The Environment and Society Research Committee (Research Committee 24) was initiated as a "Working Group" within the International Sociological Association. The Environment and Society Working Group held its first session at the 1990 ISA World Congress at Madrid. Just prior to the 1994 ISA Congress at Bielefeld, the Environment and Society Working Group became a full-fledged ISA Research Committee. The RC 24 program at the 1998 Montreal ISA World Congress consisted of 16 RC-organized sessions and two additional sessions co-sponsored with other Research Committees. Regional conferences have been recently held in Niteroi, Brazil in 1996; Chicago, USA in 1999; and Vienna, Austria in 1999. Another regional conference is scheduled for 2-5 August 2000 in conjunction with the World Congress for Rural Sociology in Rio de Janeiro. The site for the 2002 ISA World Congress will be Brisbane, Australia. Two RC 24 conferences held at the Woudschoten Conference Center, Ziest, Netherlands, the first in 1992 and the second in 1997, played a major role in building RC 24. August Gijswijt (SISWO, University of Amsterdam, and the RC 24 Secretary from 1994-1998) played the lead role in organizing these two Woudschoten conferences. The second Woudschoten conference, on "Sociological Theory and the Environment," has resulted in two forthcoming anthologies (Environmental Sociology and Global Modernity, forthcoming from Sage; and Sociological Theory and the Environment, forthcoming from Rowman and Littlefield).