Books by Jessica M Smith (Rolston)
MIT Press, 2021
The growing movement toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) urges corporations to promote t... more The growing movement toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) urges corporations to promote the well-being of people and the planet rather than the sole pursuit of profit. In Extracting Accountability, Jessica Smith investigates how the public accountability of corporations emerges from the everyday practices of the engineers who work for them. Focusing on engineers who view social responsibility as central to their profession, she finds the corporate context of their work prompts them to attempt to reconcile competing domains of accountability—to formal guidelines, standards, and policies; to professional ideals; to the public; and to themselves. Their efforts are complicated by the distributed agency they experience as corporate actors: they are not always authors of their actions and frequently act through others.
Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research, and fieldwork, Smith traces the ways that engineers in the mining and oil and gas industries accounted for their actions to multiple publics—from critics of their industry to their own friends and families. She shows how the social license to operate and an underlying pragmatism lead engineers to ask how resource production can be done responsibly rather than whether it should be done at all. She analyzes the liminality of engineering consultants, who experienced greater professional autonomy but often felt hamstrung when positioned as outsiders. Finally, she explores how critical participation in engineering education can nurture new accountabilities and chart more sustainable resource futures.
Though mining is an infamously masculine industry, women make up 20 percent of all production cre... more Though mining is an infamously masculine industry, women make up 20 percent of all production crews in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin—the largest coal-producing region in the United States. How do these women fit into a working culture supposedly hostile to females? This is what anthropologist Jessica Smith Rolston, herself a onetime mine worker and the daughter of a miner, set out to discover. Her answers, based on years of participant-observation in four mines and extensive interviews with miners, managers, engineers, and the families of mine employees, offer a rich and surprising view of the working “families” that miners construct. In this picture, gender roles are not nearly as straightforward—or as straitened—as stereotypes suggest.
Gender is far from the primary concern of coworkers in crews. Far more important, Rolston finds, is protecting the safety of the entire crew and finding a way to treat each other well despite the stresses of their jobs. These miners share the burden of rotating shift work—continually switching between twelve-hour day and night shifts—which deprives them of the daily rhythms of a typical home, from morning breakfasts to bedtime stories. Rolston identifies the mine workers’ response to these shared challenges as a new sort of constructed kinship that both challenges and reproduces gender roles in their everyday working and family lives.
Crews’ expectations for coworkers to treat one another like family and to adopt an “agricultural” work ethic tend to minimize gender differences. And yet, these differences remain tenacious in the equation of masculinity with technical expertise, and of femininity with household responsibilities. For Rolston, such lingering areas of inequality highlight the importance of structural constraints that flout a common impulse among men and women to neutralize the significance of gender, at home and in the workplace.
At a time when the Appalachian region continues to dominate discussion of mining culture, this book provides a very different and unexpected view—of how miners live and work together, and of how their lives and work reconfigure ideas of gender and kinship.
Papers by Jessica M Smith (Rolston)
Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, 2023
People making a living in rural Antioquia, Colombia, find themselves in a double bind: they requi... more People making a living in rural Antioquia, Colombia, find themselves in a double bind: they require a healthy environment to farm and grow food, but many turn to artisanal and smallscale gold mining (ASGM) to supplement their incomes. The significant environmental harms associated with ASGMfrom mercury and other heavy-metal contamination to deforestation and habitat losshave led to both academic and popular discourse treating ASGM as an environmental problem to be understood and remedied scientifically. Our research in the small town of Andes (Antioquia region in Colombia) investigated how local residents themselves understood "pollution." Drawing on a literature review, archival research, site visits, and interviews with experts and local residents, we show that rural people understood pollution as emergent from complex webs of relationships and longer histories of government neglect. Exploring how people made sense of harm and expressed care builds on research in STS that demonstrates both the potentials and pitfalls for scientific concepts and tools to understand and intervene in compromised environments.
Journal of Rural Studies, 2024
Agricultural extension in the United States is a massive, federally-sponsored apparatus that shap... more Agricultural extension in the United States is a massive, federally-sponsored apparatus that shapes rural life as it aims to improve both farming practices and rural people. While the majority of existing research focuses on programs aimed at farm production, extension also includes home economics programs specifically designed for rural women. Drawing on archival research on home extension in Minnesota during the aftermath of landmark Civil Rights legislation, this article traces how state and county agents racialized rural places via the construction of the ideal white, heterosexual, middle-class feminine subject. Analyzing reports, program notes, and program material shows that these practices were grounded in overt segregation as well as more banal but pernicious white benevolence that equated whiteness with education, industriousness, and curiosity.
