Environmental sociology is typically defined as the study of societal-environmental interactions, or the relationships between modern societies and their biophysical environments. Environmental sociologists study the factors that cause environmental problems, the societal impacts of those problems, as well as efforts to solve the problems. In addition, considerable attention is paid to the social processes by which certain environmental conditions become socially defined as problems, particularly by scholars with a "social constructivist" orientation. Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... ... Biophysics (also biological physics) is an interdisciplinary science that applies theories and methods of the physical sciences to questions of biology. ... This article provides a list of noted sociologists and major contributors to sociology (even if they did not primarily work as sociologists): Contents: Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z... Social constructionism is a sociological theory of knowledge developed by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann with their 1966 book, The Social Construction of Reality. ...

Although there was sometimes acrimonious debate between the constructivist and realist "camps" within environmental sociology in the 1990s, the two sides have found considerable common ground as both increasingly accept that while most environmental problems have a material "reality" they nonetheless become known only via human processes such as scientific knowledge, activists' efforts, and media attention. In other words, most environmental problems have a "real" ontological status despite our knowledge/awareness of them stemming from social processes, processes by which various conditions are "constructed" as problems by scientists, activists, media and other social actors. Correspondingly, environmental problems must all be understood via social processes, despite any material basis they may have external to the human. This interactiveness is now broadly accepted, but many aspects of the debate continue in contemporary research in the field. Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, the last decade of the 20th Century. ... In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek , genitive : being (part. ...

See also

• Human ecology
• Important publications in environmental sociology

Human ecology is an academic discipline that deals with the relationship between humans and their (natural) environment. ... // Foundations The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus, 1904 Online version Description: In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber puts forward a thesis that Puritan ethic and ideas had influenced the development of capitalism. ...

References

• Handbook of Environmental Sociology (Greenwood Press, 2002; ISBN 0313268088)
• International Handbook of Environmental Sociology (Edgar Elgar, 1997; ISBN 1840642432)
• Sociological Theory and the Environment: Classical Foundations, Contemporary Insights (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002; ISBN 0742501868).