Inequality, economic growth and environmental degradation

This dissertation investigates the relationship between social inequality, economic growth and environmental degradation. It considers the role that the natural environment has played in sociology and how to investigate the relationship between social and natural systems. It examines the theoretical linkages between inequality, economy and the environment by examining the debates over the two way linkages found in the literature for each of the three elements (inequality-growth, growth-environment and inequality-environment). It also proposes that a three way trade off between these three elements constrains the developmental paths of nations. Therefore, it proposes that not only is this question of direct interest, but is also a strategically useful one for developing a sociology capable of addressing environmental questions.; It then conducts two different investigations into the three way relationship hypothesis. The first part uses case studies to examine the political and social factors in several countries which have affected the hypothesized three-way relationship and examines a variety of environmental questions in each country. This macro-level investigation is itself divided into two chapters. One case-study chapter investigates countries which have given economic growth the highest priority. The other case study chapter examines countries which have used more balanced approaches. Between these two chapters, it finds that countries have little room to maneuver among these three elements and that there are numerous ways to select non-optimal paths, but that finding a path which optimizes all three is very unusual.; The second part is a statistical examination of a single environmental issue—deforestation in a larger number of countries. Using time series of cross sections, it examines both the effect of human activities on deforestation and the effects of deforestation on economic well being. It affirms prior findings that converting forest lands to other uses is profitable, at least in the short term. It also considers the hypothesis that environmental quality can increase with increased wealth, but fails to Find support for it in developing nations with up to ten year time differentials between trends in economic growth and environmental outcomes.