The History and Philosophical Changes of the Environmental Reform Movement

This chapter is an account that provides a chronology of the philosophical evolution of the human viewpoint from the perspective of the apex species on the planet. The gradual change from unrelenting growth and production towards one that embraces conservation, resource management, and the protection of populations from the consequences of rapid technological development came to a inflection point in the mid-20th century that resulted in a revised outlook on mankind's obligations to current populations, including other species, future generations, and Earth as a whole. The chapter will highlight the effects of the Industrial Revolution, expansionism, and the exploitation and mismanagement of resources from overuse and overharvesting of Earth's ecosystems. These practices led to tragedies that shifted the paradigm to environmental responsibility and accountability in the 20th century.

Environmental Sociology

Having emerged in the 1970s as public awareness of and concern for environmental problems increased, environmental sociology’s main goal is to understand the interconnections between human societies and the natural (or biophysical) environment. Environmental sociology has been described as comprising four major areas of research. First, environmental sociologists study the social causes of environmental problems. Along these lines, scholars have developed an array of theoretical frameworks to explain how various social factors, including demographic, social, cultural, political, economic, and technological dynamics, generate environmental impacts and problems, and they have conducted many empirical studies on a wide range of environmental indicators to assess hypotheses derived from these theories. Second, environmental sociology is concerned with how the natural environment influences and impacts society. Early environmental sociologists strongly emphasized the dependence of human societies on the natural environment and stressed that the field should consider how the environment shapes society in addition to how society impacts the environment. Research in this area tackles issues such as the social consequences of natural disasters and the inequitable distribution of environmental hazards along racial and socioeconomic lines. Third, environmental sociology examines social reactions and responses to environmental threats and problems. Research in this area focuses on understanding patterns and trends in environmental attitudes and behaviors (e.g., recycling) as well as various aspects of the environmental movement. Fourth, environmental sociologists are concerned with understanding social processes and dynamics that could advance environmental reform and sustainability. In general, environmental sociology has tended to focus more on explaining how society causes environmental problems while paying less attention to potential solutions, but a shift has taken place in recent decades. The development, discussion, and empirical assessment of theories of environmental reform, analyses of potential solutions to environmental crises, and drafting of conceptual frameworks for sustainability have become important foci of scholarly activity in environmental sociology. Another major area of research, one that cuts across the preceding four, is the human dimensions of global climate change, which has become one of the main substantive issues studied by environmental sociologists. In this article, important scholarly works in each of these five areas are highlighted and briefly discussed, along with a selection of the most relevant textbooks, handbooks and collections, encyclopedia and review articles that provide general overviews of the field, and academic journals that publish environmental sociology research.

WENDELL BERRY: MEDIATING BETWEEN CULTURE AND NATURE

Wendell Berry who was born in 1945 is an American poet, novelist, environmental activist and a farmer. Berry worships nature and constantly resorts to it but not to retreat from society to a simple life of nature or to escape from social obligations. Rather, he emphasizes the need for a new view of nature that goes beyond the mystical treatment of nature. This paper aims to review Berry’s efforts as a poet to mediate culture and nature through his words. Berry emphasizes labour and the cultivation of land for he is in between the civilized and the wild. Berry argues that culture and nature cannot be separated, and his conviction of the close connection between poetry and farming can be understood accordingly. Berry made great efforts through his works to reform the relationship between civilization and the earth. Unless human society renews the vision of its relationship with the natural world, there will be little hope of substantial and permanent environmental reform. This paper is hoped to inspire other poets, especially Asian poets to promote similar ideology in their works.Keywords: Culture, meditation, nature, place, wildernessCite as: Al Jumaili, F.A.N. (2017). Wendell Berry: Mediating between culture and nature. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 2(2), 118-126.