Home
Manuscript Submission
HER Editors and Staff
Society for Human Ecology
Search HER Contents

Issue 16.1 Abstracts

Contents Page

Resident Place Identities in Rural Charleston County, South Carolina: Cultural, Environmental, and Racial Politics in the Sewee to Santee Area

By Cassandra Y. Johnson and Angela C. Halfacre

The cultural and political implications of landscape change and urban growth in the western U.S. are well-documented. However, comparatively little scholarship has examined the effects of urbanization on sense of place in the southern U.S. We contribute to the literature on competing place meanings with a case study from the rural “Sewee to Santee” region of northern Charleston County , SC. Our research highlights conflicting cultural, environmental, and racial politics and their roles in struggles over place meanings. Using focus groups, interviews with elected officials, and participant observation, we document initial African American resistance and eventual compliance with the prevailing anti-sprawl discourse and associated sense of place promoted by the Charleston County Planning Commission and others. Our research suggests that dynamics driving development in the rural, U.S. South are similar in kind to those in the Third World where natural resource decisions are informed by class, cultural, and racial politics.

Keywords: sense of place, rural gentrification, political ecology, South Carolina Low Country, environmental decision-making

Back to top

American Generation of Environmental Warnings: Avian Influenza and Global Warming

By Allan Mazur

Journalistic reporting of global warming and of avian influenza rose and fell nearly simultaneously in newspapers of the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, and Australia. Some international news peaks are reasonably interpreted as American-generated “media events” of ambiguous connection to worsening real-world threats.

Major international concern about avian flu, beginning in October 2005, resulted from a flurry of activity in Washington , D.C. to rapidly increase federal preparedness for a possible pandemic. This, in turn, was a face-saving action by the Bush administration after its dismal response to Hurricane Katrina, only weeks earlier.

Major international coverage of global warming began in 1988 when NASA scientist James Hansen testified before Congress that the summer's drought was the result of climate change. Worldwide coverage dropped after 1992 while mean global temperature continued to rise. Coverage revived in 2006-07, largely but not exclusively due to the promotional efforts of Al Gore.

Back to top

Challenges for the Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Knowledge in the Satoyama Ecosystems, Noto Peninsula, Japan

By Gulay Cetinkaya

This paper proposes an appropriate mechanism for the maintenance of traditional knowledge (TK) associated with wild edible plants, seaweeds and mushrooms in the satoyama and satoumi ecosystems located in the Noto Peninsula , Japan . The conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was adapted to this study to examine the impact of the drivers of change on TK and components of human well-being, changes in TK and components of human well-being, and interrelations amongst them. Relevant data were collected through conducting in-depth interviews and administering a survey. The results of the survey revealed that 46 wild edible plants, 12 seaweeds, and 19 mushroom species are widely collected for a variety of purposes in the selected sites. Unfortunately, it was determined that the current trend in the study sites is increasing erosion of traditional knowledge and relevant traditional practices due to the impacts of the drivers addressed in this study (e.g. ageing and migration). Assessment of the linkages between TK and human well-being shows that both the decline in TK and the drivers of change adversely affect five fundamental components of human well-being (e.g. health, development of good social relations, and security). Recognizing this undesirable trend, a holistic strategy was developed to sustain, use, and transmit TK as a living cultural resource in society. Within this context, a number of potential responses (e.g. economic, tourism-related, social and behavioural) and instruments (e.g. Community Development Fund) for providing benefit sharing among the target groups were developed to achieve success in the effective maintenance and promotion of TK and also to contribute to sustainable development strategies in the Peninsula.

Keywords: traditional knowledge, satoyama, satoumi, Noto Peninsula, Japan

Back to Top

Understanding Consumption and Environmental Change in China: A Cross-national Comparison of Consumer Patterns

By Karen Stein

China's rapidly expanding economic prosperity has created a scale mismatch between increased standards of living for a large population and environmental distress at the global level. The potential size of an affluent Chinese consumer class magnifies the ecological impact of Chinese consumption. In this study, the emerging Chinese consumer market is compared with two other high-consuming lifestyles fashioned in the wake of economic scarcity; that of the United States after the Depression, and post-war Europe. The Chinese consumption pattern is found to currently follow a lower-consumption style, similar to that of Europe, but one that is based in an ideology of development through mass consumption, comparable to the United States. I further argue that this consumer style will change as the incomes and the buying-potential of the Chinese continue to expand creating a unique consumer pattern moderated by high population density.

Keywords: consumption, China, development, technology, comparative studies

Back to top

World Polity, Unequal Ecological Exchange, and Organic Water Pollution: A Cross-National Analysis of Developing Nations

By John M. Shandra, Eran Shor, and Bruce London

There has been a growth in international organizations concerned with environmental matters. These organizations include international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), and environmental treaties. This article presents cross-national models examining the effects of these organizations on organic water pollution per capita. In doing so, we use lagged dependent variable panel regression models for a sample of 56 developing nations. We find substantial support for world polity hypotheses that these organizations reduce organic water pollution in developing nations. We also find support for unequal ecological exchange theory that exports from poor nations to wealthy nations increase water pollution. We conclude with a brief discussion of the findings and directions for future research.

