Sociology of the Climate Change (Media) Spectacle

As a lecturer in Sociology at UCSB (1997 – 2008) I built an integrated teaching, research and publication program geared for applying the theoretical and methodological coordinates of my book Trouble in the Forest (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) to the wider world of connections between globalization and environmental problems.

Here I provide the syllabi, introduce the course, and propose a new course: Sociology of the Climate Change Media Spectacle.

This new course builds upon my previous course, Sociology of the (Media) Spectacle (see my previous course description and syllabus at EJ/CJ, the Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Studies Research Hub at UC Santa Barbara’s Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies).

Stay tuned for the Syllabus for Sociology of the Climate Change (Media) Spectacle.  This course will examine the crucial role of media and public sphere in shaping collective response to climate change, including emergent global climate governance (the UN Climate Talks), and thus the consequent climate itself, which must be conceived, dialectically, as the emergent compromise formation of numerous social and environmental forces.

Updated on February 25, 2021