Undercutting Environmentalism: Challenges from the Illiberal and Liberal Sectors of World Society

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Science, Knowledge, and Expertise

Abstract

Sociologists have long been interested in the relationship between society and the natural environment. In particular, they have asked what configurations of society lead toward – and away from – structures, policies, and practices that protect the natural environment. We take up this question with cross-national and longitudinal data on four outcomes: ratifications of international environmental treaties, climate-change policies, solar energy production, and greenhouse gas emissions. We argue that a dramatic recent slowdown in environmental protection follows from a shift in wider world society, the nucleus of which splits into liberal and illiberal sectors and splits again into cultural and market subsectors. The growing heterogeneity of world society brings the legitimation of new priorities, with greater emphasis on power and profit and lesser emphasis on protection.

Authors

• David John Frank, University of California-Irvine

• Evan Schofer, University of California-Irvine

• Julia C. Lerch, University of California-Irvine