Product Description: Globalization and the changing role of the nation-state calls for new approaches to environmental governance and new ways to conceptualize it. Recent developments in sociology -- seen in the work of John Urry, Manuel Castells, and others -- shows how social theory can be made less static, more fluid, and more directed toward flow and networks in order to encompass today's reality...read more

This accomplished book argues that we can only make sense of environmental issues if we consider them as part of a more encompassing process of social transformation. It asks whether there is an emerging consensus between social scientists on the central issues in the debate on environmental change, and if concerns about the environment constitute a major prop to the process of globalization? The book provides a thorough discussion of the central themes in environmental sociology, identifying two traditions: ecological modernization theory and risk society theory. (view table of contents)