ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY
Environmental sociology as an aspect of academic research has grown rapidly since 1998. This research is based on qualitative methodology, using interviews, participant observation, case studies, and biographical methods. Activist methods are also used, thus promoting the development of civil society. Within the framework of research projects, Western social theories have been adapted to the Russian historical and cultural context. A comparative analysis dealing with ecological problems in Russia, thešUS, Western-European countries, Brazil, the South-African Republic, and China was carried out.
CISR research in this sphere focuses on the role of the ecological movement in the development of civil society and in public participation; the establishment of networks for eco-policy and public ecological monitoring; sustainable management of renewable natural resources; thešinfluence of globalisation processes on the Russian locale; ecological modernisation in Russia and abroad; the construction of the concept of nature in discourses of different social environments. CISR always pays attention to the development of scientific communication and partnerships with sociologists in the US and Western Europe.
Environmental studies have contributed to both sociological theory and to the development of the ecological movement: CISR organises and holds ecological and practical-scientific conferences, workshops and focus groups, and initiates and carries out applied projects. Such activities promote the development of civil society and intersectoral cooperation in the sphere of environmental protection.
Over the ten years of CISR's research activity in the field of environmental sociology, 40 collective and individual projects havešbeen implemented; scores of conferences, seminars and round table discussions have been conducted; and 13 books and more than 80 articles have been published.