Following the collapse of the cod fishery in 1992, Newfoundland became the only Canadian province with a declining population. Population change over the period 1991 to 1996 has been negative in all ten Census divisions, including the metropolitan center on the Avalon Peninsula.
Population declines have been sharpest, however, in the most fisheries-dependent rural parts of the province. The figure below shows the strong negative correlation (r = -.90) between relative population change in Newfoundland Census divisions, and the percent of the labor force in fishing.
Although the Newfoundland case is extreme, declining populations also characterize many other fisheries- dependent regions of the North Atlantic Arc (see Hamilton and Haedrich 1999; Hamilton and Otterstad 1998). Exceptions to this trend include several trawler ports that are home to more capital-intensive sectors of the fisheries.
| Chair:
Carole Seyfrit (1999-2001) Phone: 757-683-3803 Fax: 757-683-5746 cseyfrit@odu.edu Chair-elect:
Secretary-Treasurer:
Council Members J. Timmons Roberts (1997-2000)
Jean Blocker (1997-2000)
Stella apek (1998-2001)
David Pellow (1998-2001)
Steve Couch (1999-2002)
Adam Weinberg (1999-2002)
|
Committee Chairs, 1999-2000
Program: Carole Seyfrit Publications: Susan Roschke Webmaster: Rik Scarce Nominations/Elections:
Telecommunications Committee:
Membership:
Award Committees, 1999-2000 Olsen Student Paper Award:
Distinguished Contribution Award:
Outstanding Publication Award
Boguslaw Award (to be awarded in 2001):
|
Environment, Technology, and Society Newsletter
Editor: Susan H. Roschke Planning Director
Phone:513-458-4515
Publication Schedule: ET&S is published quarterly. The deadline for submissions for the next (Spring) issue is March 31. If at all possible, please submit text items electronically or on IBM-formatted diskette, as this greatly facilitates the newsletter production process. Articles on current research that can be represented graphically on the front page are especially sought.
The Environment and Technology Section on the Internet: Listserv: Envtecsoc.
Resources: The listserv archives and additional
resources for environmental sociologists.
Section Websites:
ET&S Pages:
Please note that you must be a member of the ASA in order to join a Section. Contact the American Sociological Association, Membership Services, at 1307 New York Ave, NW, Suite 700 Washington, DC 20005 |
Okay, I can't quite go ice fishing here, but the heat in my office is very tempermental! I do hope this issue finds you warm and cozy, and productive!
While Winter is the off-season for much of nature, a time to rest and wait for Spring, for the Section and ASA there's a lot going on. As you know, the deadline for papers for the 2000 Meetings has already passed and most acceptance decisions have been made. Now comes the scramble to get the sessions arranged with discussants and presiders in place. Remember to thank the session organ-izers for their efforts when you see them at the 2000 Meetings! Notice that this year we'll also be sharing some time with the Rural Sociological Society (see page 5). This looks like a great opportunity to expand horizons and examine a little bit of a different take on some environmental sociology topics. Be sure to put it on your calendars.
In this issue, it's a bit of the past and a look to the future for Section members. Check over the minutes of the 1999 Section Business Meeting, see what your colleagues have been researching and writing about, consider some award nominations/submissions, look for the updated Section website, and answer my environmental books survey.
Don't forget to send along your news and notes for the Spring ET&S. I am still in need of feature articles for upcoming issues, so DON'T BE SHY! Also, columns on partnering with other disciplines, point-counterpoint debates, and department spotlights will continue with your input. News and notes from members outside the U.S. would be especially welcome. Please contact me with your ideas.
by Tom Rudel
During the past decade environmental sociology has grown as a field of concentration for graduate studies at Rutgers University. We now have three environmental sociologists on the graduate faculty in sociology at the University. Karen O'Neill specializes in the political sociology of the environment in the United States. She makes extensive use of historical methods in her analysis of these issues. Chip Clarke focuses on the intersection between organizations and the environment. He has written books on the way organizations assess the risks of toxic contamination and participate in the creation of evacuation plans (Chip calls them 'fantasy documents'). Tom Rudel works on issues of environment and development in the Americas with particular emphases on the causes of tropical deforestation and the sociological underpinnings of land use planning.