Purdue University Press eBooks, May 15, 2022
Journal of Anthropological Research, Dec 1, 2016
Duke University Press eBooks, Mar 23, 2017
IEEE Open Journal of Systems Engineering
This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant 1743749 through th... more This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant 1743749 through the "Responsible Mining, Resilient Communities" project. This work involved human subjects or animals in its research. Approval of all ethical and experimental procedures and protocols was granted by IRB Board at the University of Texas at Arlington.
The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology
Greg is currently a AAAS Fellow at USAID working to improve the environmental performance of huma... more Greg is currently a AAAS Fellow at USAID working to improve the environmental performance of humanitarian assistance. Greg earned his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering with a minor in Global Poverty and Practice from UC Berkeley where he acquired a passion for using engineering to facilitate developing communities' capacity for success. He earned his master's degree in Structural Engineering and Risk Analysis from Stanford University. His PhD work at CU Boulder focused on how student's connections of social responsibility and engineering change throughout college as well as how engineering service is valued in employment and supported in the workplace.
2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings
graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in May 2020 with a Bachelor's in Environmental Engine... more graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in May 2020 with a Bachelor's in Environmental Engineering and is currently pursuing a Master's in Humanitarian Engineering at the same university. Her research focuses on belongingness, funds of knowledge, and engineering identity and how these factors vary among different demographics of first-generation college students.
2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
She is an anthropologist with two major research areas: 1) the sociocultural dynamics of extracti... more She is an anthropologist with two major research areas: 1) the sociocultural dynamics of extractive and energy industries, with a focus on corporate social responsibility, social justice, labor, and gender and 2) engineering education, with a focus on socioeconomic class and social responsibility.
2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings
and Research. She is an anthropologist with two major research areas: 1) the sociocultural dynami... more and Research. She is an anthropologist with two major research areas: 1) the sociocultural dynamics of extractive and energy industries, with a focus on corporate social responsibility, social justice, labor, and gender and 2) engineering education, with a focus on socioeconomic class and social responsibility. She is currently completing a book manuscript on the intersection of engineering and corporate social responsibility.
Energy Research & Social Science, 2020
Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) are a policy tool for local governments to gain more control ... more Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) are a policy tool for local governments to gain more control over unconventional oil and gas development. MOUs ideally empower local governments to minimize potential risks by negotiating more stringent best management practices directly with the operators, who benefit from a more stable regulatory landscape. This study investigates the energy justice dimensions of these MOUs as they were negotiated in the midst of community conflicts in Colorado. By comparing two communities whose local governments differently managed the public meetings, our analysis points to the significance of the everyday practices of government representatives for promoting recognition and procedural justice. We track the expressions of trust and mistrust expressed by the "interested public" who actively participated in the meetings to better understand the shifting relationships among those citizens, state and local government, and industry. In the community where local government representatives facilitated recognition and procedural justice, the conflict ended with stronger expressions of trust in that government than in the other community. Expressions of trust in industry and state government remained negative or worsened in both communities.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2020
Abstract Assessing the sustainability of energy systems must include attention to the local socia... more Abstract Assessing the sustainability of energy systems must include attention to the local social and environmental impacts of such energy production, though these do not always easily align with more regional and global concerns. Social science research demonstrates that public perceptions of the social and environmental risks associated with unconventional oil and gas development (glossed by critics as “fracking”) vary both at an individual and community level. This article provides a comparative analysis of three proposed factors that influence risk perceptions: trust in government institutions, socioeconomic profile, and historical experiences with industry. We compare two Colorado communities that each had established a participatory local governance framework to minimize negative environmental impacts from oil and gas developments, but that were characterized by distinct socioeconomic profiles and industrial histories. Our quantitative analysis of citizen comments during public hearings suggests two key findings that were not predicted by the existing literature: neither trust in local government nor historical ties to heavy industry were associated with diminished risk perceptions. These findings suggest new pathways for more constructive engagement among industry, state and local government, and citizens.
