Suchergebnisse

Introduction -- Radical environmental reforms : a theory -- The Great Plains : soil conservation during the "dirty thirties" -- England : green belts after World War II -- Cuba : agro-ecological farming after the Soviet collapse -- Coastal Maine : a catch and sometimes release lobster fishery -- The world : reforms in a global environmental cage -- Radical environmental reforms in comparative perspective -- Conclusions -- References

For the past three decades scientists have urged us to abandon fossil fuels as rapidly as possible. Despite these pleas, the global energy sector has retained a familiar profile, dominated by the use of oil and natural gas. Only states have powers that are commensurate with rapidly reshaping societies in sustainable ways, but how do their politics enable these surges in sustainability? 'Shocks, States, and Sustainability' answers this question through a comparative historical study of four radical environmental reforms: in the Dust Bowl during the New Deal, in Britain after World War II, in Cuba after the Soviet collapse, and in the Gulf of Maine after the Depression. This analysis suggests that states reform environmental practices in the aftermath of focusing events that draw popular attention to environmental degradation and suggest sharp limits in the availability of natural resources.

"As global environmental changes become increasingly evident and efforts to respond to these changes fall short of expectations, questions about the circumstances that generate environmental reforms become more pressing. Defensive Environmentalists and the Dynamics of Global Reform answers these questions through a historical analysis of two processes that have contributed to environmental reforms, one in which people become defensive environmentalists concerned about environmental problems close to home and another in which people become altruistic environmentalists intent on alleviating global problems after experiencing catastrophic events such as hurricanes, droughts and fires. These focusing events make reform more urgent and convince people to become altruistic environmentalists. Bolstered by defensive environmentalists, the altruists gain strength in environmental politics and reforms occur"--

AbstractRural sociology first gained wide recognition during the 1930s when the intersection of economic depression and environmental crisis underlined the suffering of rural peoples. The historical conjuncture of growing rural poverty and environmental crisis has reappeared in the twenty‐first century. What does this recurring combination of circumstances portend for rural sociology? Does it imply a revival of the policy‐oriented sociological analyses of the 1930s? A comparative historical analysis of rural sociology during the New Deal, the post−World War II period, and the contemporary era suggests a qualified answer to this question. The contemporary era resembles the 1930s in providing compelling rationales for engaged scholarship, but the cross‐class coalitions between government social scientists and the rural poor that characterized the 1930s have not materialized in the twenty‐first century. Despite this difference, some common themes, such as a growing emphasis on interdisciplinary research, a primary concern with rural poverty, and an increased interest in the distinguishing features of resilient communities, have characterized scholarship during both periods. These similarities suggest that the practice of applied and engaged scholarship, so prevalent in the rural sociology of the 1930s, has found new traction in dealing with the social and ecological problems of twenty‐first‐century rural communities.

While globalization has expanded the flow of goods, environmental movements have worked to constrain these flows by constructing local-based networks. Conover traces four routes of globalization, while Berry and Mollard shed light on the environmental challenges these routes create.

Do processes of political and economic development hinder or promote the creation of common property institutions (CPIs) to govern common pool resources? Despite the seeming importance of this question, development sociologists have never really tried to answer it. This paper explores the intersection of development processes, the commons, and common property institutions and concludes that development has countervailing influences that both impede and promote the formation of CPIs. Institutional expansion centered around the state facilitates the formation of CPIs while market expansion through globalization and labor migration weakens CPIs. Business cycles have similar influences. Economic booms weaken CPIs while subsequent economic downturns increase the likelihood that resource users will form CPIs.