I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology and Affiliate of the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability at Miami
University. My research interests include environmental sociology, the sociology of technology, social theory, political economy, and animal studies. Current research projects concern the potential effectiveness and political-economic dimensions of proposed solutions to environmental problems; climate change inaction; the social and environmental impacts of technology; and the renewal of classical and mid-twentieth century sociological theory. I am increasingly interested in the following two overlapping questions:
1. "Why is there no storming of the Bastille because of the environmental destruction facing mankind?", as the late Ulrich Beck put it. A society that knowingly degrades the natural conditions required for long-term survival calls for a multilayered theory of social reproduction. I think helplessness and ideology are primary lubricants of climate inaction.
2. An old sociological conundrum: Why and how, exactly, do social structures become "obscured" in consciousness despite constantly and necessarily conditioning experience, knowledge, and cognition? Bringing together classical sociology, critical theory, and phenomenology sheds light on this issue and related considerations (e.g., 1, 2, 3).
Receiving
the 2019 Early Career Award from the Association for Environmental
Studies and Sciences and the 2020 Miami University Junior Faculty
Scholar Award, I have published around 60 articles featured in Agriculture and Human Values, Environmental Politics, Journal of Cleaner Production, Organization & Environment, and other journals, and the following books:
Introduction (pdf)
(Zero Books, 2021)
Sample chapter (pdf)
(Routledge, 2020)
(Routledge, 2020)
Introduction (pdf)
(University of Michigan Press, 2020)
Contact: Department of Sociology & Gerontology, Miami University, 375 Upham Hall, Oxford, OH 45056. gunderrm@miamioh.edu.
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"The great problem remains how to bring society to consciousness." - L. F. Ward
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"The great problem remains how to bring society to consciousness." - L. F. Ward