Recasting Treadmills of Production and Destruction: New Theoretical Directions

• In Event: 2149 - Taking Stock of Environmental Sociology: Trends, Strengths, Silences, and Innovative New Research Directions

Abstract

Guided by critical realism, we revisit and recast two prominent theories of environmental degradation: the treadmill of production and treadmill of destruction. In this recasting, the treadmill of production and the treadmill of destruction are not conceived of as competing theories. Rather, they offer complementary abstractions of generative mechanisms. Both refer to a treadmill: an anthropocentric process wherein (1) powerful organizations appropriate and transform nature to amass power and capital, (2) competition among these organizations propels accelerating degradation of the environment, and (3) these organizations obscure, distort and suppress information about the environmental damage. The macrosocial context, the organizations at the center of them, and the elites that command these organizations makes these treadmills distinct. Future theorization and empirical/historical research can and should engage a wide range of theories advanced in environmental sociology and related literatures. The goal is not to establish the single best unitary theory. Rather, the goal is to identify and gain insight into the generative mechanisms that shape and constrain human interactions with the environment. By definition, a treadmill spans the biophysical and the social/cultural realms. The critical realist tradition emphasizes an important ontological asymmetry: the biophysical is necessary for the social/cultural realm to exist, but it can exist independently. Recognizing this asymmetry, historical contingency and social change are at the center of analysis when studying the waxing, waning, transformation and demise of treadmills.

Authors

• Gregory Hooks, McMaster University

• Michael Lengefeld, Goucher College

• Chad L. Smith, Texas State University