Max Weber's concept of social closure states that a dominant group safeguards its position and privileges by monopolizing resources and opportunities for its own group while denying access to outsiders. Using this idea, Murphy here examines the reasons for social inequality in contemporary society. Using Quebec as a case study, He shows how language controls social actions and material interests, and then compares the situation in Canada with those in Northern Ireland and South Africa, where religion and race respectively are used as criteria for exclusion.

Divergent beliefs about humanity's relationship to nature collide as the second millenium ends. One belief emphasizes that a distinctive characteristic of humansreasonenables them to reshape and master nature. Another insists that nature is not so plastic, hence humans must adapt to nature and render development sustainable, or even limit growth. Social ecology asserts that environmental problems result from institutional hierarchies and suggests decentralized institutions and egalitarian ethics. According to deep ecology such problems originate in cultures assuming only humans are...

Sociology as if nature did not matter has been the sociological expression of modern societies negligent of the processes of nature. In response to this ecological blindness, Raymond Murphy examines the limitations of sociology that have resulted from this neglect.Humanity's success in manipulating nature destabilizes the natural support system of society on a planetary scale and, in turn, destabilizes all of society's institutions. Because the manipulation of nature has become so central to modern society, society, Murphy argues, can now be understood only in terms of the interaction between...