Environmental/Green Cultural Shifts: Dynamics of Social Change

Abstract

The greening of society is a strong cultural wave as we enter the second decade of the century. This article considers what it means to be ‘green’, core issues that the environmental sustainability wave brings to society and the role of sociology its evolution in public culture. A key argument offered is that sociologists’ historic commitment to critical analysis and to social justice could be important in determining whether the green wave is simply a cultural trend or if it will expand to become a cultural shift. The contributions of environmental sociology, ecofeminism, deep ecology, and green economics are considered significant influences on the relationship between environmentalism and social analysis. Whether scholars and activists can link key concepts such as sustainable development, ecological sensitivity, human dignity, and social justice may prove critical for achieving the goal of societal transformation toward a greener culture.

The Political and Economic Consequences of Defining Sustainable Agriculture in the US

“…The tenets of “sustainable agriculture”– broadly understood as the collection of agricultural practices used to produce food for today’s people without exploiting land or labor today nor in the future – have a considerable history. Many indigenous peoples worldwide had and continue to have both a philosophical and practical relationship to the land that is “sustainable” in its application (Woehrle 2010). Thus, though it was not until the 1987 United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, often known simply as the Brundtland Commission, that the term “sustainable development” as development “that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” was first articulated (1987, 8); it is an idea that is closely associated with indigenous epistemologies that stress understanding the effect of one’s action through seven‐generations.…”

Determinants of Ecofeminism in Anglophone Cameroon: A PESTECH Analysis

“…Currently, it means different things to different groups. For some, ecofeminism is a movement (see e.g., Agarwal, 1992; Buckingham-Hatfield, 2015; Warren, 1997; Woehrle, 2010; Woehrle and Engelmann, 2008). As a movement, ecofeminism strives to mitigate the effects of discrimination against women in the natural resource domain.…”