An Invitation to Environmental Sociology

In their textbook An Introduction to Environmental Sociology, Michael M. Bell, Laura Hanson Schlachter, Isaac Leslie and Loka Ashwood offer a scholarly and practical guide to tackling the daunting environmental challenges of our time. This unusual combination helps enliven the topic for students and is complemented with a helpful toolkit of supporting teaching and examination materials. 

The textbook comes in a 3-part delivery.

Figures at the top of heaps of personal possessions, such as recliner chairs, boats, clothes, televisions, houses, and cars.

the MATERIAL

How do everyday structures and institutions contribute to environmental problems?

A figure ponders an arrow rising up with cars, cogs, wind, money, patriotism, and other abstract ideas.

the IDEAL

How do beliefs shape environmental issues?

Three figures look at each other's torso which has images of industry, agriculture, and pristine nature.

the PRACTICAL

How can we change the ecohuman community for the better?

How do the authors bring these themes to life in the textbook to effectively engage students? Through examples like this one, where the authors draw on vivid scenes and experiences to find practical changes to the material and ideological problem of industrial livestock production.

In the US, most cattle end up in feedlots out west.

cows-cafo

the MATERIAL

Fewer options for farmers to sell their products at market and close to home devastate rural communities.

Rather than away from home on muddy lots, Loka and her husband Jason decided to finish their cattle locally on ample grass in rural Illinois.

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McDonough County, where Loka and Jason raised cattle at the time, is one of four rural Illinois counties with a high poverty rate. Instead of large packers selling beef anonymously to retailers, and pocketing much of the profit, Jason and Loka decided to sell and raise locally to help relink community, food and environment.

Loka Ashwood and husband Jason are working on their farm moving hay around and mending a barbwire fence

the IDEAL

Not everyone thinks local food is the answer. Others believe globalization and outsourcing more efficiently feed the world.

People sometimes use ideas like “feed the world” to pass trade regulations that remove even domestic labeling and implement tax write-offs for large corporations.

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the PRACTICAL

Relinking the fragmented chain of food production to revitalize the ecocommunity comes at the intersection of materiality and ideology.

Chefs gathered at Chicago’s Hopleaf restaurant to relink the chain of food and culture by serving a whole, Illinois-raised cow to their restaurant patrons. Their ideals change the material conditions of food consumption in their restaurants.

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Local food doesn’t have all the answers, but it is a practical start that this exploratory textbook helps students learn and critique.

This short story about industrial agriculture and its challenges is a glimpse into the delivery of An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. The textbook uses stories like this one to bring to its other chapters to life:

Figures at the top of heaps of personal possessions, such as recliner chairs, boats, clothes, televisions, houses, and cars.

the MATERIAL

  • Consumption and Materialism
  • Money and Markets
  • Technology and Science
  • Population and Development
  • Body and Justice
A figure ponders an arrow rising up with cars, cogs, wind, money, patriotism, and other abstract ideas.

the IDEAL

  • The Ideology of Environmental Domination
  • The Ideology of Environmental Concern
  • The Human Nature of Nature
  • The Rationality of Risk
Three figures look at each other's torso which has images of industry, agriculture, and pristine nature.

the PRACTICAL

  • Mobilizing the Ecological Society
  • Governing the Ecological Society
  • Living in the Ecological Society
Textbook IES Image 6th

Please accept the invitation.

You can request a desk copy from Sage or purchase An Invitation to Environmental Sociology at university book stores or other online outlets.