Introduction: Conceptualizing Environment-Society Relations

Abstract

This introductory chapter presents the purpose of the book: to scrutinize existing core conceptualizations of environment-society relations, because such a critical gaze will allow for deeper reflection, help to confront denialism, engage sociological imagination, and lead to more fruitful communication and action within the environmental sciences and transdisciplinary. The chapter discusses the role of concepts and the opportunities and challenges related to when science, policy and practice share the same concepts. The chapter introduces three overall questions for the book concerning the explanatory power; social, cultural, or geo-political `biases' and `blinders'; and the action-potential implicated by the concepts. It introduces a set of conceptual traps that scholars ought to avoid when theorizing on environment-society relations. Finally it introduces the concepts scrutinized in the book.