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Epistemology word roots

Episteme = greek word for knowledge or understanding + ology = study of

Epistemology

theory of knowledge

Positivism and Interpretivism are types of

Epistemologys

what is Positivism?

An epistemological approach
that advocates for human
behavior and society to be
studied using the scientific
method

what is the main objective of positivism

To discover laws (similar to
natural laws) that govern
human behavior

what research methods are used in positivism

quantitative methods

what are the sources of knowledge in positivism?

numerical, “objective” facts

what is Interpretivism

An epistemological approach

that advocates for interpreting

human beliefs or motivations

in order to understand social

reality

what is the main objective of Interpretivism

To gain insight into individuals

motivations and understand

why they behave in certain

ways

what are the research methods for Interpretivism

qualitative methods

what are the sources of knowledge for Interpretivism

Subjective meanings and
interpretations

Empirical statements

and questions describe or ask
what is in the social world, without explicitly evaluating
it. They are statements that can be measured
empirically (i.e. observed, detected, sometimes
measured and/or quantified in some way)

Normative statements and questions:

contain or invite
subjective claims that express value judgments about
what should be done (e.g. should, should not, ought to,
belief in)

social constructionism

the school of thought that emphasizes how perceptions of reality are created in the social realm through discourse

social construction of nature

how perceptions of nature and the environmental are created in the social realm through discourse

whats nature work?

A term coined by Gary Alan Fine that refers to how human beings construct ideas about “nature” and our relationship to it

examples of nature work words

• “mother nature” • “wilderness” • “wasteland”

Human Exemptionalist Paradigm (HEP):

A view of human society at the center of the natural world, with humans controlling and using the environment without regard for natural resource-based limits to social growth.

New Ecological Paradigm (NEP)

A view that starts from the assumption that humans are one of many interdependent species in a global ecosystem and part of a large web of nature, that humans depend on a finite biophysical environment, and that humans cannot stand above ecological laws.

Disembedding

When social relations are lifted out of their local contexts and restructured across time and space. (e.g. televised soccer match)

Distanciation

describes a way of relating to people at a distance.

time space compression

a set of processes that cause the relative distances between places (i.e., as measured in terms of travel time or cost) to contract, effectively making such places grow “closer.”

Anthropocene

a term applied to our current era, when humankind exerts enormous influence on environments all around the Earth, but where control of these environments and their enormously complex ecologies is highly elusive.

CAPITOLOCENE

a term proposed by some scholars that centers the role of capitalism in producing the contemporary epoch marked by climate change and disruption of the earth’s ecological systems.

wilderness

discuss ur opinions on the wilderness

What is a wicked problem

so complex and intertwined with
various factors that you cannot fully understand or define
them in a fixed, complete manner (review the other ideas)

Ecomodernism (EMT)

-Suggests that the process of national
“development” has the potential to
improve environmental outcomes over
time.
• Posits that modernization => individuals
and citizens become more “green” in their
orientation to the environment.
• Focuses on state and technological
interventions.
• Criticisms of EMT: does not take into
account global impacts.
• Jevon’s Paradox - increases in the
efficiency of resource use can lead to
higher overall consumption of that
resource, rather than reducing it. This is
due to lower costs which leads to
increasing demand.

Metabolic Rift Theory
(also called Ecological Marxism)

• Builds on the work of Karl Marx
who theorized that capitalism
produces a rift in the metabolic
relations between human and
nonhuman nature.
• Asserts that capitalism's
inherent need to expand and
increase its rate of profit means
that capitalism will expand and
intensify its ecological
degradation.

intersectionality

Disparities between nations and also within nations. Race Gender Class Sexuality Ethnicity Nationality Indigeneity (Dis)ability Religion Rural vs. Urban

climate justice

“Climate justice insists on a shift from a discourse on greenhouse gases and melting ice caps into a civil rights movement with the people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts at its heart.” - Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Collective action

cooperation and coordination between individuals to achieve common goals and outcomes. Risks: Free-riding Prisoner’s Dilemma What’s “good” for individuals and individual entities (e.g., nations) may not be good for the broader collective,

Treadmill of production

how the constant search for economic growth leads to advanced economies being stuck on a “treadmill,” where their well-being is not improved by economic growth, yet the impacts of this pursuit of growth causes massive, unsustainable environmental damages.

