The Social Construction of Nature

Klaus Eder has written extensively on class, social movements and social structure. He is author of the New Politics of Class (SAGE 1993).

`Klaus Eder affords us with a rare, genuinely social consructionist perspective on nature. He must be credited, and his book praised, on numerous grounds. First and foremost, he retrieves, develops and introduces to a German and Anglo-Saxon readership what is probably to this day the most comprehensive and thoroughly social constructionist framework to apprehend human/nature relationships. The author also provides a sound account of food taboos across different cultures, including our own, thereby acting as a precursor to what is known as `symmetrical anthropology′ This book is an important contribution to the social sciences in general′ - British Journal of Sociology `The Social Construction of Natureargues that modernity′s characteristic pride in dominating nature has caused us to forget that we live in a culture which forces us into a self-destructive relationship with nature. The author shows how this is reflected in our eating practices: carnivorous culture is seen as an extension of domination going back to Greek roots, while the emerging vegetarian culture is based on the idea of harmony with nature. In this context the opposite of the natural foods movements is the industrial exploitation of nature. The final part claims that contemporary environmentalism is a turning point in the cultural evolution of modernity′ - Scientific and Medical Network Journal

• IntroductionPART ONE: A SOCIAL THEORY OF NATUREThe Theoretical Construction of NatureA Critique of Naturalistic Theories of EvolutionThe Evolution of the Societal Relationship to Nature as a Learning Process?An Ecological Critique of Practical ReasonPART TWO: FROM NATURE TO CULTURECulinary MoralityA Comparative Analysis of Food TaboosCarnivorous and Vegetarian CultureTwo Models of the Symbolic Organization of SocietyThe Modern Discourse on What To EatA Sociology of the Natural Foods MovementPART THREE: THE MODERN POLITICS OF NATUREFraming and Communicating NatureThe Political Transformation of Modern EnvironmentalismThe Politics of NatureA New Politics?