society

State of the World 2006 provides a special focus on China and India and their impact on the world as major consumers of resources and polluters of local and global ecosystems.

The special edition of State of the World, The Consumer Society, examines how we consume, why we consume, and what impact our consumption choices have on the planet and our fellow human beings.

Graham Woodgate and Michael Redclift provide some theoretical starting points for constructing a social science approach to environmental issues.

Clark A. Miller proposes four models of societal processes by which framing occurs, concluding with ideas for further research.

In this article, Jozef Keulartz, Henny van der Windt, and Jacques Swart examine the role of concepts of nature as communicative devices in public debates and political decision-making.

In this age of debate it is not news that what constitutes “truth” is often at issue in environmental debates. Michael S. Carolan and Michael M. Bell argue that truth depends essentially on social relations - relations that involve power and knowledge, to be sure, but also identity.

In this paper, Tony Lynch and David Wells argue that environmental politics needs more than piecemeal institutional efforts or calls for a set of ‘new’ values and that is a realistic, comprehensive, and effective policy programme.

Miller suggests a new heuristic, the ecology of freedom, which highlights past contingency and hope, and can furthermore help guide our present efforts, both scholastic and activist, to find an honorable, just way of living on the earth.

Jost Halfmann illustrates the differences between images of risk by comparing the American and German anti-nuclear movements.

Bronislaw Szerszynski explores some of the implications of attending to the performative aspects of language for the sociological understanding of issues of risk and trust among lay communities.