Environmental Sociology: A Social Constructionist Perspective

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Why is it that not all environmental problems attract the same public attention? In his revealing approach to the environment, John Hannigan demonstrates that society's willingness to recognize and solve environmental problems depends more upon the way these claims are

presented by a limited number of interest groups than upon the severity of the threat they pose.

Using examples drawn from the US, UK and Canada, Hannigan provides students with a model for analyzing environmental issues which can form the basis of their own research. He also for the first time places the construction of environmental knowledge in the context of wider debates with

sociology on modernity and postmodernity and what it means to live in a "risk society."

of environmental problems, the nature of environmental claims, claims makers, the claims-making process, and reasons why some issues rise to prominence and others do not ( 1997 Environment/Planning)

(1997 Environment/Planning)