Environmental sociology is the study of community in the largest sense. When there are problems in the environment, there are problems in society-it is people who create environmental problems and people who must resolve them. Author Michael Mayerfeld Bell uses a lively, personal writing style to take readers on a series of field trips through the vast landscape of environmental sociology. The Second Edition of An Invitation to Environmental Sociology analyzes the relevance of social theory with a social, community perspective for resolving the practical issues of our environmental problems. The author explores three elements of environmental sociology-the material, the ideal, and the practical. In order to unite these three topics, the book examines the interplay of material and ideal factors through the central concept of "ecological dialogue." The book also looks at the connection between the local and the global, the role of social inequality in environmental conflicts, and the power of the metaphor of community for understanding these social and ecological dynamics.