Building Something Better: Environmental Crises and the Promise of Community Change(Nature, Society, and Culture)

As the turmoil of interlinked crises unfolds across the world-from climate change to growing inequality to the rise of authoritarian governments-social scientists examine what is happening and why. Can communities devise alternatives to the systems that are doing so much harm to the planet and people?   Sociologists Stephanie A. Malin and Meghan Elizbeth Kallman offer a clear, accessible volume that demonstrates the ways that communities adapt in the face of crises and explains that sociology can help us understand how and why they do this challenging work. Tackling neoliberalism head-on, these communities are making big changes by crafting distributive and regenerative systems that depart from capitalist approaches. The vivid case studies presented range from activist water protectors to hemp farmers to renewable energy cooperatives led by Indigenous peoples and nations. Alongside these studies, Malin and Kallman present incisive critiques of colonialism, extractive capitalism, and neoliberalism, while demonstrating how sociology’s own disciplinary traditions have been complicit with those ideologies-and must expand beyond them.   Showing that it is possible to challenge social inequality and environmental degradation by refusing to continue business-as-usual, Building Something Better offers both a call to action and a dose of hope in a time of crises.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Where We’re At And Why 1 Introduction 2 A People’s Sociology 3 Failing People and the Planet: Neoliberal Economics and the Erasure of Difference Part II: Building Better Worlds 4 Human Beings, Not Humans Buying: Trends in Modern Environmentalism, and How Communities Are Reimagining Collectives 5 Democratizing the Commons by Building Communities 6 More than the Market: Practicing Social and Ecological Regeneration 7 Conclusion: Building Something Better Acknowledgments Notes Index

About the Author :
STEPHANIE A. MALIN is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. She is the author of The Price of Nuclear Power: Uranium Communities and Environmental Justice (Rutgers University Press) and a co-founder and co-director of the Center for Environmental Justice at CSU.   MEGHAN ELIZABETH KALLMAN is an assistant professor at the School for Global Inclusion and Social Development and is affiliated faculty in the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She is the author of The Death of Idealism: Development and Anti-Politics in the Peace Corps and is a State Senator in Rhode Island.

Review :
"In Building Something Better, Malin and Kallman provide a sophisticated and nuanced explanation of the persistent and inequitable nature of environmental crises, and they introduce us to a compelling array of social movements working to create more just, sustainable communities." - Jill Harrison (author of From the Inside Out: The Fight for Environmental Justice within Government Agencies) "This brave volume posits an environmental sociology that stands in for all of sociology to press for collective well-being. The authors support those who bridge the gap between scholarship and activism, and their wonderful case studies of community activism, many involving Indigenous people, merge the gritty world of organizing and with the thoughtful ideas of social science. It’s a delight to read and an important vehicle for change."   - Phil Brown (Northeastern University) "Especially timely and germane in light of today's political, cultural, and environmental driven instabilities, Building Something Better: Environmental Crises and the Promise of Community Change is a seminal, informative, and accessibly organized and presented study that is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library environmental economic policy collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists." - John Taylor (Midwest Book Review)