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Sociological Perspectives on Environmental Problems

Sociological perspective can be termed as a way of viewing society and social behavior and going beyond the social pattern behaviors and explaining these behavioral patterns. Sociological perspectives are majorly based on large groups of people to understand how these behavioral patterns affect their social behavior.

There are four main theories associated with a social perspective which include; social conflict theory, structural, functional theory, feminism and symbolic interactionism theory. Social conflict theory perceives society as a system of groups which are not equal and will ultimately bring about conflict and revolution. Instances of social conflict theory would include sexism, racism and homophobia. An example of a sexism case is in 2008 in England where a mother sued a school on behalf of her daughter for not being allowed to have long pants in the school uniform choice for female students during winter and shot pants during summer which hampered their physical activities.

The structural-functional theory views the society as a composite, but an interconnected system, where each part aids in functioning as a whole, the environment being part of these components. It insists that there must be a balance between the living and non-living in the background an example being Population growth, which leads to crowding and exploitation of resources which is harmful to the environment. Instead, a low population growth rate may result in scarcity in the labor force and thus the need to strike a balance.

Feminism is termed as a strive for fairness among the genders. In the world today, fairness among sexes is strongly being advocated for with women being at the lead. Regarding the environment, women have profoundly been affected with changes in the environment, calamities such as cyclones, tsunamis and temperature changes have put women on risk of sexual predation, trafficking and domestic violence (Glazebrook &Trish, 2017). In India, Sri Lanka and Arches, women were forced to be married to tsunami widowers because their own families could not accommodate them as a result of the tsunami.

Symbolic interactionism theory is geared towards relationships among individuals in a society. It focuses on how individuals will behave when faced with a situation, for example, how a group of protestors will communicate their message during a protest. Regarding the environment, individuals such as vegetarians in Sweden who strive to conserve the environment more in order to sustain themselves in terms of food security compared to individuals consuming processed foods.

Environmental problems can be termed as results that are negative on the planet as a result of human interaction with the biosphere (Van der Sluijs &Jeroen, 2017). The three main sociological perspectives; Symbolic interactionism, Conflict theory and Functionalism have been used in explaining the various environmental problems around the globe.

Symbolic interactionism seeks to understand why individuals are motivated to take part in an activity such as recycling, their perception towards an activity, the extent unto which activity is recognized as an environmental problem and ultimately individuals from different setting having different perspectives towards environmental issues. An example would include two individuals, one raised in a crowded city while the other raised in a small village. The individual raised in a small town will view a small town as more crowded compared to the one who is raised in a crowded town when both are brought in the small city.

Conflict theory perceives that environmental problems are caused by the political and elite class who will come up with regulations that will favor their own interests and compromise on the needs of the whole population. It dictates that population growth cannot be a cause of an environmental problem since the globe already has enough resources for its individuals. This theory also points out that developing countries continue to have surging populations due to not having clear guidelines on contraceptive usage and not educating women on how to sustain themselves.

Functionalism considers population growth as an essential tool for societal growth, and that continued growth can be achieved through continuous population growth which provides for mitigation of future challenges such as lack of workforce as a result of a large old population.

It is clear that sociological perspectives have led to a dimension of how different actors view the various environmental problems facing the globe. Multiple actors have tried coming up with reasonably the best ways to solve the issues that face the world and aid in combating the globe from climate change. Some of these include climate-smart agriculture, combating pollution through recycling and governments advising on the importance of having a controllable population through legislation and educating the community on contraceptive usage(Sutton& Philip,2016). With all these efforts, there is a possibility of the globe healing from the effects caused by man if they are taken into consideration.

Work cited

Glazebrook, Trish. “Feminist Intersections with Environmentalism and Ecological Thought.” The Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy. Routledge, 2017. 432-445.

Sutton, Philip. Nature, environment and society. Macmillan International Higher Education, 2016.

Van der Sluijs, Jeroen. “Uncertainty, assumptions and value commitments in the knowledge base of complex environmental problems.” Interfaces between science and society. Routledge, 2017. 64-81.