Bachelor of Society and Environment at University of California, Berkeley

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Social and environmental problems are deeply intertwined. This major introduces students to the main approaches and theory for environmental social sciences including how social science tools can be applied to environmental problems and how social science theories contribute to understanding environmental problems. At the upper-division level, there are three major areas of concentration. Students are exposed to all three areas and choose to focus on one: US Environmental Policy and Management, Global Environmental Politics, or Justice and Sustainability.

Society and Environment graduates are well-prepared for careers in fields such as environmental consulting, education, health, or law; community, urban, or regional planning; and other related areas of environmentalism in public agencies, nonprofit conservation organizations, and private companies. Graduates are well-qualified for a variety of graduate programs, including law school.

Admission to the Major

Advice on admission for freshmen and transfer students can be found on the Rausser College of Natural Resources Admissions Guide page or the Prospective Student website. Freshman students may apply directly to the major, or they may select the Rausser College undeclared option and declare the major by the end of their fourth semester. Transfer students may apply directly to the major through the UC application.

Information for current Berkeley students who would like to declare the major after admission, including information on a change of major or change of college, please see chapter 6 of the Rausser College Undergraduate Student Handbook.

Honors Program

Students with a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.6 or higher may enroll in the Rausser College of Natural Resources honors program (H196) once they have reached upper-division standing. To fulfill the program requirements, students design, conduct, and report on an individual research project working with a faculty sponsor. For further information on the honors program, please see the Rausser website, https://nature.berkeley.edu/honors.

Minor Program

There is no minor program in Society and Environment.

Other Majors and Minors Offered by the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

Conservation and Resource Studies (Major and Minor)
Environmental Sciences (Major only)
Ecosystem Management & Forestry (Major and Minor)
Molecular Environmental Biology (Major only)
Food Systems (Minor only)

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The Society and Environment major develops students' capacities to theorize, analyze, interpret and influence social causes and consequences of environmental problems.

Society and Environment graduates gain an understanding of the complex interactions between social, technological, and natural systems"conceptually, analytically, operationally, and articulately"for their individually chosen environmental problems and solutions. Graduates do the following:

• Learn about social processes that affect environmental equity, productivity, and stability for diverse peoples and generations
• Form and link institutions of science, industry, technology, resource use, and societal governance
• Work across the operational scales of environmental management and policy from the local to global
• Shape operational responses, in policy and practice, to problems of environmental injustice, sustainability, and productivity

Graduates are expected to play effective and credible roles in the public, professional, and scientific arenas in which they choose to work. These arenas include, for example, the politics, policy, and management of urban, agricultural, forest, land, and water systems and the particular sets of socioeconomic, scientific, industrial, and governmental institutions these engage.