The social construction of nature

the long version

The Social Construction of Nature is a critical examination of the relationship between nature and culture. Eder demonstrates that our ideas of nature are culturally determined and explains how the interaction between modern industrial societies and nature is increasingly violent and destructive. Through a careful analysis of symbolism, ritual and taboo, Eder questions the view of nature as an object. Showing how nature is socially constructed, the work presents a critique of Marx and Durkheim while offering a radical reinterpretation of the relation between society, culture and nature. The Social Construction of Nature concludes with an examination of the symbolic basis of the modern politics of nature. Using a culturalist interpretation, Eder explains how environmentalism, and the social construction of nature, is a key index of social order and structure. This is a unique and agenda-setting interpretation of nature and ecology that will become the essential reference in any debate on environmental politics and sociology.