Social Structure and Global Climate Change: Sociological Propositions concerning the Greenhouse Effect

Abstract

Abstract Although there is accumulating evidence that socioeconomic and political organization are central driving forces behind greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation, most recent discussions of global environmental degradation have neglected the role of social structure in climate change. We critically assess neo-Malthusianism and macrosocial theories of development to identify a set of hypotheses about the social structural sources of the greenhouse effect and their role in constraining possible mitigation strategies. Although neo-Malthusian arguments about population growth, affluence and advanced technology may prove decisive in the long run, arguments derived from modernization, ecological-evolutionary, world-system and state-centered theories of development point to a set of emergent properties, non-linearities and equity conflicts that may significantly alter these projections. Future policy discussions need to be informed by these considerations of social structure to be effective.