Weak Ties , Labor Migration , and Environmental Impacts : Towards a Sociology of Sustainability

Debate about the substitutability of manufactured, natural, human and social capital is at the heart of sustainability theory. Sociology can contribute to this debate by examining the processes and mechanisms by which one form of capital is substituted for another. We examine the substitution among different forms of capitals at China’s Wolong Nature Reserve where the consumption of an important aspect of natural capital, fuelwood, has serious consequences for the local environment. We found that social capital in the form of weak social ties to people in urban settings had significant impacts on rural-urban labor migration. Following the chain of capital substitutions, labor migration then significantly affected income, which in turn affected fuelwood consumption.