Environment, Technology, & Community
Faculty Research
Don Dillman has maintained a research program that examines the evolution of technology use in rural communities. He has published work on the role of information technologies in restructuring rural communities, on how the structure of small rural communities are being modified by the evolution of information technologies and, more how use of the Internet has influenced people’s participation and leadership roles in community associations. Part of Dillman’s research program is aimed at improving survey methods.
- Dillman, Don A. 2007. Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design, Second Edition—2007 Update. New York: John Wiley.
- Stern, Michael J. and Don A. Dillman. 2006. “Community Participation, Social Ties and Use of the Internet”. City and Community 5 (4):409-424.
- Allen, John C. and Don A. Dillman. 1994. Against All Odds: Rural Community in the Information Age. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Gregory Hooks brings a multi-faceted research program to the study of the environment and the study of spatial processes. During AY 2009-10, Hook is Visiting Research Chair in Health, Science and the Environment at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada); his research is focused on environmental inequality in the Detroit-Windsor urban area. He is currently deploying geographic information systems and detailed data collection to study Native American exposure to unexploded ordnance and other environmental dangers that are a legacy of defense production and military land uses. He has also examined the local impact of prisons.
- Gregory Hooks and Chad Smith. 2004. "The Treadmill of Destruction: National Sacrifice Areas and Native Americans”. American Sociological Review 69(4): 558-76.
- Gregory Hooks and Chad Smith. 2005a. “Treadmills of Production and Destruction: Threats to the Environment Posed by Militarism” Organizations and Environment 18(1): 19-37.
- Gregory Hooks and Chad Smith. 2005b. “A Quiet Environmental Crisis”. National Science Foundation SES # 0518722. (June 2005 – August 2008).
- Gregory Hooks, Linda Lobao, Clay Mosher, and Thomas Rotolo. 2004. "The Prison Industry: Carceral Expansion and Employment in U.S. Counties, 1969-1994". Social Science Quarterly (85): 37-57.
- Linda Lobao and Gregory Hooks. 2003. “Public Employment, Welfare Transfers and Economic Well-Being across Local Populations: Does a Lean and Mean Government Benefit the Masses?” Social Forces (82): 519-56.
- Linda Lobao, Gregory Hooks, and Ann Tickamyer (eds.). 2007. "The Sociology of Spatial Inequality". Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Scott Frickel’s research centers primarily on the politics of environmental knowledge and its consequences for science, the state, and society. Much of his current research calls attention to questions of environmental health and risk in post-Katrina New Orleans.
- Frickel, Scott. 2010. “Shadow Mobilization in Environmental and Health Justice.” In Social Movements and the Transformation of U. S. Health Care, Jane Banaszak-Holl, Sandra R. Levitsky, and Mayer N. Zald, editors. New York: Oxford University Press, in press.
- Frickel, Scott, Richard Campanella and M. Bess Vincent. 2009. “Mapping Knowledge Investments in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: A New Approach for Assessing Regulatory Agency Responses to Environmental Disaster.” Environmental Science & Policy 12(2):119-133.
- Frickel, Scott and James R. Elliott. 2008. “Tracking Industrial Land Use Conversions: A New Approach for Studying Relict Waste and Urban Development” Organization & Environment 21(2):128-147.
Jessica Goldberger (Rural Sociology) studies agricultural knowledge, science, and technology in the United States and developing world. Goldberger is particularly interested in the sources of agricultural knowledge – from non-governmental organizations that share organic farming information with smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa to seed dealers who promote the latest agricultural biotechnology to farmers who actively engage in on-farm experimentation.
- Jessica Goldberger. (Forthcoming). "Non-Governmental Organizations, Strategic Bridge Building, and the ‘Scientization’ of Organic Agriculture in Kenya". Agriculture and Human Values.
- Jessica Goldberger. (Forthcoming). "Diffusion and Adoption of Non-Certified Organic Agriculture: A Case Study from Semi-Arid Makueni District, Kenya". Journal of Sustainable Agriculture.
- Jessica Goldberger, Jeanne Merrill, and Terrance Hurley. (2005). "Bt Corn Farmer Compliance with Insect Resistance Management Requirements in Minnesota and Wisconsin". AgBioForum. 8(2/3): 151-160.
