LM+Annotation+9 

Pellow, David N., and Hollie Nyseth Brehm. “An Environmental Sociology for the Twenty-First Century.” //Annual Review of Sociology// 39.1 (2013): 229–250. //CrossRef//. Web. 6 Oct. 2013.


 * 1. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text?**

“Environmental sociology’s promise is to expand our understanding of inequality by making sense of the often tense and violent relationships among humans, ecosystems, and nonhuman animal species.”

“Furthermore, the material impact of social inequality is reﬂected in the highly uneven distribution of environmental harm and privileges in societies around the globe, which is the primary concern of environmental justice (EJ) studies. EJ is, according to the ﬁeld’s founding scholar, the notion that all people and communities are entitled to equal protection under environmental health laws and regulations (Bullard 1996,p. 445).”

“ For example, gender is a category that scholars are paying more attention to, as women are often physically and socially relegated to some of the most toxic residential and occupational spaces in communities and workplaces—an undertheorized example of environmental inequality (Pellow & Park 2002). Several recent studies document the ways that women experience and resist discriminatory environmental policies in workplaces, residential communities, and elsewhere (Buckingham & Kulcur 2010). Ironically, women activists in the EJ movement are less politically visible because they tend to work for smaller, community-based organizations that rarely make headlines and survive on volunteer labor and small grants, despite the fact that women form the overwhelming majority of the movement’s leadership (Bell & Braun 2010, Brown & Ferguson 1995).”

“Both Weber and Marx articulated much of the core environmental sociological project by emphasizing the perils associated with the power of states and capital in the production of social inequality and differential life chances across human and nonhuman populations, and together with Durkheim, they acknowledged the inseparability of human and nonhuman natures.”


 * 2. What is the main argument of the text?**

The text sets out to define environmental sociology, by identifying two of its most important features: the attention it pays to the inseparability of human and nonhuman natures, and the attention it pays to the roles played by power and social inequality in shaping the relations between humans and nonhumans.


 * 3. Describe at least three ways that the main argument is supported**

The authors flesh out the narrative by first identifying the origins of environmental sociology, as well as some of the underlying themes and theories. The article then goes on to identify some of the key issues that environmental sociology seeks to address, including environmental injustice. Finally, a discussion of closely related, and sometimes interrelated, topics (i.e. deep ecology and ecofeminism) rounds out the narrative.


 * 4. Describe the main literatures that the text draws on and contributes to.**

The text draws upon the literature on environmental injustice, and also touches on the relationship between gender and environmental issues. Its main contribution is to the literature on environmental sociology.

5. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports, challenges, or otherwise relates to the argument or narrative that you imagine developing.

This article contributes by providing a better understanding of environmental injustice, and its relationship to gender. While it does not specifically address fracking, the text does provide some insight into what kinds of questions need to be asked in research of this type. The ways in which social and economic inequality tie into environmental injustice could prove to be applicable to the fracking case.


 * 6. List at least three details or examples from the text that you can use to support the argument or narrative that you are developing.**

• The social dimensions of disasters are often an insight into the inequalities within a society.

• The study of risk reveals the importance of power in society; much of the existing research shows that risk is generally imposed by one group onto another (i.e. wealthy onto the poor).

• Numerous studies show lower class and minority groups are more affected by toxic facilities and industry practices.