Chelsea Schelly
Michigan Technological University, Social Sciences, Faculty Member
Every summer, thousands of people assemble to live together to celebrate the Annual Gathering of the Rainbow Family. Participants establish temporary systems of water distribution and filtration, sanitation, health care, and meals... more
Every summer, thousands of people assemble to live together to celebrate the Annual Gathering of the Rainbow Family. Participants establish temporary systems of water distribution and filtration, sanitation, health care, and meals provided freely to all who gather, and they develop sharing and trading systems, recreational opportunities, and educational experiences distinct to this creative social world. The Rainbow Family has invented itself as a unique modern culture without formal organization, providing the necessities of life freely to all who attend. The Annual Gathering of the Rainbow Family has been operating for more than forty years as an experiment in liberty that demonstrates how material organization, participation, and cultural connection can reshape social relationships and transform individual lives. Grounded in sociological theory and research, the book considers what kind of culture the material systems of Babylon reinforce and how society could facilitate the kind of social world and human welfare humans desire
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not explanation, of why it is that not all Americans with these ‘‘conflictual identities’’ (‘‘white but working class’’ and ‘‘progressive but privileged’’) choose to mobilize as her research subjects evidently did. What in particular... more
not explanation, of why it is that not all Americans with these ‘‘conflictual identities’’ (‘‘white but working class’’ and ‘‘progressive but privileged’’) choose to mobilize as her research subjects evidently did. What in particular drove these individuals, and not others, to mobilize as they did, as opposed to other plausible ways one might attempt to reconcile one’s conflictual identity? I also felt that Elcioglu missed two opportunities to explore the implications of her findings even further. One would be in the area of policy implications. Elcioglu does discuss the relevance of certain key policies, such as Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, to her research subjects’ mobilization, but she perhaps misses opportunities to discuss more policy-focused aims of these activists due to her choice to focus on what their mobilization does for them as opposed to how it is viewed by policy-makers. Second, it strikes me that, in the concluding chapter, perhaps Elcioglu missed an opportunity to extrapolate the possible implications of these conflictual identities and the ‘‘strong state vs. weak state’’ effects even further, in terms of broader trends in American politics beyond the fight over the southern border. For example, what might her findings tell us about the rise of Donald Trump and the backlash among progressive activists mobilizing to resist it? Notwithstanding these missed opportunities, the arguments and analysis put forward in Elcioglu’s Divided by the Wall must be taken seriously by any political sociologist seeking to explain U.S. immigration politics and should also be engaged with by scholars and students of racial politics, identity, and social movements. Elcioglu’s Divided by the Wall is indeed ‘‘relational political ethnography at its best,’’ as Javier Auyero accurately describes it on the back cover.
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CANADA $26.50 US $21.95 Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it? Because most of what we're consuming today is not food, and how we're consuming it—in the car, in... more
CANADA $26.50 US $21.95 Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it? Because most of what we're consuming today is not food, and how we're consuming it—in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone—is not ...
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Kelly Moore’s work chronicles the evolution of three organizations that challenged the relationship between scientists and the military after World War II. By examining post-WWII science–military ties and exploring three particular social... more
Kelly Moore’s work chronicles the evolution of three organizations that challenged the relationship between scientists and the military after World War II. By examining post-WWII science–military ties and exploring three particular social movement organizations, Moore discusses the evolving perception, of the public and scientists alike, about scientists’ role in military technology development. Moore contends that the groups, each advocating conscientious employment and research decisions as well as public information provision through unique frameworks and tactics, pushed the boundaries of the scientist-as-expert paradigm and disrupted science-as-usual during this period. Chapter 1 introduces the argument of the book as well as the three organizations that are detailed in the subsequent chapters. Each group, Moore argues, is situated within a particular political tradition. Relying on bodies of research within science, state, and social movement studies, this chapter highlights Moore’s main questions and themes as the reader moves forward. Chapter 2 outlines the science–military relationship between 1945 and 1970. From the development of the atomic bomb, increasing R&D funds at a small handful of prestigious universities, and intensive military and political advising by scientists, Moore traces the increased focus on the social and economic benefits of science and the opening up of federal funding to a larger swath of research universities that occurred in the 1960s. After WWII, the executive branch relied heavily on the advising of scientists, and scientists similarly relied on the funding and status provided by their political and military ties. In this climate, the first of the three organizations Moore discusses emerged. Chapter 3 examines the formation and tradition of an organization called the Society for Social Responsibility in Science (SSRS). Formed in 1949, SSRS relied on a model of personal responsibility and ‘exemplary action’ based on the Quaker tradition, which served as the foundation for the group’s formation. SSRS was not a social movement in the convention sense, for they did not pursue tactics of direct action or intervention. Instead, they argued that scientists had a responsibility as individuals to choose employment and research consistent with their personal ideas regarding justice and peace. This responsibility was not based on their role as scientists, but on their inclusion in the human race – all individuals shared this responsibility to avoid immoral acts. Moore argues that this model is based on the moral
