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1 - Re-compos(t)ing the Ghosts of Sociologies Past: Towards More Cosmoecological Sociologies

from Part I - Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Martha McMahon  and
Chelsea Power
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

This chapter asks whether, given current environmental challenges, is it perverse of feminist environmental sociologists to seem to abandon the sociological ancestors and appeal instead to mushrooms, to call for making kin with other critters, to turn to telling different stories or to compos(t)ing ourselves differently as humans? We argued that not only is it not perverse it is urgently needed. We argue, however, that such a re-composting needed a serious engagement with the sociological traditions of understanding the roles of institutional arrangements and power, including political economic and discursive. We also consider the shadow side of framing humanity as the villain of climate change and argue sociological analysis has an indispensable role to play in disrupting the troubling potential for authoritarian and repressive politics in much of climate change discourse.

Keywords

Feminismclimate changeenvironmentsociological ancestors
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 11 - 28
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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