Society Environment and the Social Roots of Ecological Crisis

Book Abstract

Although social structure might seem the mostimportant concept in sociology, and one of the major concepts in social science more generally, it is something ofan ?absent presence?with many theorists addressing the issue onlytangentially and with sustained attention to conceptual understanding of the nature of socialstructures attended to by only relatively few authors (Crothers, 1996). The history of the concept of social structure in sociology (and outside) is a topic addressed briefly here only to indicate the historical development of conceptual work on it.