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Engaging the Everyday provides an insightful explanation of the failure of environmental criticism to articulate the concerns of everyday life for modern Americans. Through theorization of what author John M. Meyer calls ‘‘the resonance... more
Engaging the Everyday provides an insightful explanation of the failure of environmental criticism to articulate the concerns of everyday life for modern Americans. Through theorization of what author John M. Meyer calls ‘‘the resonance dilemma’’—the fact that most environmental scholarship simply does not resonate with the issues and values that concern most people—Meyer provides a compelling counter-narrative for moving forward with environmental criticism using a pragmatic frame focused on the materiality of everyday life. The book is organized in two main sections. After an introduction that explains the resonance dilemma and suggests how scholars can move beyond it by positioning themselves as ‘‘inside critics,’’ Part One moves ‘‘Toward a Political Theory of Materiality.’’ The three chapters in this section use existing scholarship to unpack the resonance dilemma, attributing it to: 1) a focus on theorizing liberalism without considering how a liberal frame actually corresponds to reallife values and practices; 2) a lack of attention to materiality in political theorizing; and 3) a false dichotomy between ‘‘private’’ and ‘‘public’’ that does not match material experience. Meyer’s treatment of existing scholarship, even when he is being critical of it, is sophisticated and fair; he gives each perspective an honest look, never resorting to simple straw-man criticism. Instead, he focuses on particular problems while also acknowledging merits, using existing scholarship to present a balanced view of issues while simultaneously finding ways to move beyond debates that stymie our ability to address environmental problems in the real world. As Meyer acknowledges, the chapters in this section are theoretically dense and may not appeal to readers most interested in empirical studies of everyday life. I am not a political theorist, and after reading these chapters, I am still unsure what ‘‘liberalism’’ really means (I believe that is part of Meyer’s point), although I am convinced of Meyer’s claim that ‘‘liberalism is too narrow a field for environmental criticism—because popular attitudes regularly spill across its boundaries’’ (p. 46). These three conceptually dense chapters that dissect the problems with existing scholarship in environmental political theory lay important groundwork for the theorizing that results from looking at empirical cases of lived experience, as Meyer does in Part Two. By arguing that political theorizing must successfully grapple with the material concerns of everyday life (Chapter 3) and that the ‘‘spatial and conceptual duality between private and public . . . fails to respect or understand the lived experiences of citizens’’ (p. 84, Chapter 4), Meyer provides a firm conceptual foundation for moving past the resonance dilemma through examination of three realms of everyday practice: land understood as property (Chapter 5), automobile transportation (Chapter 6), and residential households (Chapter 7). These three chapters, which constitute Part Two of the book, put the theoretical groundwork Meyer lays in Part One to the test through application to actual material experience. Chapter Five demonstrates that private property is already subject to various kinds of regulations that are viewed as acceptable, so to conceive of private property as being outside the realm of legitimate environmental regulation does not correspond to lived experience. He contrasts the metaphors of property as ‘‘a bundle of rights’’ versus ‘‘sticks in a bundle’’—both commonly used to describe private property—to demonstrate that conceiving of property as ‘‘sticks in a bundle’’ allows for the removal of certain sticks (through environmental regulation) without destroying the bundle (private property) and that this metaphor accurately captures current property arrangements Reviews 483
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that mattered to them. Were there no other issues? Were the 400 years of exclusion of indigenous people irrelevant to the commercial oligarchy’s desultory view of their own workers and fierce resistance to political reforms? Can racism be... more
that mattered to them. Were there no other issues? Were the 400 years of exclusion of indigenous people irrelevant to the commercial oligarchy’s desultory view of their own workers and fierce resistance to political reforms? Can racism be so minimally relevant to oligarchic power? The last part of the book is somewhat disjointed. Three very short chapters (two of them together totaling eight pages, excluding notes) recapitulate findings but devote little attention to what the legacy of the oligarchic era is to today’s politics in the region. It is not clear whether Gilbert considers the transition from the historical ‘‘oligarchic republic’’ to the ‘‘contested republic’’ the end of oligarchic rule, or merely a shift to another system best understood from the perspective of ruling elite theory. Nor does Gilbert speak to the relevance of his study to ruling elite theory outside the context of Latin America. We might have expected something on this theme not only because this approach is defended against pluralism in the first part of the book, but also because the author has a well-earned reputation as a theorist of class formations in the United States. Despite these limitations, The Oligarchy and the Old Regime has the merit of providing a rare ‘‘deep dive’’ into elite interactions. There remains room for pluralists to dispute Gilbert’s evaluation over elite cohesion, but even allowing for continued argument there this book fills in a considerable amount of important detail about how elite power operates—not just in Latin America, but wherever social and economic power is highly concentrated.
