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28 - Ecological Economics and Environmental Sociology: A Social Power Structures Approach to Environmental Justice in Economic Systems

from Part V - Social Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Phillip Warsaw
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

Environmental Sociology has long questioned the orthodoxy of neoclassical capitalist markets structures portrayed by neoclassical economic theory. These concerns have broadly been echoed in the development of the heterodox economic subfield of ecological economics. Ecological economics seeks to create a theoretical paradigm which recognizes that economic activity is bounded by both natural and social structures. Despite these similarities, ecological economics has broadly struggled in embracing a broad notion of environmental justice, typically centering distributional justice while ignoring the role of power in generating and perpetuation environmental injustice. I argue that ecological economists can gain much from sociological theory, particularly the use of intersectionality, in their discussions of environmental justice. I also suggest that the existence of ecological economics provides a theoretical bridge for sociologists long exiled from the mathematical dogma of neoclassical economics.

Keywords

Environmental JusticeIntersectionalityEcological EconomicsPower in EconomicsEnvironmental Sociology
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 470 - 486
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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