Issue 18.2 Abstracts

Contents Page

Happiness as Correlate of Sustainable Behavior: A Study of Proecological, Frugal, Equitable and Altruistic Actions that Promote Subjective Wellbeing

By Victor Corral-Verdugo, Jose F. Mireles-Acosta, Cesar Tapia-Fonllem, and Blanca Fraijo-Sing

Sustainable behavior (SB) generally encompasses a series of actions intended at protecting both the physical and the social environments. SB may be indicated by pro-ecological, frugal, altruistic, and equitable conducts and one of the aims of environmental psychology is to investigate the psychological consequences of such actions. Previous studies had reported that the practice of pro-ecological and altruistic behaviors might result in enhanced levels of happiness; people living in more equitable countries seem to be happier, while a frugal consumption often conduces to a state of satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. Yet, so far no study considering the relationship between an aggregate of the four abovementioned instances of SB, on the one hand, and subjective wellbeing, on the other hand, had been conducted. Six-hundred-and-six undergraduate students at a Mexican university responded to an instrument assessing pro-ecological, altruistic, frugal and equitable behaviors, as well as their report of happiness. By using structural equations we modeled a higher-order-construct of “sustainable behavior”, indicated by the interrelations of their four first-order (pro-ecological, altruistic, frugal and equitable) factors. The higher-order-factor coherently emerged from such interrelation. In turn, sustainable behavior significantly influenced a “happiness” factor, also specified within the structural model. Implications for the study and promotion of sustainable behaviors are discussed within the framework of a positive psychology of sustainability.This paper suggests a framework for operationalizing the concept of a social-ecological system (SES), thorough a generic system model that can be applied to different situations and used as a management tool. Four functional subsystems are identified: natural (N), worldview (W), control/management (C), and technology (T). These encompass four orders of system complexity: physical, biological, social, and semiotic. Emergent systems properties are conceptualized as arising through exchanges of matter and meaning between subsystems, and between the system as a whole and its environment (E). The second half of the paper draws on field work undertaken in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru, to illustrate how the generic model can be applied to the case of family farm systems in the reserve. The aim is to facilitate collaboration among specialists from a range of disciplines, and non-academics, working together to address social and environmental issues from a systems perspective.

Keywords:Happiness, pro-ecological behavior, altruism, frugality, equity

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Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Central and Eastern European Nations, 1992-2005: A Test of Ecologically Unequal Exchange Theory

By Andrew K. Jorgenson

The author engages the theory of ecologically unequal exchange to assess the extent to which growth in per capita anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in Central and Eastern European (CEE) nations is a function of the “vertical flow” of exports to high income nations. Initial results of cross-national fixed effects panel model estimates for 1992 to 2005 indicate that growth in such emissions in these transition economy nations is negatively associated with the vertical flow of exports, which contradicts the tested theoretical proposition. However, additional findings indicate that the effect of the vertical flow of exports on emissions have increased in magnitude through time, going from being environmentally beneficial for CEE nations to quickly becoming environmentally harmful and increasingly ecologically unequal. .

Keywords: carbon dioxide emissions, environmental sociology, international political-economy, ecologically unequal exchange, Central and Eastern Europe, transition economies, globalization

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Stability, Sustainability, and Catastrophe: Applying Resilience Thinking to U.S. Agriculture

By Gigi Berardi, Rebekah Green, & Bryant Hammond

Resilience is closely related to notions of sustainability, but emphasizes unpredictable, dynamic environments. As conceptualized in engineering, hazards management, and ecology literature, part of resilience is adaptive capacity, the ability to react effectively to change over time in order to maintain a desirable system state. Agricultural policy has had the effect of undermining such adaptive capacity with its emphasis on stabilization. Using a resilience framework and Hurricane Katrina as an analogy, we suggest that the emphasis on stability and efficiency degrades agricultural system resilience in two ways: through reduced diversity in size and type of production, as well as reduced ability to change production regimes based on the primary operator’s judgment of social, environmental, and economic conditions; and, through the reduction of adaptive capacity by artificially stabilizing the system and eliminating feedback mechanisms that make adaptation possible. The resulting stagnation or loss of economic and political power lowers the resilience of the system and thus its long-term sustainability.