The Extractive Industries and Society, 2019
1 The other major annual mining conference is held by the Prospectors and Developers Association ... more 1 The other major annual mining conference is held by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada in Toronto and focuses more on finance. In contrast with the SME-where attendees mill around in business casual clothing or even jeans and flannel shirts, looking as if they were reporting to work at an actual minesite-PDAC attracts a lot of people in suits, such as mining investors, executives, and national government officials.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2019
This essay explores how rank‐and‐file producers of energy evaluate the ethics of energy exchanges... more This essay explores how rank‐and‐file producers of energy evaluate the ethics of energy exchanges, which sheds light on some of the unexamined assumptions animating anthropological studies of energy and ethics. Exploring how coal miners experience a massive downturn in Wyoming, the centre of US coal production, reveals differing logics of exchange between the producers and consumers of electricity. Most Americans engage with electricity as consumers through a commodity framework, paying utility companies a fee to purchase kilowatt hours that are abstracted from their productive origins. In contrast, the miners experience energy as more of a gift exchange, keeping in view the network of the ultimate consumers of the coal they produce. These differing logics of exchange entail different ethical obligations in the face of the termination of those relationships as the country moves away from coal‐fired electricity, helping to explain the outrage that was felt in ‘coal country’ – an outr...
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 2018
Background: This research explores how controversial engineering decisions become the subject of ... more Background: This research explores how controversial engineering decisions become the subject of widespread social media debates, using the prominent case of activism opposed to the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). The #NoDAPL Twitter hashtag became the primary vehicle for activism, with Twitter users shaping the debate through how they framed the controversy. Literature review: Framing refers to how information is packaged and presented. Because framing shapes the interpretation of information, it plays a crucial role in scientific controversies. Research questions: 1. Which framing strategies are present in the most influential (determined by the number of retweets and "likes") posts using #NoDAPL on Twitter? 2. How do the framing strategies used in the most influential #NoDAPL tweets change in relation to major political events? 3. Do the framing strategies used in the most influential #NoDAPL tweets amplify the echo-chamber effect and polarization on Twitter? Methodology: The team collected daily data on the #NoDAPL hashtag and selected tweets with #NoDAPL that had more than 1500 likes or retweets, and categorized them by the frames that they exhibited. Results and discussion: The most-used frames were conflict/strategy and morality/ethics, with no noticeable middle path frame, leading to the echo-chamber effect and online polarization. The scientific/technical uncertainty frame was used only sporadically, in contrast with project proponents who tried to emphasize the pipeline's safety. Implications: Engineers seeking to understand and participate in public debates about issues central to their profession should recognize and engage the frames being used by the public to understand information. The project proponents' defense of the pipeline fell on deaf ears, likely because they focused on safety rather than broader questions of morality. While engineers should share technical information related to a project under fire, they cannot ignore the concerns expressed by their critics.
Energy Research & Social Science, 2017
The remarkable growth in global energy consumption has been accompanied by increasingly urgent qu... more The remarkable growth in global energy consumption has been accompanied by increasingly urgent questions about which energy sources ought to fuel the spiraling demand. Witness the recent controversy surrounding the North Dakota Access Pipeline, for example, in which activists joined forces with Native American groups in an attempt to halt the final phase of construction. News of the protests reached around the world, raising concern not just about Native American sovereignty and potential water and ground pollution of the transported oil, but also about the pipeline's facilitation of our more general continued reliance on fossil fuels that hasten climate change. Supporters of the pipeline pointed out that pipelines are safer than railroads for transporting the oil on which the US currently depends, and argued that the pipeline would bring economic benefits in the form of jobs and increased energy availability. The pipeline project thus became a flashpoint for much larger debates about the kinds of energy futures that people desire and how these impact the everyday lives of people along the paths of production, distribution, consumption, and waste.
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Books by Jessica M Smith (Rolston)
Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research, and fieldwork, Smith traces the ways that engineers in the mining and oil and gas industries accounted for their actions to multiple publics—from critics of their industry to their own friends and families. She shows how the social license to operate and an underlying pragmatism lead engineers to ask how resource production can be done responsibly rather than whether it should be done at all. She analyzes the liminality of engineering consultants, who experienced greater professional autonomy but often felt hamstrung when positioned as outsiders. Finally, she explores how critical participation in engineering education can nurture new accountabilities and chart more sustainable resource futures.