Keywords: water pollution, cross-national, world polity, unequal ecological exchange

Back to top

The Transnational Organization of Production, the Scale of Degradation, and Ecoefficiency: A Study of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Less-Developed Countries

By Andrew K. Jorgenson

Drawing from prior research and sociological theorization, this study investigates (1) if the transnational organization of production in the context of foreign investment dependence contributes to overall levels of environmental degradation, and (2) if transnationally controlled manufacturing is relatively more or less ecoefficient. To do so, fixed effects panel regression analyses of 37 less-developed countries from 1975-2000 are conducted to assess the effects of secondary sector foreign investment on total carbon dioxide emissions and emissions per unit of production. Findings indicate that foreign investment in manufacturing is positively associated with both outcomes. Additional results suggest that total population, level of development, and export intensity are all positively associated with total emissions and emissions per unit of production. While supporting theorization about the environmental impacts of foreign investment, this study also underscores the importance of considering both human-ecological and political-economic factors when investigating human-caused environmental degradation.

Keywords: global warming and climate change, globalization, political-economy, environmental sociology, greenhouse gas emissions

Back to top

Structural Influences on Water Withdrawals: An Exploratory Macro-Comparative Analysis

By Stefano B. Longo and Richard York

It has been well documented that many societies around the world are currently experiencing the consequences of water scarcity, and this scarcity is likely to be one of the major resource crises of the 21st century. While environmental sociologists and human ecologists have analyzed the social forces driving a variety of biophysical impacts, the socio-structural factors influencing water consumption have not been extensively investigated. We discuss the variety of challenges facing analyses of water consumption at the national level, particularly those stemming from data limitations and the diversity of forces, both social and biophysical, which influence water use. Recognizing the limitations of conducting cross-national research on water resources, we present our analysis as exploratory. We use a simultaneous equation model to analyze the factors influencing both water withdrawals for agricultural use and withdrawals for other uses. We find that economic development and connections to the global economy are key forces influencing water consumption, where at the national level affluence and globalization lead to a decline in agricultural water use, but an escalation of water use in other sectors.

Keywords: water consumption, human ecology, world-systems theory, agricultural production

Back to top

Succession Theory: Reassessing a Neglected Meta-Narrative about Environment and Development

By Thomas K. Rudel

During the 1960s ecologists outlined how the human treatment of the natural environment changed as places underwent economic development. The theoretical point of departure for this work, succession theory, then came under theoretical attack in ecology and the work on the human ecology of economic development stopped. Here I examine the theoretical predictions derived from this initial work against the empirical record. A wide range of historical trends, often endogenous in nature, seem consistent with the theory, but important trans-community phenomena like globalization, the spread of invasive species, and climate change do not fit easily into the community oriented focus of succession theory. On balance, the historical record confirms enough of the theory's predictions to make a case for the heuristic value of succession theory. It may even provide a new metaphor for sustainable development.

Keywords: succession theory, sustainability, sustainable development, punctuated equilibrium, environment-society relations

Back to top

Globalization and the Environment: Implications for Human Migration

By Matthew R. Sanderson

Migration is quickly becoming a salient feature of the globalization of trade, investment, and production. One relatively unexplored way of examining the relationship between globalization and migration is to include the natural environment as a proximate explanation of migration within a global political-economic context. An analytical framework of the relationship between globalization, the environment, and migration is developed by synthesizing concepts derived from the literatures related to the population-environment and globalization-environment nexuses. This framework is then applied to a case study of mineral production in Ghana, which is used to demonstrate the utility of key components of the analytical framework.

Keywords: globalization, migration, environment, Ghana

Back to top

Investigating the Correlates of Biodiversity Loss: A Cross-National Quantitative Analysis of Threatened Bird Species

By Laura A. McKinney, Gregory M. Fulkerson, and Edward L. Kick

Sociological literature has increasingly become concerned with environmental issues. One less developed area of inquiry in this vein has been the study of anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity. We approach this topic through the study of threatened bird species by drawing on the small number of existing studies and by contributing our own original cross-sectional analysis of country-level data. Utilizing OLS regression techniques, results reveal several interaction effects that provide support for the basic theoretical propositions of world-systems theory. We find partial support for Treadmill of Production theory and the various ecological perspectives in the Malthusian tradition. Our results fail to support ecological modernization theory. Future research goals are also addressed.

Keywords: biodiversity, bird species, environment, world-systems theory, quantitative methods, threatened species

Back to top

Efficient Well-Being: Rethinking Sustainability as the Relationship between Human Well-being and Environmental Impacts

By Thomas Dietz, Eugene A. Rosa, and Richard York

The question of how to measure sustainability remains vexing. We approach the problem by noting that most theories of environmental impact assume that exploitation of the environment provides benefits to human well-being. However, this assumption has not been subject to much empirical discipline.  We propose a model of Efficient Well-Being (EWEB) inspired by the Stochastic Frontier Production Models commonly used in economics. EWEB assesses a nation-state's efficiency in enhancing human well-being through the use of economic, natural and human resources. This approach shifts attention from the elusive question of whether a nation is sustainable to the more tractable question of how efficient a nation is in producing human well-being.  We model human well-being as a function of physical, natural and human capital.  In a preliminary test of this approach here we operationalize human well-being as life expectancy, flows of physical capital as gross domestic product per capita, flows of natural capital as the ecological footprint, and human capital as education.  Using data from 135 nations, we find that controlling for physical and human capital, exploitation of the environment has no net effect on well-being.  This suggests that improvements in well-being may be attainable without adverse effects on the environment. We also find that many nations could substantially improve their efficiency in using human and natural resources to generate well-being.  

Keywords: sustainability, human well-being, ecological footprint, Stochastic Frontier Production models

Back to top