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The electricity grid in the United States may be the largest, most pervasive technological system ever constructed to meet the needs and comforts of human beings (Nye 1997). Although it is less than 150 years old, the electricity... more
The electricity grid in the United States may be the largest, most pervasive technological system ever constructed to meet the needs and comforts of human beings (Nye 1997). Although it is less than 150 years old, the electricity infrastructure of this nation is ubiquitous; power lines stretch across deserts, forests, states, highways, and the entire nation in order to provide electricity to residences, businesses, and communities. The electricity carried by these transmission lines is generally produced using fossil fuels (mostly coal; see US Energy Information Administration 2012) and is most commonly generated at a monstrously large facility (a coal plant, a nuclear facility, or a hydropower dam). Our electricity infrastructure was constructed to carry enormous amounts of electricity across vast geographical expanses, based on the massive generation facilities and concentrated fossil fuel based energy sources that defined the system and its use. However, there are increasing concerns regarding the sources of our energy supply. Many of these concerns are related to climate change and how carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels contribute to rising global temperatures and the climate instability of the planet (Brown 2003). Additional concerns include the host of other environmental damages caused by the use of coal (Epstein et al. 2011), nuclear energy (Slovic et al. 1991), and hydro-electricity (Dincer 1998); other debates involve worries about nearing or reaching peak energy supplies (Brown 2003), energy security (Yergin 2006), and the aging transmission grid (Amin 2003). For a multitude of reasons, many would agree that it’s time to rethink our dependence on fossil fuel based forms of energy and move toward alternative, renewable energy sources (Brown 2003, pp. 116–135). The good news is, the renewable energy industry gets bigger every year, with more energy from renewable sources being produced, sold, and used (Sherwood 2011). Some US states have enacted renewable energy standards requiring that a certain percentage of their electricity supply come from renewable sources. Tax incentives, subsidies, and various forms of rebates, in financially incentivizing renewable energy adoption, also provide evidence that we are indeed moving in the direction of clean, renewable sources of energy.
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This interdisciplinary book brings together several conceptual frameworks with a diversity of case studies and examples of efforts to orient everyday material practices toward greater sustainability. It builds upon a variety of... more
This interdisciplinary book brings together several conceptual frameworks with a diversity of case studies and examples of efforts to orient everyday material practices toward greater sustainability. It builds upon a variety of influential internal criticisms of dominant strands of contemporary environmentalism in postindustrial societies. These criticisms characterize environmentalism as too reliant upon technocratic policy, its constituency as too white, male, and middle class, its rhetoric and framing as too depressing, its concerns as expressed too abstractly, its solutions too focused on individual consumer choices and the individualization of responsibility. In exploring alternatives, chapter authors utilize conceptual frameworks rooted in environmental justice, new materialism, and social practice theory. The cases and practices include attention to urban biodiversity, infrastructure for stormwater runoff, green home remodeling, household toxicity, community gardens and farmers’ markets, bicycling and automobility, alternative technologies, and more. Chapter authors include both internationally prominent and emerging scholars from anthropology, communication, cultural studies, history, law, philosophy, political science and political theory, public health, sociology, and urban studies
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ABSTRACT While researching the adoption of residential solar electric technology through a comparative two-state case study, participating solar electric technology adopters indicated some ways that policy—namely, the structure of... more
ABSTRACT While researching the adoption of residential solar electric technology through a comparative two-state case study, participating solar electric technology adopters indicated some ways that policy—namely, the structure of incentives provided via their state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), local rebate program incentives, and the requirements for eligibility to receive economic incentives—influenced their energy behaviors both prior to and after installing solar electricity at home. Arguably, insight into the nuances of their energy practices emerged as a function of research design involving a qualitative interview process that allowed for unstudied and unpredicted responses during the interview process. This note makes a case for using qualitative research methods to understand energy behaviors as a method for exploring energy practices, consistent with an emergent emphasis on practice theory in studies of natural resource consumption.