indigenous / native science

“Much of the essence of Native
Science is beyond words and literal
description. It is the authentic and
holistic experience of nature as a
direct participatory act around which
Native Science has evolved.”
Dan Schilling (2018)

Two-eyed seeing

Stresses the
importance of viewing the world through
one eye using the strengths of Indigenous
worldviews and with the other eye using
the strengths of Western worldviews, to
see together with both eyes to benefit all
(Bartlett et al., 2012

“Knowledge Sovereignty”

Ensuring the capacity to cultivate, transmit,
remember, and exercise Indigenous
knowledges, while also determining how they
are defined and if/how they should be shared.

colonialism

First proposed by historian Patrick
Wolfe
• European settlers operated as if the
country were “empty” despite it being
occupied by an Indigenous population.
• “Invasion is a structure, not an event.”
• “logic of elimination,” i.e., the
systematic erasure of Indigenous
peoples from the land (through
genocide, assimilation, and other
means) and replacement with settlers
from around the world (Wolfe 2006)

settler colonialism

An ongoing system of power that
perpetuates the genocide and repression
of indigenous peoples and cultures.
• Normalizes continuous settler
occupation.
• Exploits lands and resources.
• Includes interlocking forms of oppression
including racism, white supremacy,
heteropatriarchy, and capitalism.
• Centers colonizers’ cultural values and
knowledge systems – moral, superior,
inevitable, and natural.

Traditional ecological knowledge

a body of knowledge, practices, and beliefs about the relationships between living beings and the environment.

Environmental Inequality

The disproportionate exposure of
communities of color and
socioeconomically disadvantaged
people to environmental hazards,
and the disproportionate access of
white and wealthy communities to
desirable environmental amenities.
It is also about unequal application of
environmental protection provided
through laws, regulations, and
governmental programs.

Environmental Justice (bullard)

The notion that
everyone, regardless of race, color,
national origin, or income—has the right to
the same environmental protections and
benefits, as well as meaningful
involvement in the policies that shape
their communities.

Environmental Justice (EJ) (fraser)

justice as representation, recognition, and redistribution.

An umbrella term that can refer to:
• Goal, or ideal, a human right
• Academic field
• Social movements “the environmental justice movement(s)”
• Public policies
Focuses on power (interlocking systems of oppression)
Just processes and outcomes in relation to environmental conditions

Environmental Justice (EJ) (sze pg 9)

“Environmental justice is more than resistance to
environmental racism and colonialism. It is a set of
concepts and living practices that cross time,
generations, and space” (Sze pg. 9)

Critical Environmental Justice (Pellow 2017)

4 Pillars of Critical EJ Scholarship
i. Intersectionality
ii. Spatial and Temporal Scales
iii. State Power
iv. Indispensability

interdisciplinarity

refers to the integration of knowledge, methods, and perspectives from multiple academic disciplines to better understand and solve complex environmental challenges. Since environmental issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and sustainable development span across scientific, social, economic, and political realms, no single discipline can address them fully.

World-Systems Theory

is a framework that helps us understand how global economic and political systems are interconnected, and how these relationships impact the environment. Developed by sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, the theory divides the world into three major categories: core, periphery, and semi-periphery nations.

Unequal ecological exchange

refers to the unfair trade relationships between countries, where wealthier nations (often core or developed countries) extract more natural resources from poorer nations (typically periphery or developing countries) than they give back in economic value. This results in an imbalance where the environmental and ecological costs—such as deforestation, pollution, or resource depletion—are borne primarily by the less developed countries, while the benefits, like finished goods and economic profit, are concentrated in the more developed countries.

Indigeneity

refers to the identity, knowledge systems, and cultural practices of Indigenous peoples—those who are the original inhabitants of a region, often predating colonial or modern state boundaries. Indigenous peoples maintain distinct languages, traditions, and deep-rooted connections to their ancestral lands and ecosystems.

Ecofeminism

is a framework that explores the interconnectedness between the oppression of women and the exploitation of the environment. It highlights how both patriarchy and environmental degradation are rooted in similar systems of power and domination. Ecofeminism argues that just as women have been historically marginalized, so too has nature been treated as something to be controlled, exploited, and commodified.