Gender is far from the primary concern of coworkers in crews. Far more important, Rolston finds, is protecting the safety of the entire crew and finding a way to treat each other well despite the stresses of their jobs. These miners share the burden of rotating shift work—continually switching between twelve-hour day and night shifts—which deprives them of the daily rhythms of a typical home, from morning breakfasts to bedtime stories. Rolston identifies the mine workers’ response to these shared challenges as a new sort of constructed kinship that both challenges and reproduces gender roles in their everyday working and family lives.
Crews’ expectations for coworkers to treat one another like family and to adopt an “agricultural” work ethic tend to minimize gender differences. And yet, these differences remain tenacious in the equation of masculinity with technical expertise, and of femininity with household responsibilities. For Rolston, such lingering areas of inequality highlight the importance of structural constraints that flout a common impulse among men and women to neutralize the significance of gender, at home and in the workplace.
At a time when the Appalachian region continues to dominate discussion of mining culture, this book provides a very different and unexpected view—of how miners live and work together, and of how their lives and work reconfigure ideas of gender and kinship.
Papers by Jessica M Smith (Rolston)
Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research, and fieldwork, Smith traces the ways that engineers in the mining and oil and gas industries accounted for their actions to multiple publics—from critics of their industry to their own friends and families. She shows how the social license to operate and an underlying pragmatism lead engineers to ask how resource production can be done responsibly rather than whether it should be done at all. She analyzes the liminality of engineering consultants, who experienced greater professional autonomy but often felt hamstrung when positioned as outsiders. Finally, she explores how critical participation in engineering education can nurture new accountabilities and chart more sustainable resource futures.
Gender is far from the primary concern of coworkers in crews. Far more important, Rolston finds, is protecting the safety of the entire crew and finding a way to treat each other well despite the stresses of their jobs. These miners share the burden of rotating shift work—continually switching between twelve-hour day and night shifts—which deprives them of the daily rhythms of a typical home, from morning breakfasts to bedtime stories. Rolston identifies the mine workers’ response to these shared challenges as a new sort of constructed kinship that both challenges and reproduces gender roles in their everyday working and family lives.
Crews’ expectations for coworkers to treat one another like family and to adopt an “agricultural” work ethic tend to minimize gender differences. And yet, these differences remain tenacious in the equation of masculinity with technical expertise, and of femininity with household responsibilities. For Rolston, such lingering areas of inequality highlight the importance of structural constraints that flout a common impulse among men and women to neutralize the significance of gender, at home and in the workplace.
At a time when the Appalachian region continues to dominate discussion of mining culture, this book provides a very different and unexpected view—of how miners live and work together, and of how their lives and work reconfigure ideas of gender and kinship.
Energy Ethics: Fragile Lives and Imagined Futures is a multi-panel, two day conference at St Andrews on March 17-18, 2016.
There will be two distinguished keynote speakers:
Benjamin Sovacool, Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Sussex, and Professor of Business and Social Sciences at Aarhus University.
Debbora Battaglia, Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts.
A complete list of the 23 speakers can be found at the conference website: www.energyethics.org.uk.
Please register now at www.energyethics.org.uk, where you can also find more information on travel, accommodation, and the conference programme. The conference will begin at 9 am on March 17th and end by 7 pm on March 18th.
The conference is organized by Mette M. High (University of St Andrews) and Jessica Smith (Colorado School of Mines) with support from the British Academy, National Science Foundation, and University of St Andrews. For more information, please contact Mette High (mmh20@st-andrews.ac.uk) or Jessica Smith (jmsmith@mines.edu).
https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/issue/view/10
Our workshop will be sited in Wollongong, about 1.5 hrs from Sydney, and located in the heart of what is called the " Southern Coal Fields " of New South Wales. The workshop will include opportunities to share research in progress and network with international colleagues. Activities will include a keynote address by a noted scholar, a field excursion to a coal mining region, a panel discussion with activists confronting the mining industry, and exchanges with Sydney-based scientists and engineers working in mining and other related fields.
This workshop is sponsored by the United States National Science Foundation, the University of New South Wales and the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research (AUSCCER) at the University of Wollongong. It is organized by Roopali Phadke (Macalester College), Jessica Smith (Colorado School of Mines), Abby Kinchy (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and Matthew Kearnes (U. of New South Wales).
Applications to participate should include a 200-word biographical statement and a 500-word statement that describes and reflects upon the methodological challenges and opportunities that subterranean STS entails. For example, applicants could focus on: research techniques for probing, seeing, and representing human interactions with the underground; and ways of connecting with networks and partners to facilitate engaged and community based practice.