Training in interdisciplinary research is a particular strength of the Rutgers program. We recently created a Certificate Program in the Human Dimensions of Environmental Change for graduate students. This program brings students from different disciplines together in a set of common classes that focus on environmental problems. Through these classes sociology graduate students get an introduction to faculty and students in disciplines like ecology, environmental science, anthropology, and geography who have interests in many of the same environmental problems but use different methods to analyze them. Graduate students in sociology who complete the classes get the certificate along with their Ph.D. in Sociology. With the certificate, sociology students should be able to compete for positions in environmental studies departments as well as sociology departments. The University also supports a Center for Environmental Communications which supports a wide array of applied research on environmental issues and is a source of part-time employment for many graduate students. If you have questions about the program at Rutgers, you can contact me at rudel@aesop.rutgers.edu.
by Susan H. Roschke
Urban and regional planning seeks to build (and rebuild) functional communities. That is, planners take such factors as the opinions and wishes of community residents; economic, demographic, environmental, and other conditions in the local and regional area; government finances; existing infrastructure and other resources; as well as planning principles, and try to put them into a plan for the future that achieves the community's goals. Typically, the goals are a safe, healthy, fun place to live, with good schools, reasonable property taxes, good jobs, good services and amenities, etc. Change is inevitable; planners work to direct it in the most beneficial ways.
Planners make use of many facets of social science research and methodology. The principles of planning have come from years of research on what works and what doesn't in communities of various descriptions. Of course, two key variables are human behavior and the physical environment.
It is interesting to note that a couple of current buzzwords in planning are also hot topics in environmental sociology. First, sustainability takes the label growth management or smart growth in some discussions, but the concept is generally the same—a realization that resources are finite and some consideration must be made if a livable society is to continue seven generations into the future. Second, the concept of a sense of place is of interest to planners and environmental sociologists, as well as to community and urban sociologists. Environmental sociologists wonder how ecosystems can be protected if people do not feel a sense of attachment to them. Planners hear residents longing for a sense of attachment to their communities.
Much of planning research centers on the attitudes of people toward their surroundings—what they like, what they miss, what they want. Planners also research the various trends, policies, and new technologies/techniques that affect the growth and maintenance of communities, such as the above mentioned smart growth and sense of place as well as issues like factory farming, brownfields, housing preferences, farmland preservation, community gardens, shopping malls, recreation needs, etc.
Surely environmental sociologists and planners have a lot to say to each other, particularly on these issues. Getting current environmental sociology research into the hands of planners is one way to start moving society in the direction of sustainability. Working with planners on interdisciplinary, applied research is another, even more direct way.
The meeting was called to order by Chair, Tom Rudel. Secretary-Treasurer, Dorceta Taylor presented the minutes of last year's business meeting which were approved unanimously. Dorceta Taylor also reported on the Section's budget. She reported a balance of 2,238.18 in the Section's general funds after current meeting expenses. She also reported 3,139.48 in the Boguslaw Scholarship fund. The Section awarded $200.00 each to the winners of the Olsen Student Paper and the Boguslaw award.
The Nominations and Election Committee announced that Stephen Couch and Adam Weinberg had been elected to the Council. Section members were invited to submit nominations for future positions in the Section.
David Sonnenfeld announced that there were 383 members in the Section.
He encouraged members to recruit new members. He told members that the
Section needed 17 more new members by October 1st to keep the number of
sessions the Section had the previous year. Bill Freudenberg discussed
the policy regarding student memberships: students pay for their ASA memberships
and the Section pay for their Section dues. Tom Rudel outlined the procedure:
students should submit their forms to Carole Seyfrit and she would send
them to the ASA.
Susan Roshke, editor of Environment and Technology, reported on the
status of the newsletter. She would like more submissions from members.
Timmons Roberts reported on the Section's electronic network. There was a need to update the Section's website to include more information on the Section and related events. The Section had its own listserver EnvTecSoc; mail traffic and discussion was low. In addition, the ASA had established email groups for each Section. Tom Rudel announced that Greg had been doing the Section's website for years; he asked for volunteers to take over as webmasters for the Section's website.
The Section's Publication's Committee sought three volunteers to help. David Sonnenfeld proposed that the Section publish an electronic journal. After a lively discussion, there seem to be general support for exploring the possibilities further.
Tom Rudel reported that the sessions co-sponsored with Rural Sociology went well; he hopes for more interactions with Rural Sociology in the future.
Three awards were presented at the meeting. Dorceta Taylor presented the Distinguished Contribution Award to Eugene Rosa of Washington State University; Allan Schnaiberg presented the Boguslaw Award to Chris Wellin and Ken Gould presented the Olsen Student Paper award to Reid M. Helford.
Tom Rudel reported that ASA rules stipulate that a Section can only present three awards in any given year. That means that with the addition of the Section's new award, the Outstanding Publication Award, the Section would have four awards. The Section would meet the ASA guidelines by alternating the Boguslaw and the Outstanding Publication awards.
