Abstract:
This special issue aims to display the breadth and depth of qualitative studies of the environment. In terms of breadth, the work here demonstrates that sociology should have a capacious definition of the environment and treat it with the same scrutiny as other folk concepts. Doing so—with the caveat that individual studies need to carefully operationalize ‘the environment’—reveals how a sociology of the environment has great deal to contribute to our understandings of community, culture, and inequality. In terms of depth, these articles develop new theoretical and empirical areas for environmental sociology, expanding the subfield internationally and bringing it up to date in terms of its relevance for understanding our current moment of pandemic, global warming, and nature fetishization. The outstanding papers collected in this special issue provide manifold lessons, connect to other sociological subfields, and, together, generate a sense of urgency for more qualitative studies of the environment.