Society, biology, and ecology: Bringing nature back into sociology's disciplinary narrative through critical realism

This article represents both a continuance and a reformulation of an ongoing project: a call to sociology proper to "bring nature back in." Moving beyond such earlier heuristics as Demeritt's "conjoined materiality," Freudenburg and colleagues' "conjoint constitution," Norgaard's "coevolution," and Bell's "ecological dialogue," this article uses Bhaskar's work and his writings on critical realism to develop a conceptual framework through which to view nature-society relations. Following a brief overview of Bhaskarian critical realism, a conceptual typology is forwarded whereby reality is collapsed into three fluid categories referred to as (in descending order of ontological depth) "nature," nature, and Nature. Through this, a sketch of reality is presented that allows for critical discussion and analysis concerning the growing interrelationship between the social and the natural realms, while opening the door for debate as to what this dynamic means for sociologys long-term viability.