Andrew Szasz wins highest honor in American environmental sociology

UC Santa Cruz sociology professor Andrew Szasz is the 2011 recipient of the Frederick Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award of the Environment, Technology, and Society section of the American Sociological Association.

The award is the highest honor bestowed in American environmental sociology.

In announcing the award this month, the ASA said Szasz "has enriched the lives of other environmental sociologists through imaginative analyses of environment and society in the United States" for two decades.

He is the author of  Ecopopulism: Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice (1994) and Shopping Our Way to Safety: How We Changed from Protecting the Environment to Protecting Ourselves (2007). Critics and peers lauded both books. Ecopopulism won the Association for Humanist Sociology book award in 1995. In 2000, it was named one of the 10 most influential books in environmental sociology.

The Buttel award is named for Frederick Buttel, a professor of rural sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It was established after his death at age 56 in 2005 to recognize individuals for outstanding service, innovation, or publication in environmental sociology or sociology of technology.

Szasz joined the UC Santa Cruz faculty in 1986.