UGC NET Sociology Environment and Society Syllabus

What does 'sustainable development' mean per the Brundtland Report (1987)?

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

What was the Brundtland Commission and its key report?

The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), which produced 'Our Common Future', popularizing sustainable development.

What is the 'tragedy of the commons' and who described it?

Garrett Hardin's (1968) idea that individuals acting in self-interest overexploit shared resources, leading to their collective ruin.

What is the 'treadmill of production' theory and who proposed it?

Allan Schnaiberg's theory that capitalism's inherent drive for expansion and profit causes ever-increasing resource extraction and environmental degradation.

What is the 'risk society' and who theorized it?

Ulrich Beck's concept that modern industrial societies generate manufactured, often invisible, global risks (pollution, nuclear, climate) that transcend class and borders.

What is 'ecological modernization' theory?

The view that modern institutions, technology and markets can be restructured to be environmentally sustainable, treating economic growth and ecology as compatible.

What is the 'metabolic rift' and who developed it?

A concept from Marx, elaborated by John Bellamy Foster, describing the rupture in nutrient cycles between nature and society caused by capitalist agriculture and urbanization.

What is 'environmental justice'?

The fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, and the principle that no group should bear disproportionate environmental harm or be excluded from decision-making.

What is 'environmental racism'?

The disproportionate exposure of racial/ethnic minorities and marginalized groups to environmental hazards and pollution.

What is anthropocentrism?

A worldview that places human beings at the center of moral concern, valuing nature instrumentally for human use.

What is ecocentrism (biocentrism)?

A worldview that grants intrinsic value to nature and all living beings, not just instrumental value for humans.

What is the 'environmentalism of the rich' (Peter Dauvergne)?

A consumer- and market-oriented environmentalism of the affluent that promotes green products and eco-efficiency while leaving overconsumption and inequality unchallenged.

What is the difference between conservation and preservation?

Conservation favors sustainable, regulated use of natural resources; preservation favors protecting nature untouched from human exploitation.

What was the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (1972)?

The Stockholm Conference, the first major UN meeting on the environment, which led to the creation of UNEP.

What was the 1992 Rio Earth Summit (UNCED)?

The UN Conference on Environment and Development that produced Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration, the UNFCCC and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

What is the Anthropocene?

A proposed geological epoch in which human activity is the dominant force shaping Earth's geology, climate and ecosystems.

What is 'sacred ecology' / sacred groves in the Indian context?

Patches of forest protected through religious belief and customary taboos by local communities, conserving biodiversity through cultural/spiritual values.

What is the Bishnoi community known for in environmental history?

A Rajasthan community whose members (led by Amrita Devi in 1730 at Khejarli) sacrificed their lives to protect khejri trees, an early conservation tradition.

What is the Jungle Bachao Andolan?

A 1980s tribal movement in Bihar (Singhbhum) opposing government replacement of natural sal forests with commercial teak plantations.

Who were Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, and what did they argue about Indian ecology?

Ecologist Gadgil and historian Guha; in 'This Fissured Land' they analyzed India's ecological history and distinguished 'ecosystem people', 'omnivores' and 'ecological refugees'.

Define 'ecosystem people' (Gadgil and Guha).

Communities that depend directly on local natural resources within their immediate environment for subsistence, such as tribals and small peasants.

Define 'omnivores' (Gadgil and Guha).

Groups (urban, industrial elites) who draw resources from across the country and beyond, consuming far more than ecosystem people.

Define 'ecological refugees' (Gadgil and Guha).

People displaced from their resource base by development projects or degradation, often migrating to urban slums.

What is 'green criminology'?

A field studying environmental harms, crimes against nature, and the social and legal responses to ecological damage.

What is the 'environmental Kuznets curve'?

A hypothesis that environmental degradation first rises then falls as a country's per-capita income increases, forming an inverted-U relationship.

What is the Gaia hypothesis and who proposed it?

James Lovelock's idea that the Earth functions as a single self-regulating, living system maintaining conditions suitable for life.

What is 'political ecology'?

An interdisciplinary approach analyzing how political and economic power relations shape environmental access, degradation and conflict.

What is the difference between 'environmentalism of the poor' and Northern wilderness environmentalism in motivation?

The former is driven by survival/livelihood needs of the marginalized; the latter is driven by post-material aesthetic/recreational concern of the affluent for pristine nature.

What was the Bhopal Gas Tragedy (1984) and its significance for environment-society studies?

A lethal methyl isocyanate leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal; it exemplifies industrial risk, corporate negligence and environmental injustice toward the poor.

What is 'commodification of nature'?

The process by which natural resources and ecological functions are turned into marketable commodities (e.g., carbon credits, bottled water, biodiversity).