Abstract:

In this study, the changing paradigms regarding the environment within the changing society are investigated by exploring the society-environment relations within a historical perspective. The classical sociologists such as Durkheim, Marx and Weber, who insisted on the separation of the “social” from the “nature”, were interested in natural and physical environment at a very low level. However, their theories and concepts have been a source of inspiration for their successors in the understanding of nature-environment relation. In the industrial societies, paradigms which are focused on individual and which do not pay attention to the nature have prevailed. Nevertheless, due to the rise in the problems related to the environment, alternative sociological conceptualizing with regards to the environment such as postmodernism, a reaction to the modernization theories focused on progress and development, new ecological paradigm and risk society have emerged. Therefore, societies have changed and the sociological approaches with regards to environment also have changed

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