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ABSTRACT Understanding how household practices with regard to energy usage change and how to most effectively encourage the adoption of technologies that utilize renewable energy sources at the residential scale are important issues for... more
ABSTRACT Understanding how household practices with regard to energy usage change and how to most effectively encourage the adoption of technologies that utilize renewable energy sources at the residential scale are important issues for addressing the environmental impacts of energy use. Here, the social practices model (Spaargaren, 2003) is applied to examine solar technology adopters in two U.S. States who were interviewed about adopting residential solar electric technology and specifically about their experiences with the rebate and incentive programs available to them. Examining the policies and interrogating their potentially unintended consequences from the perspective of the user sheds light on how residential solar incentive programs act as systems of provision, shaping the practices of solar technology adopters, in hopes of improving these incentive programs and effectively encouraging increased residential solar technology adoption. Findings suggest that feed-in tariffs offer additional positive outcomes related to broadening the context for adoption and encouraging future energy conservation while size restrictions, wholesale pricing in net metering agreements, and inconsistent policy mechanisms across utilities in the same state all have potentially unintended negative consequences. Utilizing a perspective attentive to social practice offers a means of improving the design and implementation of energy policy.
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Using electrical energy for an increasingly wide range of energy services (including lighting, heating, cooling, food storage, communications, and transport) requires grappling with the impacts of these systems on ecologies and societies.... more
Using electrical energy for an increasingly wide range of energy services (including lighting, heating, cooling, food storage, communications, and transport) requires grappling with the impacts of these systems on ecologies and societies. Renewable energy can provide less ecologically damaging electrical energy, but intermittency—the fact that solar requires the sun to shine and wind requires a breeze for energy to be produced—means having to create a way to store electrical energy to balance production and demand effectively. Underground storage hydro energy systems offer one way to achieve this, and one innovative approach involves repurposing abandoned underground mine shafts for pumped underground storage hydro (PUSH) systems. In this article, we present an initial foray into the social acceptance (SA) of the potential development of a PUSH facility. The article looks at the case of SA of a PUSH facility in a post-mining community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan through its three pillars: community acceptance, sociopolitical acceptance, and market acceptance. This case study reveals that community input into design considerations and economic participation are the primary drivers and may be required to achieve community acceptance. The study provides insights regarding the importance of engaging the community in discussions while planning for large energy infrastructure to spur renewable energy transition. The case study will further engage the audience in understanding the SA of energy storage systems when developed in brownfield sites (abandoned mines) instead of greenfield sites.
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Social practice theory offers a multidisciplinary perspective on the relationship between infrastructure and wellbeing. One prominent model in practice theory frames systems of provision as the rules, resources, and structures that enable... more
Social practice theory offers a multidisciplinary perspective on the relationship between infrastructure and wellbeing. One prominent model in practice theory frames systems of provision as the rules, resources, and structures that enable the organization of social practices, encompassing both material and immaterial aspects of infrastructures. A second well-known model frames social practices in terms of their constituent elements: meanings, materials, and competences. Reconciling these two models, we argue that household capacity to respond to shifting systems of provision to maintain wellbeing is profoundly tied to the dynamics of privilege and inequity. To examine these dynamics, we propose a new analytical tool utilizing the Bourdieuian conceptualization of forms of capital, deepening the ability of social practice theory to address structural inequities by re-examining the question of who is able to access specific infrastructures. To illustrate this approach, we examine how households adapted to shifting systems of provision during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from 183 households in the Midwestern United States, we apply this tool to analyze adaptations to disruptions of multiple systems of provision, including work, school, food, and health, from February 2020 to August 2021. We highlight how household wellbeing during the pandemic has been impacted by forms of capital available to specific households, even as new social practices surrounding COVID-19 prevention became increasingly politicized. This research provides insight into both acute challenges and resilient social practices involving household consumption, indicating a need for policies that can address structural inequities across multiple systems of provision.
