Environmental sociology and global environmental change: A critical assessment

Arguing that the phenomenon of global environmental change has received inadequate attention within environmental sociology and that the predominant approach of environmental sociology to global change has been limited, this article suggests several new perspectives. Environmental sociology must give more attention to the social construction of environmental knowledge, by building on and transcending the debates within the sociology of science of the past 15 years. At the same time, environmental sociology must rethink its theories that give analytical priority to the nation‐state and to national units of analysis. These principles are illustrated through analyses of the role of global constructions of environmental knowledge and the recent politics of global environmental change.