The current environmental issues dominate the discussions of policy makers, climate experts, corporations, scientists and academia throughout the world. Environmental issues such as climate change, global warming, solid waste, water shortage and contamination, and deforestations are treated as multiple disciplines, according to their own perspectives.
However, environmental sociology, a sub-discipline of sociology, sees it from the perspective of how the environment has an impact on individual lives and society with inverse focus on how human conduct has implications or has a possible impact on the environment. Climate emergency experts and environmental organisations agree that environmental degradation is human-caused, which asks for collective and across borders inclusive efforts for its protection.
We are aware how the Amazon rainforest was burning recently; a big part of the forest has turned into ash, putting extensive burden on an already vulnerable planet. We are also aware how nations around the world are concerned about the environmental degradation that made governments, corporations and other international forums commit to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. As a consequence of an intensive international narrative on environment, Pakistan formed a ministry of climate change in 2012, and has recently made some other important efforts to do its part, for instance, the billion-tree tsunami and ban on plastic bags.
I conducted a content and bibliometric analysis study on the knowledge base of environmental sociology. It was intended to explore the geography of environmental knowledge, and its other patterns such as authorship, methodological focuses and most prevalent issues across time. My study was limited by some constraints as I selected six high impact factors from journals: American Sociological Association, American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Problem, and BSASociology. The time period for these data sources was from 1990 to 2018. The findings reveal some interesting polarisation of environmental knowledge.
Firstly, there was not a single scholarly article written by a Pakistani sociologist.That shows the state of environmental sociology in Pakistan. It is crucial to teach students, and make people aware of their conduct as to how much it impacts the environment in which we live. Environmental sociology has not grabbed the attention of academicians to give it its due importance. We, however, see journalists and freelancers write on this subject, which is not enough if our universities do not teach a subject as important as environmental sociology.
Climate emergency experts and environmental organisations agree that environmental degradation is human-caused
Secondly, the whole knowledge base of environmental sociology in the six journals was concentrated in two regions: Europe and the United States. Out of the two hundred and three scholarly articles, one hundred and eleven articles have been written in America and Canada, and twenty-seven in Western Europe. Most importantly, there were only ten articles written in Asia, thirty-five fromnon-specific locations, and five from Latin America. Five articles were written on global environmental issues. The remaining ten articles were placed in ‘other’ category, not specific to a continent.
It shows us that western countries have produced more than half of the environmental knowledge in the domain of sociology. It is also true that they are highly industrialised nations, and suffer repercussions for global environmental degradations. But one cannot deny the fact that developing countries are in the danger zone of these catastrophes because of poverty, lack of knowledge, high emphasis on consumption patterns, and small inputs from sociologists. Scholarly inputs and teaching of environmental sociology become more important when any human activity has such serious implications for environmental degradations.
Thirdly, out of the total three hundred and sixty-eight authors, two hundred and fifty-four were male and one hundred and fourteen female. It means that in environmental sociology, nearly seventy percent of writers are male, and thirty percent female. It is evident the in the domain of sociology females wrote less than their male counterparts.
These writings have been seen through their geographic location too. The share of the USA was two hundred and ninety-four, Canada ten, the United Kingdom thirty-seven, Asia eleven, Western Europe eleven, and ‘other’. However, it is still a question of much concern in the academic circles for less proportionality of female authorship in various disciplinary areas.
Fourthly, there were four most prevalent issues: disaster and hazards with sixty-eight articles; environmental justice with sixty-four; social ecology with fifty-six; and environmental movements with forty-five. Environmental issues that found less prominence include: political economy of environment with twelve articles; climate change with one; environmental risks with sixteen; environmental concerns with thirty-two; and the remaining fifty-two articles were written on the conceptual and disciplinary issues of environmental sociology.
Finally, the methodological focuses of these six scholarly outputs have been categorised as Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods. The findings reveal that the USA and Canada have focused on the quantitative methods to approach environmental issues with less focus on qualitative measures. The number of articles where quantitative methods have been adapted were one hundred and seven. On the contrary, the European region has been using qualitative techniques to focus on environmental issues, and the number of articles was eighty-four. Twelve articles referred to mixed methods.
What is apparent from this study is less proportionality and uneven knowledge production patterns. It also reveals how far the developing countries are concerned about their environmental degradation. In countries like Pakistan not many people care about environmental decadence, which is deeply rooted in the behaviours of the masses. We should be thankful to technology and Greta Thunberg, a schoolgirl, who has pressurised the whole world to take meaningful action for climate change mitigation. This will also awaken sociologists in Pakistan to look into their indifference.
Our universities should teach the environmental sociology subject with focus on local environmental issues. Pakistan is the seventh most vulnerable country of the world. We are facing huge deforestation, water scarcity and smog, which cause many terrible diseases. And most importantly, our streets and roads are used as dumping sites. Academic voices, activists, scientists and policy makers should play their part for a better and a worth-living planet.
The writer is a freelance columnist