An Invitation to Environmental Sociology

I highly recommend this book as an introduction to environmental sociology. My students say they like Bell's writing style, as it is accessible and he makes confusing concepts easy to understand. I like the way he places individual choices and decisions in a social context so that students can see the influences of social structures (the built environment, our time constraints and our need for social status) on the choices and decisions of individuals. In the 2004 edition, there is also a section on environmental justice, an important topic which is rarely covered adequately in environmental sociology textbooks.

Michael Bell in this book takes an entirely new approach to introducing students to the field of environmental sociology. Yes there are other texts out there, and certainly they do a better job of reviewing all the research and thought that has gone before them. Some are much more encyclopedic, and end up reading like Sears Catalogues. However for its readablility and humanist treatment of this subject, Bell's stands alone. Bell's humanities background shows in his wide-ranging examples from Asian, Classical and Enlightenment thinking, which shows readers how the questions currently being chewed on by environmental sociologists (such as what is "natural," why our culture and economic system drive us to destroy the environment) are truly age-old. This also makes the book extremely interesting for faculty and other readers, as well as students. However what I like the best about this book is how beautifully and thoughtfully written it is. Bell's major points are carefully developed, and build upon each other beautifully. He speaks of his own life-choices, and he takes stands on issues. To me these make this book more compelling than text-book that seek to be catalogues of all the issues. Those have a place too, but students first need to care about the issues and the field, and feel as if something can be done about our pressing environmental problems. I believe the other reviewer may be an outlier: Hundreds of my students over the past four years have given this book the thumbs up (and they certainly gave other books the thumbs down). Judge this book yourself, it is worth it.