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As a fundamentally social activity, environmental management is inescapably bound to questions of power. This chapter reviews some of the diverse ways in which power relations come to bear on the decisions, processes and outcomes... more
As a fundamentally social activity, environmental management is inescapably bound to questions of power. This chapter reviews some of the diverse ways in which power relations come to bear on the decisions, processes and outcomes associated with environmental management. The review considers power as expressed through formal governmental institutions, power as embedded in social relationships and power as a medium and outcome of civil society practices. Starting from a distinction between corrective and persuasive influence, we explore the application of theories of power to questions of environmental management, considering issues such as inequality in access to environmental goods and exposure to environmental harms and the role of state and non-state actors and organizations in perpetuating and resisting domination. We draw upon insights from the interdisciplinary field of political ecology to illustrate applications of these concepts to problems of environmental management. In addition, we consider how the explicit consideration of power in its myriad forms can inform and improve transdisciplinary research and result in more just and effective outcomes
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Community solar programs are promoted as an effective strategy to reduce economic, technological and social barriers preventing households and businesses from accessing the benefits of photovoltaic solar electricity. More recently,... more
Community solar programs are promoted as an effective strategy to reduce economic, technological and social barriers preventing households and businesses from accessing the benefits of photovoltaic solar electricity. More recently, community solar has been identified as a tool to address the challenge of energy poverty facing low-to-moderate income households. However, many community solar programs fail to achieve high participation rates from this population. This chapter reflects on utilizing the transdisciplinary research process to design a viable community solar program using an on-going case study in a remote rural community with a high proportion of low-to-moderate income households in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Our research team, comprising university scientists and local public policy practitioners, gained access to social, technical and political context which helped to shape a more socially acceptable community solar program. Utilizing a transdisciplinary research approach, our current study suggests that program designers should consider community-scale criteria when considering participation, such as the retention of energy generation in the community, the opportunity for community-level decision-making and to benefit local non-profit organizations, and community pride that stems from innovation and leadership. The work offers additional support to previous findings that suggest that trusted technical experts, such as institutions of higher learning and local leaders, can assist in sociotechnical transitions like renewable energy adoption
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In this paper, we reflect on our collective experiences engaging with Anishinaabe Tribal Nations in the Great Lakes region to support Tribal sovereignty in decision-making for food, energy, and water (FEW) systems. In these diverse... more
In this paper, we reflect on our collective experiences engaging with Anishinaabe Tribal Nations in the Great Lakes region to support Tribal sovereignty in decision-making for food, energy, and water (FEW) systems. In these diverse experiences, we find common lessons. The first set of lessons contributes new empirical knowledge regarding the challenges and opportunities that rural Great Lakes Tribal Nations navigate for enacting sovereignty in decision-making. Our experiences illustrate that while Tribal Nations benefit from a broad and deep commitment to sovereignty and many cultural strengths, they are often challenged by shortages in administrative capacity; technical support; and embeddedness in economic, socio-cultural, and institutional dynamics that must be further negotiated for Tribes to enact the sovereignty to which they are inherently (and legally) entitled. Productive partnerships struggle when university partners fail to acknowledge these realities. The second set of lessons addresses the potential for, and challenges of, effective engagement processes. We find that engagement with university professionals is often mismatched with the priorities and needs of Tribal Nations. Effective engagement with Tribal Nations requires practical knowledge, applied assistance, and grounded, genuine relationships; these requirements often run counter to the institutional structures and priorities imposed by universities, federal funding agencies, and student recruitment. These findings, associated with both empirical knowledge and lessons on process, highlight shared insights on formidable barriers to effective engagement. Based on our firsthand experience working with rural Tribal Nations on FEW decision-making, we share these reflections with particular focus on lessons learned for professionals who engage, or hope to engage, with Tribal Nations in rural settings and offer opportunities to transform engagement processes to better support the immediate, practical needs of rural Tribal Nations.
