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Issue 8.1 Abstracts

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The Sociopolitical Dimensions of Wolf Management and Restoration in the United States

By Martin A. Nie

This article examines the political cultural context and sociopolitical dimensions of wolf management and restoration in the United States. Drawing on the experiences of various wolf programs throughout the country, including New England, the Northern Rockies, Upper-Midwest, Southwest, and Yellowstone National Park, it documents how wolves are often used as a political symbol and surrogate for a number of socially significant policy issues. It also examines the politics of problem definition in the policymaking process. A "politics" model of public policy is used as an analytical framework to examine the following dimensions that are inextricably tied to the debate over wolf management and recovery: land use and the politics of ecosystem management; wilderness preservation; The Wildlands Project and the role of conservation biology in political decisionmaking; the merits and future of the Endangered Species Act; rural culture, concerns and interests; and the contested role of science and public participation in wildlife policymaking and management. The article ends with a discussion of how these sociopolitical and contextual variables affect political decisionmakers and those responsible for wolf management.

Keywords: wolves, wolf reintroduction, wildlife policy, endangered species management

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Stability and Moral Exclusion: Explaining Conflict in Timber-Dependent Com munities

By Charles Clark

Economic and social dislocations in Northwest timber-dependent communities during the last fifteen years resulted from industrial restructuring pushed by global competition, stock manipulations, technological modernization and environmental regulations. Timber community instability and resultant social conflict are linked to cultural issues nestled in differences in community resiliency, internal diversity in production relationships, industrial profitability rationales and the management of scientific information. Previous studies used terms such as "traditional," "community stability," "timber dependency," and "moral persuasion" outside of defined community contexts and unrelated to local environmental conditions, which led to unwarranted generalizations about combatants within post-1985 industrial restructuring in the Northwest. This study of a northwest Montana timber county examines connections between structural issues and exclusionary cultural mobilization, suggesting that hyper-contextualization may provide a deeper research avenue than previous universalized studies.

Keywords: moral exclusion, environmental conflict, industrial restructuring, community stability

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How Environmental Movements Can Be More Effective: Prioritizing Environmental Themes in Political Discourse

By Thomas J. Burns and Terri LeMoyne

A number of observers have pointed out that environmental movements have, at best, met with mixed success. Our paper develops a theoretical framework for why this has been the case. The work draws on a number of intellectual traditions, including theories of rational choice, human ecology, rhetoric, resource mobilization, social movements, criticism and conflict. We examine ways in which environmental issues are framed and prioritized in the collective decision process, both within environmental movements, and for the overall polity. Environmental issues often are used to energize a constituency to support a given political regime; yet unless the environment is one of the regime's top priorities, it is typically abandoned in favor of other issues. In a related vein, we consider how other social movements can effectively co-opt environmental concerns, thereby diverting significant amounts of collective energy to other ends. The theory adduced is fractal, or recursive, applying on a number of levels of analysis. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which environmental movements can become more effective.

Keywords: environmental movements, orphan issues, prioritizing summary symbols, environmental justice, discourse, mobilization

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Environmental Injustice and Human Rights Abuse: The States, MNCs, and Repression of Minority Groups in the World System

By Francis O. Adeola

The issues of global environmental injustice and human rights violations are the central focus of this article. Existing cross-national empirical data and case studies are utilized to assess and establish the patterns of transnational toxic wastes dumping, natural resource exploitation, and human rights transgression. The bases of global environmental injustice are explored. Theoretically, dependency/world system, internal colonialism perspectives, economic contingency, and transnational environmental justice frameworks are used to analyze transnational toxic waste dumping, land appropriation and natural resource exploitation adversely affecting indigenous minorities in underdeveloped societies. With a particular focus on selected cases, available evidence suggests that the poor, powerless indigenous minorities and many environmental and civil rights activists face the danger of environmental injustice and human rights abuse, especially in less developed nations. Significant correlations were found between social inequality, poverty, total external debts, demographic measures, health and solid wastes in the analysis of a cross-national data-set for developing nations. To foster global environmental justice, this study suggests that stronger international norms to protect human rights to a safe and sound environment are imperative; and it is argued that environmental injustice needs to be included as a component of human rights instruments. Other policy implications of the analyses are also discussed.

Keywords: global environmental injustice, toxic waste dumping, environmental risks, human rights violations, indigenous minorities, inequality, environmental degradation, grass-roots environmental activism, world system

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Future Interconnections Among Ecological Farmers, Processors, Marketers, and Consumers in Norway: Creating Shared Vision

By Geir Lieblein, Charles A. Francis and Hanne Torjusen

The role of food has changed from a local product that connects people with each other, and with nature, to simply being a global commodity. The potential consequences include difficulties in identifying our food, and perceiving our own identity. We are now distant from our food sources and increasingly distant from each other. This distance can be spatial, temporal, and psychological. One result is that many citizens place low priority on agriculture and food systems, lack insight and concern about resources and the natural environment, and have a short-term focus on immediate comforts at the expense of long-term sustainability. To search for alternatives, a visioning workshop brought together people with different roles in the food system, and we identified concerns with the current situation and created a shared vision for future interconnections in the food system in Hedmark County, Norway.

Keywords: visionary thinking, regional food systems, sustainable food systems, ecological agriculture, organic farming

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