10.1177/1086026605285643 ORGANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT / March 2006 Mol / U.S. & EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY FROM ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGIES TO ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY? A Comparison of U.S. and European Environmental Sociology ARTHUR P. J. MOL Wageningen University U.S. environmental sociology has gone through a very different development path compared with its European counterpart. U.S. environmental sociology was dominant in establishing the field and setting the terms for the development and identity of this subdiscipline. Whereas U.S. environmental sociology still sets the tone in terms of internal organization, structure, and interaction, arguably Northwest European environmental sociology has been more innovative in the last decade of the former millennium with respect to theoretical and conceptual contributions. Although we can still witness significant differences between the environmental sociologies of the two continents, these differences are diminishing. During the past decade, a remarkable degree of interaction, exchange, and social learning has taken place between the two academic communities, facilitated by various aspects of globaliza- tion. The question of whether we are moving to one environmental sociology should, how- ever,also take other—and especially the emerging Asian—environmental sociologies into account. Keywords: sociology; environment; globalization; social theory F or at least several decades, outsiders believed—and were made to believe—that academic disciplines contained universal approaches, theories, methodologies, and themes across different localities. The ideology of universal science contributed to that belief, and some schools-of-thought within distinct disciplines cherished, cultivated, and idealized this global universality. However, most academics working within the social sciences are all too familiar with the geographical particularities of academia. Even within the northern devel- oped hemisphere, considerable differences exist in preferential themes, theoretical and methodological approaches, and research styles in the social sciences. Many of these differences emerged along national-geographical lines, as disciplines were primarily organized in nation-states and followed national priorities, conventions, and routines. As globalization has strongly increased interaction, cooperation, and debate between social science scholars through the new media, global conferences and traveling, international networks, and conventional exchanges via journals and Author’s Note: In developing this article, the author owes special thanks to a number of colleagues: Gert Spaargaren, David Sonnenfeld, Riley Dunlap, Hans Bruyninckx, Matthias Groß, Mikael Klintman, Hellmuth Lange, Steven Yearley, and the anonymous referees. Organization & Environment, Vol. 19 No. 1, March 2006 5-27 DOI: 10.1177/1086026605285643 © 2006 Sage Publications 5