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3D printing technologies based on an open source model offer a tool for distributed manufacturing and individual customization of printed goods, diminishing the environmental externalities associated with the global transport of goods,... more
3D printing technologies based on an open source model offer a tool for distributed manufacturing and individual customization of printed goods, diminishing the environmental externalities associated with the global transport of goods, the production of goods based on raw material extraction, and production waste. They also make it possible to address issues of sustainable development and the environmental impacts of industrial development simultaneously via innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education, offering appropriate technologies for use in non-industrial locales. This chapter reports on a university course where students built their own 3D printers, used them to print items, learned about how 3D printers can help minimize the environmental externalities of production and address issues of environmental sustainability, and were introduced to social issues related to inequality of access to material goods. Students were asked to participate in a survey and a follow-up interview about their experience in the class. Results suggest that this course encouraged students to think about the environmental benefits of distributed manufacturing as well as about the human dimensions of sustainability-related to global inequalities of access to manufactured goods. The course also helped students feel like they could work to address environmental problems and social issues in their future engineering careers. Using 3D printing technologies in an active learning STEMeducation environment can engage engineering students with both the environmental and social issues that will shape the challenges they face as future industrial designers and manufacturers
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It is increasingly apparent that human activities are not suitable for sustaining a healthy global environment. From energy development to resource extraction to use of land and water, humans are having a devastating effect on the earth’s... more
It is increasingly apparent that human activities are not suitable for sustaining a healthy global environment. From energy development to resource extraction to use of land and water, humans are having a devastating effect on the earth’s ability to sustain human societies and quality lives. Many approaches to changing the negative environmental consequences of human activities focus on one of two options, emphasizing either technological fixes or individual behavior change to reduce environmental harms through sustainable consumption habits. This book takes a different approach, focusing on the role of environmental policy in shaping the possibilities for and creating hindrances to pursuing more sustainable use of environmental resources. This unique compilation examines environmental policy through empirical case studies, demonstrating through each particular example how environmental policies are formed, how they operate, what they do in terms of shaping behaviors and future trajectories, and how they intersect with other social dynamics such as politics, power, social norms, and social organization. By providing case studies from both the United States and Mexico, this book provides a cross-national perspective on current environmental policies and their role in creating and limiting sustainable human futures. Organized around four key parts - Water; Land; Health and Wellbeing; and Resilience - and with a central theme of environmental justice and equity, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental policy and sustainability
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Transdisciplinary teamwork is inherently based on the development and management of diverse groups. With such diversity comes increased challenges related to developing shared goals, coordinating work and maintaining group cohesion. It is... more
Transdisciplinary teamwork is inherently based on the development and management of diverse groups. With such diversity comes increased challenges related to developing shared goals, coordinating work and maintaining group cohesion. It is critical to understand these challenges as well as strategies for overcoming them. These include allowing extra time for research proposal and team development, starting with a core group of team members experienced in working together to conduct transdisciplinary research and choosing team members carefully to balance needed expertise with the social skills needed to work within diverse teams under stressful conditions
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The climate change impact of household food, energy and water consumption is significant and complex, requiring an integrated approach to gain insights to the underlying drivers of behavior and design effective interventions. This chapter... more
The climate change impact of household food, energy and water consumption is significant and complex, requiring an integrated approach to gain insights to the underlying drivers of behavior and design effective interventions. This chapter describes how a transdisciplinary team – including community-based organizations, government scientists and academic researchers – formed to address this challenge, along with the mixed methodology study they developed to test feedback, messaging and social norms approaches to reducing resource use at the household level. The chapter also conveys some lessons learned in the process. Based on the authors’ experience, successful transdisciplinary research depends on building a team with both the necessary disciplinary expertise and strong interdisciplinary research experience, investing time up front to discuss research challenges and opportunities from multiple perspectives, and developing close partnerships with groups outside of academia who have shared goals and can help provide access to valuable community resources
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On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter delivered his infamous Crisis of confidence speech (Carter, 1979) to the American public, arguing that excessive dependence on OPEC caused economic paralysis and drift, and constituted a clear... more
On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter delivered his infamous Crisis of confidence speech (Carter, 1979) to the American public, arguing that excessive dependence on OPEC caused economic paralysis and drift, and constituted a clear and present danger to the very ...
