What is an environmental problem? Philosophers of science and sociologists of knowledge have been writing for more than a decade about the de-centred, multiple object. Yet what if this insight were applied to the realm of environmental problems? What would be revealed? These questions are explored in this paper by examining the ontology of environmental problems. Ethnomethodologists, social constructionists, and sociologists of knowledge have all painted a descriptive picture of a thoroughly sociological ontology; an ontology that is fluid, at times de-centred, and (at least potentially) multiple. Yet if ontology is social, and thus multiple, than it is also ultimately political. But multiplicity need not imply fragmentation. It can be coherent, but this requires both coordination and trust. To give further visual and conceptual shape to this argument a heuristic model is constructed. Through this model I ‘map’ a handful of environmental problems – in terms of their ‘complexity’ and ‘epistemological distance’ – and in doing so give focus to the ontologically diverse nature of environmental problems today. A case study involving a particularly contentious environmental dispute is then examined so as to give the argument additional focus and an empirical grounding.
BurkettPaul. 1996. ‘Some Common Misconceptions about Nature and Marx's Critique of Political Economy’, Capitalism-Nature-Socialism7: 57–80.
13.
BurkettPaul. 1997. ‘Nature in Marx Reconsidered’, Organization and Environment10: 164–83.
14.
CallonMichel. 1986. ‘Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation’, in Power, Action and Belief, edited by LawJohnLondon: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 196–229.
15.
CallonMichel and LatourBruno1981. ‘Unscrewing the Big Leviathan: How Actors Macrostructure Reality and how Sociologists Help Them to Do It’, in Advances in Social Theory, edited by Knorr CetinaK. and CicourelA.London:Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 277–303.
16.
CarolanMichael S. forthcoming. ‘The Conspicuous Body: Capitalism, Consumerism, Class, and Consumption’, Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion.
17.
CarolanMichael S. and BellMichael M.2003. ‘In Truth we Trust: Discourse, Phenomenology, and the Social Relations of Knowledge in an Environmental Dispute’, Environmental Values12: 225–45.
18.
CarolanMichael S. and BellMichael M.2004. ‘No Fence Can Stop it: Debating Dioxin Drift from a Small US Town to Arctic Canada’, in Science and Politics in the International Environment, edited by HarrisonN. and BrynerG.Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 271–95.
CoppermanMichael S. and MarkleDouglas F.2001. ‘Review of Relationships between Lost River and Shortnose Sucker Biology and Management of Upper Klamath Lake’ Assessment of Klamath Water Allocation (Draft), Oregon State University, December 14.
21.
DarierEric (ed.). 1999. Discourses of the Environment. Cambridge, MA:Blackwell Publishers.
22.
DastonLorraine (ed.). 2000. Biographies of Scientific Objects. Chicago, IL:University of Chicago Press.
23.
DeChiroGiovanna. 1998. ‘Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and Social Justice’, in Privatizing Nature: Political Struggle for the Global Commons, edited by GoldmanMichaelNew Brunswick, NJ:Rutgers University Press, pp. 120–43.
24.
DickensPeter. 1992. Society and Nature. Philadelphia:Temple University Press.
25.
DickensPeter. 2002. ‘A Green Marxism? Labor Processes, Alienation, and the Division of Labor’, in Sociological Theory and the Environment: Classical Foundations and Contemporary Insights, edited by DunlapRiley, ButtelFrederick H., DickensPeter, and August. Gijswijt. Boulder:Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 51–72.
26.
FisherDana R.2002. ‘From the Treadmill of Production to Ecological Modernization? Applying a Habermasian Framework to Society-Environmental Relationships’, The Environmental State Under Pressure10: 54–64.
27.
FosterJohn Bellamy. 1999. ‘Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology’, American Journal of Sociology105: 366–405.
28.
FreudenburgWilliam R.1996. ‘Strange Chemistry: Environmental Risk Conflicts in a World of Science, Values, and Blind Spots’, in Handbook for Environmental Risk Decision Making: Values, Perceptions & Ethics, edited by CothernC. RichardBoca Raton, FL:Lewis Publishers, pp. 11–36.
29.
FreudenburgWilliam R.2000. ‘Social Constructions and Social Constrictions: Toward Analyzing the Social Construction of “The Naturalized” as well as “The Natural”’, in Environment and Global Modernity, edited by SpaargarenGert, ArthurP.J. Mol, and ButtelFrederick. London:Sage, pp. 103–119.
