Environment and Society : Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues

This integrative book about human-environment relations connects many issues about human societies, ecological systems, and environments with data and perspectives from different fields of study. While the viewpoint is primarily sociological, coverage is specifically designed to relate to a diverse audience and encompass viewpoints from a variety of natural and social science approaches. KEY TOPICS Chapter topics include environmental problems and ecosystems; the resources of the earth: sources and sinks; global climate change, scientific uncertainty, and risk; population, environment, and food; energy and society; transforming structures: markets, politics, and policy; environmentalism: ideology, and collective action; and globalization: trade, environment, and the third revolution. For individuals with an interest in– and concern for–the environment.

Charles Harper is a professor of sociology at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. As a member of the faculty there since 1968, he has developed and taught numerous courses in the sociology department. Dr. Harper’s teaching and scholarly interests inolve the study of social change, globalization, the sociology of religion, social theory, and environmental sociology. He has published papers in a variety of academic journals.

    Along with Environment and Society, Dr. Harper is the author of two other textbooks. Co-authored with Kevin Leicht, his book Exploring Social Change: America and the World (Prentice Hall, 2007) is now in its Fifth Edition. Another book, Food, Society, and Environment (Prentice Hall, 2003) was co-authored with Bryan F. LeBeau. .

    As an undergraduate, Dr. Harper studied biology and the natural sciences. He received a bachelor’s degree from Central Missouri State University, a Master’s degree in sociology from the University of Missouri, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

    He and his wife, Anne, live close to Creighton’s campus near a “clan” of adult children, stepchildren, and grandchildren. He also enjoys traveling, bicycling, and reading.