Research Interests: Geography, Urban And Regional Planning, Solar Energy, United States, Local governance, and 12 moreStatistical Techniques in Spatial Analysis, Data Collection, The, Socioeconomic Status, Spatial Distribution, Solar radiation, Geographic distribution, Presidential Election, Geographic Information System, Negative binomial regression, Statistical techniques, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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Research Interests: Economics, Environmental policy, Renewable Energy, Renewable energy Policy, Economic System, and 9 moreResources, Modernization theory, Metabolic Rift, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Industrialisation, Ecological modernization, Ecological modernization theory, Phenomenon, and Solar Energy Technology
ABSTRACT Public support is critical to renewable energy sector growth, an important element of reducing fossil fuel dependence and mitigating climate change. Prevalent understandings of public support for renewable energy projects often... more
ABSTRACT Public support is critical to renewable energy sector growth, an important element of reducing fossil fuel dependence and mitigating climate change. Prevalent understandings of public support for renewable energy projects often work within a binary framework of acceptance and non-acceptance, arguably unable to capture the nuances of localized public responses to specific projects. Taking a place-based approach and insights from social representation theory, we report on public responses to wood-based electricity production in Wisconsin, USA. Findings indicate that public responses are tied to social and cultural contexts, varying in relation to community histories and identities shaped by other community resources. These results suggest that public perceptions of renewable energy technologies are shaped by representations formed in socio-spatial context, offering insight to inform future decisions in the renewable energy policy process.
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Abstract The field of natural resources struggles to attract diverse talent despite efforts to increase racial/ethnic diversity. We explored factors influencing career choices among racially/ethnically underrepresented students and... more
Abstract The field of natural resources struggles to attract diverse talent despite efforts to increase racial/ethnic diversity. We explored factors influencing career choices among racially/ethnically underrepresented students and professionals in natural resources fields. The Social Cognitive Career Choice theory was used as a framework for analyzing data collected during semi-structured interviews of 15 students and career professionals. Results indicate that natural resource career interest generally stemmed from positive affections with nature, while career goals were strongly influenced by desires to positively impact individuals and communities. A number of barriers and supports were identified, including various social, experiential, familial, and systemic factors. The influence of these factors on career choice depended oncareer stage. Overall, participants expressed having little to no awareness or exposure to natural resources careers until later life stages, generally after matriculation in college. A number of suggestions were offered by participants to improve recruitment efforts of minoritized people.
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Bioenergy holds significant promise to mitigate the climate-related problems associated with fossil fuel use in heat, electricity, and transportation fuel production. Many governments are encouraging bioeconomy growth with new policies.... more
Bioenergy holds significant promise to mitigate the climate-related problems associated with fossil fuel use in heat, electricity, and transportation fuel production. Many governments are encouraging bioeconomy growth with new policies. International trade between bioenergy producing and consuming nations has increased over the years. Developed countries with significant greenhouse gas emission (GHG) emission reduction goals are replacing fossil fuels with bioenergy, creating new export commodities for developing nations. However, increased bioeconomy development can put local social, economic, and environmental conditions in bioenergy producing areas at risk. To minimize the potentially adverse impacts of bioenergy development on existing socioeconomic and environmental conditions, several sustainability certification programs have recently been developed. However, there may be significant differences in how actors across multiple scales, including international non-governmental organizations, state and national governments, and local community members perceive a sustainable bioeconomy. In this chapter, we look specifically at two bioenergy development cases, one in the context of economic development in Latin America (jatropha-based bioenergy development in Yucatan, Mexico) and another in the context of a post-industrialized nation (wood-based bioenergy development in Wisconsin, USA) to understand how different actors view sustainability. Our conclusions suggest that, first, developing a sustainable bioeconomy requires addressing sustainability in all stages in the supply chain, and that, second, community perceptions matter in developing a sustainable bioeconomy, thus there is value in a bottom-up approach to policymaking.
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It is increasingly apparent that human activities are not suitable for sustaining a healthy global environment. From energy development to resource extraction to use of land and water, humans are having a devastating effect on the earth’s... more
It is increasingly apparent that human activities are not suitable for sustaining a healthy global environment. From energy development to resource extraction to use of land and water, humans are having a devastating effect on the earth’s ability to sustain human societies and quality lives. Many approaches to changing the negative environmental consequences of human activities focus on one of two options, emphasizing either technological fixes or individual behavior change to reduce environmental harms through sustainable consumption habits. This book takes a different approach, focusing on the role of environmental policy in shaping the possibilities for and creating hindrances to pursuing more sustainable use of environmental resources.
This unique compilation examines environmental policy through empirical case studies, demonstrating through each particular example how environmental policies are formed, how they operate, what they do in terms of shaping behaviors and future trajectories, and how they intersect with other social dynamics such as politics, power, social norms, and social organization. By providing case studies from both the United States and Mexico, this book provides a cross-national perspective on current environmental policies and their role in creating and limiting sustainable human futures.
