Foundations of socio-environmental research: Authors’ workshop for a compilation of classic and contemporary writings tracing the development of socio-environmental research
Socio-environmental research is a burgeoning area of scholarship and training that combines concepts and methods from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Due to this complexity, knowledge production in socio-environmental research is fragmented, with scholars building primarily on theories in their own disciplines. Our volume, Foundations of Social-Environmental Research: Legacy Readings with Commentaries, from Cambridge University Press, seeks to address this fragmentation by providing a single, go-to anthology of classic readings and contemporary theories that constitute the intellectual lineage and current scope of socio-environmental research across disciplines.
Our anthology includes 53 journal articles and book selections that are foundational to socio-environmental research, starting with publications dating back to the late 1700s and extending through the mid-1990s. These selections are grouped into six parts, covering: early classics; geography and anthropology; economics, sociology, and political science; ecology; ethical, religious, and historical approaches; and technology, energy, and materials. A distinguished scholar introduces each section, discussing the key themes of the assembled readings, situating them in historical and scholarly context, and noting other relevant readings that supplement the readings in the section. The SESYNC workshop convened the editors and the distinguished scholars to review and discuss the section introductions and to provide broad context on the book as a whole.