Riley Dunlap will head the committee drafting the guidelines for the Outstanding Publication Award. To date members agreed that the award could be presented for a book, article or series of outstanding articles published in the three years preceding the time the award is given. The committee will send their draft of the guidelines to the Council for further discussion and approval.
Carole Seyfrit reported on plans for the 2000 ASA meetings to be held in Washington, D.C. The Section had three sessions; one of these was committed to a panel on environmental justice. This panel is jointly sponsored with the Race, Gender and Class Section. Race, Gender and Class hosted the joint Environment and Technology/Race, Gender and Class environmental justice panel at the 1999 meetings. There will be open submissions for the panels.
Since both the ASA and Rural Sociology were in Washington, D.C. in 2000 and the meetings overlapped, the Environment and Technology Section and the Natural Resources Group of RSS will host some joint sessions. There will be a joint symposium with the Rural Sociology Natural Resources Group on August 15th; the 16th of August is Section day. This joint symposium is not on the official ASA program so the additional session won't count against the number of sessions the Section can sponsor. There will also be a jointly-sponsored reception between the two groups. Tom Rudel suggested that the Environment and Technology Section should explore the possibility of doing more joint sessions with the Natural Resources Group in the future.
Riley Dunlap raised the issue of getting the ASA to allow the Section to sponsor a larger number of sessions. He suggested that if a large number of papers is received, then the Section could request additional sessions.
Finally, Timmons Roberts announced that the Section is seeking nominations
for positions open in the year 2000. Bill Freudenberg announced that the
University of Wisconsin had an NSF grant to fund graduate students and
post doctoral fellows who want to do collaborative work in the biological
and social sciences.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dorceta E. Taylor
Secretary-Treasurer
The 8th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management
(ISSRM8th) will be held June 17-22, 2000 at Western Washington University
in Bellingham, Washington (USA). Theme: Transcending Boundaries: Natural
Resource Management from Summit to Sea. The program will include Special
Sessions, Round Tables, Organized Panels, Forums, Show and Tell Workshops,
Paper and Poster Presentations, Films and Videos, and Dialogue Sessions.
For more information contact: Anna Elliott, Program Coordinator, at 1-360-650-2949.
Website: www.ac.wwu.edu/~issrm8th/.
Environmental Policy Symposium, Washington, D.C., August 2000
A mini-conference on environmental policy will be held on August 17th, 2000, the day after the section day for the Section on Environment and Technology at the American Sociological Association (ASA) meetings in Washington, D.C.
A Call for Websites and Suggestions from webmaster Rik Scarce:
In late 1999 I assumed the role of "webmaster" for the Section, and I would like to invite your suggestions for improving the ETS webpages, which you can find at: http://www.lbs.msu.edu/ets/ets.html .
I have made a few changes to the pages, such as using a different colored background and replacing the old buttons with less flashy but more commonplace standard links (underlined, colored text). Please share other ideas for making the pages more useful, thought-provoking, and exciting; my e-mail address is below.
With your assistance, I would like to create a page with links to Section members' pages. This will be a valuable resource for our colleagues, for students, and for the press. Please send links to your environment and technology related websites—and to those sites that you would recommend as especially useful, whether they are in the discipline or not—to me by e-mail at: scarce@msu.edu. I will make every effort to update the links page promptly.
The Environment and Technology Section of the ASA is seeking nominations for the following three awards to be presented at the 2000 Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C. The deadline for all nominations is May 1, 2000.
Distinguished Contribution Award
This award recognizes individuals for outstanding service, innovation,
or publication in environmental sociology or the sociology of technology.
It is intended to be an expression of appreciation, to be awarded when
an individual is deemed to be extraordinarily meritorious by the Section.
Please send nominating letters to: Dorceta Taylor, School of Natural Resources
and the Environment, University of Michigan, 430 East University Avenue,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1115.
Marvin Olsen Student Paper Award
This award is chosen from graduate student authored papers accepted
for presentation at the ASA Annual Meetings. The award includes $200 to
defray the expenses of travel and lodging for the Annual Meetings. Manuscripts
to be considered for the award should be sent to: Lori Hunter, Olsen Award
Committee Chair, Department of Sociology, UMC 0730, Utah State University,
Logan, UT 84322-0730.
Outstanding Publication Award
This award recognizes an outstanding book, article, or series of articles
published in the three years prior to the deadline. Three copies of the
work(s) and supporting letter of nomination should be submitted to: Riley
Dunlap, Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman,
WA 99164-4020
Riley E. Dunlap, Washington State University, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of his contributions to the field of environmental sociology.
