Sociology: Environment And Sociology

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Environment and Sociology Sociology can help us to understand how environmental problems are distributed in regions, countries and communities. For example although global warming will affect everyone on the planet, it will do so in different ways to different groups and communities. Flooding kills many more people in low-lying, poor countries, such as Bangladesh, where housing and emergency infrastructures are less able to cope with severe weather than in Europe. In richer countries, such as the USA, the issues raised by global warming for policy- makers are likely to concern indirect effects, such as rising levels of immigration as people try to enter the country from areas more directly affected. Sociologists can provide an account of…show more content…
Marx and Weber laid particular emphasis on power. Foucault continued some of the ideas they pioneered. The role of discourse is central to his thinking about power and control in society. He used the term to refer to ways of talking or thinking about particular subjects that are united by common assumptions. Foucault demonstrated the dramatic way in which discourses of madness changed from medieval times through to the present day. In the Middle Ages the insane were generally regarded as harmless; some believed that they might even have possessed a special 'gift' of perception. In modern societies, however, 'madness' has been shaped by a medicalized discourse, emphasizing illness and treatment. This medicalized discourse is supported and perpetuated by a highly developed and influential network of doctors, medical experts, hospitals, professional associations and medical…show more content…
Poverty is an economic as well as a social problem. Communalism is closely linked with economic factors. The crime and delinquency are having legal overtones but they are closely related to the social and economic factors. Several attempts have been made to understand Indian social problems in terms of structural transformation. In the Indian context, three patterns of transformation are visible. Sanskritization is a process through which lower castes achieved upward social mobility either by adventure or by emulating the customs and rituals of the upper castes. It is a cultural process but changes in social status and occupations as a consequence of the upward mobility brought about by sanskritization makes it also a structural process. The contact with the West, particularly with England, set in motion another process of transformation in India known as Westernization. It is characterized by Western patterns of administration, legal system and education through the medium of the English language. Under the impact of the Western way of life, a sizeable section of educated and urbanized Indian adopted Western style of dress, food, drink, speech and manners. They received an impetus in the post-independence period. The independent India adopted a modern constitution, founded a secular democratic state and followed the policy of planned socio-economic development, democratic decentralization and the policy of protective discrimination
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