Although I have focused this summary on the ways that my research has applied sociology to our
understanding of global climate change, in terms of how sociology as a field can provide a more rigorous
understanding of the interactions among scales of policy making, as well as provide a broader methodological
toolbox than other disciplines, I would like to stress the importance of the converse as well. In other words, the
extremely complicated issue of climate change and the complex policy domain that is emerging around this
contentious issue presents a particularly interesting case for sociological study that has the potential to provide
insights to sociology itself.
References
Dietz, Thomas and Eugene A. Rosa. 1997. “Effects of Population and Affluence on CO 2 Emissions.” Proceedings
of the National Academy of Science 94:175-9.
Fisher, Dana. 2004. National governance and the global climate change regime. Lanham, Md.: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers.
—. 2006a. “Bringing the Material Back In: Understanding the United States Position on Climate Change.”
Sociological Forum, Volume 21, Number 3: 467-494.
—. 2006b. “Taking Cover Beneath the Anti-Bush Umbrella: Cycles of Protest and Movement-to-Movement
Transmission in an Era of Repressive Politics.” Research in Political Sociology, Volume 15: 27-56.
Fisher, Dana R. and William R. Freudenburg. 2004. “Postindustrialization and environmental quality: An
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Fisher, Dana R., Kevin Stanley, David Berman, and Gina Neff. 2005. “How Do Organizations Matter?
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_____. 2003b. “A Rift in Modernity? Assessing the Anthropogenic Sources of Global Climate Change with the
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