Keywords: resilience, sustainability, adaptive capacity, agriculture, United States agricultural policy

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Place Dynamics in a Mixed Amenity Place: Great Salt Lake, Utah

By Carla Koons Trentelman

While considerable literature examines place dynamics, including place meanings, sense of place and place attachment, nearly all these works focus on people’s relationships with high amenity places such as mountain or lakeside resort-type settings. This exploratory study uses survey data to explore place dynamics among residents living near Utah’s Great Salt Lake (GSL), a setting known among locals for negative images as well as positive—a mixed amenity place. Findings reveal that while sense of place and place attachment are related to people’s involvement and experience with the place, as seen in prior studies, these relationships are more nuanced in this setting. Place attachment is considerably less widespread; for some, GSL holds negative meanings; and some appear to have no real sense of place with GSL. These dynamics not reported in studies of high amenity places are important to a better understanding of the complexities of people’s relationships with places.

Keywords: Place, mixed amenity places, sense of place, place meanings, place attachment

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Recognizing Overshoot: Succession of an Ecological Framework

By Jessica Schultz and Richard York

William Catton’s foundational book in environmental sociology, Overshoot, published over 30 years ago, provides a valuable conceptual framework for understanding human-environment interactions. Despite the importance of this work, over the past three decades, environmental sociology has drifted away from many of Catton’s core concerns, especially his focus on natural limits. Reminiscent of the context in the 1970s following the Energy Crisis in which Catton wrote Overshoot, we now appear to be entering a new age of economic and environmental crises, where the ecological contradictions of modern societies and the verity of resource constraints grow ever more apparent. Given the re-emergence of crises similar to those which spurred Catton’s work, we highlight some of Overshoot’s most important conceptual contributions and argue that Overshoot deserves renewed attention, since it holds many insights that can help us to address the environmental and economic problems of the twenty-first century.

Keywords: Environmental Sociology, New Ecological Paradigm, Overshoot

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Sociometabolic Transitions in Subsistence Communities: Boserup Revisited in Four Comparative Case Studies

By Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Simron Jit Singh, Christian Lauk, Alexander Remesch, Lisa Ringhofer, and Clemens M. Grunbuhel

In the context of sustainable development, we investigate four subsistence communities, one each from India, Bolivia, Laos and Thailand, to understand the systemic interrelations between the food production systems and related environmental pressures. In doing so, we revisit Ester Boserup’s theory of increasing land productivity at the expense of declining labour productivity as a consequence of agricultural intensification. Our data confirm Boserup’s assumptions within the reach of traditional agriculture, but find them not to apply to hunting & gathering communities and to agricultural systems now increasingly dependent on fossil fuels and industrial fertilizers. Instead we propose a theory of “sociometabolic transitions” as being more appropriate to understanding transitions in land and labour productivity across a wider range of modes of subsistence.

Keywords: sociometabolic regimes, sociometabolic transitions, farming systems, time use, labour and area productivity, rural development

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Impact of Migrant Remittances on the Welfare of Arable Crop Farm Households in South Eastern Nigeria

By Jude Chukwudi Nwaru, Onwuchekwa Raph Iheke, and Christian Ejike Onyenweaku

This study attempted to examine the impact of migrant remittances on the welfare of arable crop farm households. Primary data were collected from a random sample of 120 respondents comprising 60 each of migrants’ remittance receiving and non-remittance receiving households through the cost route method. Data were analyzed using frequency distribution, regression analysis and Chow’s test statistic. Results of the analyses show that sex of household head, household size, household age composition, income and sector of employment were the significant factors influencing the welfare of the remittance receiving households while sex, years of education, composition of household work force and sector of employment were the significant factors influencing the welfare of the non-remittance receiving households. The Chow’s test revealed that the remittance receiving households have higher welfare status than their non remittance receiving counterparts. Therefore, policies for enhancing migrant remittances and their optimum channeling and use were recommended.

Keywords: Migrant remittances, welfare, farm households

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Moving "Eco" Back Into Socio-Ecological Models: A Proposal to Reorient Ecological Literacy Into Human Developmental Models and School Systems

By Nicholas R. G. Stanger

Socio-ecological models contribute to the understanding of how context influences human development and construction of worldviews. However, the claim that socio-ecological models represent the “true” influencers of an individual might be a misrepresentation of the complexity of whole ecological systems. This paper explores the possibility of adapting the use of the “socio-ecological model” to better represent the ecological influencers, rather than the primary focus of human and social factors. With reference to the new trends in environmental education, this paper explores the definitions of ecologically-based language, outlines the current domain of socio-ecological models, and proposes a re-orientation of socio-ecological models to “eco-sociological models.” The conclusion provides five ways to incorporate a more ecologically-based approach to understanding contextual influencers and a rework of Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological model as an eco-sociological model. were recommended.

Keywords: socio-ecological model; environmental education; greenwashing, ecosystem domain, reform

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