Social Theories for the Anthropocene

Foreword by Dr. Charles Lemert

This unique textbook introduces undergraduate students to key social theories from classical, multicultural, global, and indigenous perspectives, while also inviting them to understand social theories as stories that create our culturally specific social realities.

The readings in this collection emphasize the ways our culturally perceived social-environmental divide has historically been constructed to the detriment of both society and the environment. Social Theories for the Anthropocene offers students the theoretical tools necessary to re-imagine and re-dream. First, to re-imagine what it means to be ‘human’ as we culturally define it. Second, to rethink how to apply such new possibilities to the transformation of Western culture from its current self-destructive trajectory to something more equitable and more sustainable.

Placing readings from classical social theory in dialogue with writings from a diverse range of modern thinkers, this timely reader will be indispensable for undergraduate students and instructors undertaking courses on social theory, the environment, climate change, and ecology.