An Invitation to Environmental Sociology

by Michael Mayerfeld Bell

"I love your book, it is one of the most fascinating I have ever read (certainly the most riveting textbook). The ideas you present are so on key… I just wanted to let you know how incredible your book is. Thank you for writing it."

―Student at the University of Massachusetts, Boston
Bringing social and environmental interactions together as an ecological dialogue The Third Edition of An Invitation to Environmental Sociology brings out the sociology of environmental possibility, inviting students to delve into this rapidly changing field. Written in a lively, engaging style, author Michael Bell covers the broad range of topics in environmental sociology with a personal passion rarely seen in sociology texts. With extensively updated material on our environmental situation, this edition challenges readers with the complexity of environmental puzzles.

Genres: Sociology, School, Nonfiction, Environment, Academic, Textbooks

384 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 1998

Reviews

[Terri Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this but Bell just talked so much in sociologyspeak that it was a dry ride. Where are the authors writing texts who are on fire for their fields and the subject matter that they inflame the reader too? I mean, this is environmental sociology and if I had written this, I would have brought in so many interesting anecdotes, facts, and voices from the field so to give students a taste of the action. Learning about the effect our choices have on the environment should not be made boring.

For example, the book covers Simon's very controversial work. Julian Simon suggests that instead of worrying because we are using up the earth's resources faster than the earth can recover and using up some irreplaceable ones that the answer to dwindling resources is to increase the population so that some intelligent person who can solve the problem can be born. Yes, this is actually something that is seriously considered in the field as an option. Bell just mentions it in passing to on to some other dull terminology without clear examples without realizing he had just tossed a firecracker in the air!

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good textbook, but a lot of the terms he invented confused myself and my other classmates in the textbook. The content in this book, however, is good and will inspire new thoughts about how humanity perceives the environment and how nature perceives us. It truly, for me, has been a journey in reading this book.

[T. Smith]

This version does not include chapters on health and risk that were added in the next edition.

[T. Smith]

Used this as the main text for the first half of my Environmental Sociology class. Didn't agree with some of his conclusions, but thought it covered a lot of important topics

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. Pretty balanced on controversial issues and modes of thought. Illuminates why western culture thinks as it does and has about how humans interact with nature.

[Delaney]

too many anecdotal stories. actually decent text for writing though.