Environmental Sociology and the Asian Condition: Toxic Airscapes, Climate Governance and the Uneven Life of the Anthropocene in Asia

From toxic airscapes of megacities to the escalating climate disasters, Asian environmental issues in contemporary times are a strong call for the imperative need for sociological research on society–environment interrelations. At the heart of these issues are people, social structures and their relationship with the larger environment. Rearticulating this debate while foregrounding it in the Asian context, this article investigates the significance of environmental sociology and thereby opens up the black box of social, political and economic characters of environmental issues. Based on the recent discourses of the Anthropocene, climate justice, socio-ecological resilience and degrowth, the study uncovers how political, cultural and economic processes influence environmental outcomes. In this article, special focus is directed to South and Southeast Asia, for the disproportionate impact of environmental issues on these regions. By a dynamic fusing of the sociological theory with emergent empirical evidence, this study demonstrates how the academic discipline of sociology is particularly positioned to crafting alternative pathways that are sustainable, just and inclusive. While doing so, it offers a renewed intellectual agenda in explaining and responding to the current environmental crises, while insisting that Asia’s environmental questions are fundamentally core questions about society, power and possibilities.