs in Environmental Sociology: Beyond Governing of Dominant Discourses

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  • 環境社会学のブレイクスルー――言説の統治を超えて――
  • カンキョウ シャカイガク ノ ブレイクスルー : ゲンセツ ノ トウチ オ コエテ

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Abstract

<p>The Journal of Environmental Sociology turns twenty this year. To mark the occasion, this special issue includes four articles devoted to exploring breakthrough directions in current environmental sociology born out of the global environmental and social change of the past two decades.</p><p>During this period, the global environment has not improved as much as is commonly assumed. The consumption of fossil fuels is still increasing, climate change is not being effectively controlled, and the tropical forests are shrinking ever further. In spite of such circumstances, some discourses are helping to legitimize a common view that human actions for environmental improvement are progressing worldwide. The most dominant discourses are centered on the themes of globalization, sustainability and resilience, and they have set the recent agenda for environmental studies. However, the following four articles suggest directions in which environmental sociology can breakthrough the dominance of these discourses.</p><p>The first article by Inoue asserts that the environmental sociologist carrying out field research in the midst of local people, can make a particular contribution to increasingly globalized environmental policy processes by adopting the role of “Wirepuller”.</p><p>In the second article, Otsuka explores the possibility of the socialization of the concept of resilience based on socio-ecological system (SES) theory.</p><p>The third article by Miura discusses how environmental sociology can uncover social structure concealing damage to health, which has been exacerbated by “fuhyo-higai”, that is, “damage or discrimination from harmful rumors”, through a case study of the Fukushima nuclear plant accident.</p><p>In the fourth article, Fukunaga argues environmental sociology needs to overcome the governing of the sustainability as a dominant discourse by practicing the “yori-soi” research method of staying close to people in the field based on the practical theory of justice.</p><p>Given the current situation of impasse, all the articles suggest promising directions of breakthrough in the field of environmental sociology.</p>

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