Organized around four key parts – Water; Land; Health and Wellbeing; and Resilience – and with a central theme of environmental justice and equity, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental policy and sustainability.
This unique compilation examines environmental policy through empirical case studies, demonstrating through each particular example how environmental policies are formed, how they operate, what they do in terms of shaping behaviors and future trajectories, and how they intersect with other social dynamics such as politics, power, social norms, and social organization. By providing case studies from both the United States and Mexico, this book provides a cross-national perspective on current environmental policies and their role in creating and limiting sustainable human futures.
Organized around four key parts – Water; Land; Health and Wellbeing; and Resilience – and with a central theme of environmental justice and equity, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental policy and sustainability.
The Straits of Mackinac hydraulically link Lakes Michigan and Huron and are wide and deep enough (average depth 20 m) to permit the same average water level in both water bodies, technically making them two lobes of a single large lake.... more
The Straits of Mackinac hydraulically link Lakes Michigan and Huron and are wide and deep enough (average depth 20 m) to permit the same average water level in both water bodies, technically making them two lobes of a single large lake. The combined Michigan–Huron system forms the largest lake in the world by surface area and the fourth largest by volume, containing nearly 8% of the world's surface freshwater. The Straits of Mackinac serve as a hub for recreation, tourism, commercial shipping, as well as commercial, sport and subsistence fishing (several tribes retain fishing rights in these 1836 treaty-ceded waters). Line 5 runs for 535 miles within the state of Michigan, from Wisconsin, under the Straits of Mackinac, through the center of the state to Sarnia, Ontario. This assessment is limited to the potential impacts of spills specifically from the segment of Line 5 that crosses the Straits; it did not consider other portions of the line, many of which are adjacent to the Great Lakes and cross other waters or wetlands.
Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) was commissioned January 12, 2018, to perform the risk analysis. By January 26, all contracts and agreements were transmitted to the partners. Work began on February 1, 2018. The Principal Investigator Dr. Guy Meadows and Project Coordinator Amanda Grimm assembled a team of 41 experts in relevant areas of engineering, hydrodynamic modeling, risk assessment, public health, ecology, social sciences, and economics. The project team comprises faculty and technical staff from seven Michigan universities, two out of state universities, and three consulting organizations; assistance was also provided by two independent contractors (former DoE and AFPM staff) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).
The report concludes with total potential liability estimate of approximately 1.8 billion dollars for response, clean up, restoration, and some damages. This cost estimate was made as comprehensive as possible, but confident estimates for several categories of cost could not be produced within the scope of this short-term project. These include the cost of repairing the pipeline itself, the costs of irreversible damage to resources for which valuation estimates are not available, human health impacts, value-added commercial fish products, subsistence fisheries, and compensatory habitat costs. Comparison to other estimates of the costs of a Straits Pipeline spill should be made with caution, taking into account differences in assumptions and varying included costs.
https://mipetroleumpipelines.com/document/independent-risk-analysis-straits-pipelines-final-report
Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) was commissioned January 12, 2018, to perform the risk analysis. By January 26, all contracts and agreements were transmitted to the partners. Work began on February 1, 2018. The Principal Investigator Dr. Guy Meadows and Project Coordinator Amanda Grimm assembled a team of 41 experts in relevant areas of engineering, hydrodynamic modeling, risk assessment, public health, ecology, social sciences, and economics. The project team comprises faculty and technical staff from seven Michigan universities, two out of state universities, and three consulting organizations; assistance was also provided by two independent contractors (former DoE and AFPM staff) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL).
The report concludes with total potential liability estimate of approximately 1.8 billion dollars for response, clean up, restoration, and some damages. This cost estimate was made as comprehensive as possible, but confident estimates for several categories of cost could not be produced within the scope of this short-term project. These include the cost of repairing the pipeline itself, the costs of irreversible damage to resources for which valuation estimates are not available, human health impacts, value-added commercial fish products, subsistence fisheries, and compensatory habitat costs. Comparison to other estimates of the costs of a Straits Pipeline spill should be made with caution, taking into account differences in assumptions and varying included costs.
https://mipetroleumpipelines.com/document/independent-risk-analysis-straits-pipelines-final-report