30.
FreudenburgWilliam R, FrickelScott, and GramlingRobert. 1995. ‘Beyond the Nature/Society Divide: Learning to Think About a Mountain’, Sociological Forum10: 361–92.
31.
GarfinkelHarold. 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall.
32.
GranovetterMark. 1973. ‘Strength of Weak Ties’, American Journal of Sociology78: 1360–80.
33.
HarawayDonna. 1989. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. London:Routledge and Chapman Hall.
34.
HarawayDonna. 1991. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London:Free Association Books.
35.
HardinRussell. 2002. Trust and Trustworthiness. New York:Russell Sage.
36.
Knorr CetinaKarin. 1999. Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press.
LawJohn. 2002a. Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience. Durham, NC:Duke University Press.
39.
LawJohn. 2002b. ‘On Hidden Heterogeneities: Complexity, Formalism, and Aircraft Designs’, in Complexities: Social Studies of Knowledge Practices, edited by LawJohn and MolAnnemarie. Durham, NC:Duke University Press, pp. 116–41.
40.
LawJohn and UrryJohn. 2002. ‘Enacting the Social’, Centre for Science Studies and Sociology Department, Lancaster University. <http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/soc099jlju.html> (last accessed, March 30, 2003).
41.
LawJohn and SingletonVicky2000. ‘Allegory and Its Others’, Centre for Science Studies and Sociology Department, Lancaster University. <http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/soc051jl.html> (last accessed, March 30, 2003).
42.
LatourBruno. 1987. Science in Action. Milton Keynes:Open University Press.
43.
LatourBruno. 1988. The Pasteurization of France. Cambridge, Mass:Harvard University Press.
44.
LatourBruno. 1999. Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press.
45.
LatourBruno and WoolgarSteve. 1979. Laboratory Life. London:Sage.
46.
LuhmannNiklas. 1979. Trust and Power. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
47.
LuhmannNiklas. 1988. ‘Familiarity, Confidence, Trust: Problems and Alternatives’, in Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, edited by GanbettaD.Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 94–107.
48.
LuhmannNiklas. 1989. Ecological Communication. Chicago, IL:University of Chicago Press.
49.
MilesM. and ShivaV.1993. Ecofeminism. London:Zed Books.
50.
MolAnnemarie. 2002a. The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice. Durham, NC:Duke University Press.
51.
MolAnnemarie. 2002b. ‘Cutting Surgeons, Walking Patients: Some Complexities Involved in Comparing’, in Complexities: Social Studies of Knowledge Practices, edited by LawJohn and MolAnnemarie. Durham, NC:Duke University Press, pp. 218–57.
52.
MolAnnemarie and LawJohn. 2002. ‘Complexities: An Introduction’, in Complexities: Social Studies of Knowledge Practices, edited by LawJohn and MolAnnemarie. Durham, NC:Duke University Press, pp. 1–22.
53.
MurphyRaymond. 2002. ‘Ecological Materialism and the Sociology of Max Weber’, in Sociological Theory and the Environment: Classical Foundations and Contemporary Insights, edited by DunlapRiley, ButtelFrederick H., DickensPeter, and August. Gijswijt. Boulder:Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 73–89.
54.
NanLin. 2002. Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure in Action. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
55.
PelusoNancy L.1992. Rich Forests, Poor People: Resource Control and Resistance in Java. Berkeley, CA:University of California Press.
56.
QuigleyPeter. 1999. ‘Nature as Dangerous Space’, in Discourses of the Environment, edited by DarierEric. Oxford:Blackwell, pp. 179–80.
57.
RutherfordPaul. 1999. ‘The Entry of Life into History’, in Discourses of the Environment, edited by DarierEric. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 37–62.
58.
SandilandsCatriona. 1999. ‘Sex at the Limits’, in Discourses of the Environment, edited by DarierEric. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 79–94.
59.
SearleJohn R.1995. The Construction of Social Reality. New York:The Free Press.
60.
SztompkaPiotr. 1999. Trust: A Sociological Theory. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
61.
WeberMax. 1967 [1922]. Economy and Society, edited by RothGuenther and WittichClaus. Berkeley, CA:University of California Press.