Vic Getz has received a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship which she will use to conduct her dissertation research in Kerala, India. She will be spending one year in India, beginning this July. Her work centers on a gender analysis of political participation in the construction of development policy, with a particular focus on economic and environmental aspects. (Getz is a student of Loren Lutzenheiser at Washington State University, focusing on Gender and Environmental Sociology.)
Eugene A. Rosa has been elected Chair of Section K, Social, Economic, and Political Sciences, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The office is occupied for three years: (1) Chair-elect in year one, (2) Chair, in year two, (3) and Outgoing Chair in year three. Associated with each of these versions of the Chair position are specific duties. The term of office begins with the February 2000 meetings of the AAAS.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has undertaken a renewed commitment toward incorporating more social science into the agencies policies and procedures. One significant component of this commitment was the inauguration this fall of a social science seminar series entitled "Science and the Human Side of Environmental Decisions." The series is open to EPA administrators and other interested parties, at their headquarters in Washington, DC. The first invited speaker in the series was Gary Machlis, Visiting Chief Social Scientist for the U.S. National Park Service and Professor of Forest Resources and Sociology at the University of Idaho who gave the presentation: "The 7% Solution: How the Social Sciences Contribute to Natural Resource Protection," and the second invited speaker was Gene Rosa, who gave the presentation: "How to Program your VCR and Other Technological Choices.
It's a survey from your editor! Please send me a list of your top ten
favorite environmental sociology books and/or journal articles, with comments
if you're so inclined. I'll compile the results for a future issue. The
results of this poll will provide a great resource for scholars new to
environmental sociology or those preparing syllabi.
Share your wisdom and send me your votes by email (plan_norwood@fuse.net),
fax (513-458-4502), or mail (City Hall, 4645 Montgomery Rd., Norwood, OH
45212). Thank you for your input.
Burdge, Rabel J. 1999. A Community Guide to Social Impact Assessment: Revised Edition. Social Ecology Press, PO Box 620863, Middleton, WI 53562-0863. 1-888-364-3277. $18.95 ISBN 0-941042-17-0
Burdge, Rabel J. 1998. A Conceptual Approach to Social Impact Assessment: Revised Edition. Social Ecology Press, PO Box 620863, Middleton, WI 53562-0863. Toll Free: 1-888-364-3277. $18.95 ISBN 0-941042-16-2
Creighton, Jim. 1999. "Giving the Public Its Say: Lessons Learned from DOE's Public Participation Program." Radwaste Magazine, July/August, pp. 38-44. See the Creighton & Creighton, Inc web site <www.CandCinc.com> for other listings.
Foster, John Bellamy. 1999. "Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology." American Journal of Sociology, vol. 105, no. 2 (September), pp. 366-405.
Foster, John Bellamy. 1999. The Vulnerable Planet: a Short Economic History of the Environment. New York: Monthly Review Press. (second edition).
Lemann, Nicholas. 1999. "Buffaloed," a review of The Ecological Indian: Myth And History by Shepard Krech III, professor of anthropology, Brown University. New Yorker, September 13, pp. 98-101.
Taylor, Dorceta E. 2000. "The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm: Injustice Framing and the Social Construction of Environmental Discourses," American Behavioral Scientist, 43(4):508-580.
Taylor, Dorceta E. 1999. "Central Park as a Model for Social Control: Urban Parks, Social Class and Leisure Behavior in Nineteenth-Century America," Journal of Leisure Research, 31(4).
U.S. Department of Energy. 1999. "How to Design a Public Participation Program." DOE Office of Intergovernmental and Public Accountability (EM-22). http://www.em.doe.gov/em22
U.S. Department of Energy. 1999. "Working with Tribes and Indian Nations." DOE Office of Intergovernmental and Public Accountability (EM-22). http://www.em.doe.gov/em22
U.S. EPA. 1999. "Project XL Stakeholder Involvement: A guide for Project Sponsors and Stakeholders." http://www.epa.gov/ooaujeag/projectxl/032599.pdf
Environmental Politics, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring 2000) will be a special issue on Ecological Modernization edited by Arthur Mol and David Sonnenfeld. It includes papers first presented at the 1998 ETS and RC-24 sessions. Contents are listed below. The collection will appear also as a book entitled, Ecological Modernisation Around the World: Perspectives and Critical Debates (London: Frank Cass, April 2000).
Organization & Environment, vol. 12, no. 4, December 1999
Go to the ETS Archives page.