Daniel Jaffee studies the effects of economic globalization and free trade policies on environmental and social conditions for rural communities and small agricultural producers in the global South, particularly Latin America. His work has focused on fair trade as an alternative model of international economic exchange, examining the benefits and limitations of participation in fair trade markets for small commodity producers.
-
Daniel Jaffee and Philip H. Howard. "Corporate Cooptation of
Organic and Fair Trade Standards." Forthcoming in Agriculture and
Human Values. -
Daniel Jaffee. "Fair Trade and Development: How Has the Paradigm
Changed?" Forthcoming in Meera Warrier, ed., The Politics of Fair
Trade. London: Routledge. - Daniel Jaffee. 2008. “Better, But Not Great”: The Social and Environmental Benefits and Limitations of Fair Trade for Indigenous Coffee Producers in Oaxaca, Mexico. 195-222 in Ruerd Ruben (ed.), The Impact of Fair Trade. Wagenigen, Netherlands: Wagenigen Academic Publishers.
- Daniel Jaffee. 2007. Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability and Survival. University of California Press.
- Daniel Jaffee, Jack R. Kloppenburg, and Mario B. Monroy. 2004. “Bringing Home the ‘Moral Charge’: Fair Trade Within the North and Within the South”. Rural Sociology 69(2): 169-196.
- Daniel Jaffee. 1997. “Restoration Where People Matter: Reversing Forest Degradation in Michoacán, Mexico”. Ecological Restoration(formerly Restoration & Management Notes)15:2 (Winter): 147-155.
Erik Johnson’s work examines the development and outcomes of environmental movements in the U.S. and abroad.
- Johnson, Erik W., Jon Agnone, and John D. McCarthy. Forthcoming. “Movement Organizations, Synergistic Tactics and Environmental Public Policy.” Social Forces.
- Johnson, Erik W., Yoshitaka Saito, and Makoto Nishikido. 2009. “The Organizational Demography of Japanese Environmentalism.” Sociological Inquiry. 79(4): 481-504.
- Johnson, Erik W. 2008. “Social Movement Size, Organizational Diversity and the Making of Federal Law.” Social Forces 86(3): 967-93.
- Johnson, Erik W. 2006. “Changing Issue Representation Among Major United States Environmental Movement Organizations.” Rural Sociology 71(1): 132-54.
Raymond Jussaume (Rural Sociology) has studied the social, economic and political impacts of trade and investment in food and agriculture, with particular emphasis on the relationships between and within the United States and East Asia. More recently, he has become involved in research on sustainability issues surrounding local food systems, particularly in the context of the United States, Europe and Asia.
- Glenna, Leland and Raymond A. Jussaume, Jr. 2007. "Characteristics of Organic Farmers in Washington State Who Are Willing to Use GMOs" Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems.Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 118-124.
- Ostrom, Marcy and Raymond A. Jussaume Jr. (Forthcoming - 2007). "Assessing the Significance of Direct Farmer-Consumer Linkages as a Change Strategy: Civic or Opportunistic?" - in Hinrichs, Clare and Thomas Lyson (eds.). Remaking the North American Food System.
- Kondoh, Kazumi and Raymond A. Jussaume Jr. 2006. "Contextualizing Farmers’ Attitudes Towards Biotechnology". Agriculture and Human Values. Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 341-352.
Christine Oakley is an applied sociologist whose interests are in community organization and public health. She chairs the Palouse Alliance for Healthy Individuals, Families and Communities, a non-profit consortium of area health and social service professionals. She is currently the program evaluator for a multi-year program funded by a Health Resources and Services Administration Rural Health Networking Grant to build a sustainable network of mental health providers, first responders, clergy, physicians, social workers and long term care providers in Washington and Idaho.
- HRSA Rural Outreach Grant: $300,000 three year grant to increase access by rural seniors to health and social services through educational outreach, increasing transportation options, and providing care giver support. May 2006 – April 2009.
- HRSA Rural Networking Grant: $300,000 three year grant to develop a sustainable rural mental health network for professionals serving rural seniors. May 2008 – April 2011
Gene Rosa’s research interests range broadly, comprising theoretical, empirical, and policy issues. His principal theoretical work is devoted to synthetic examination of the leading “Risk Society” theories. His empirical work is focused on understanding the key drivers of ground level pollutants, on uncovering the “tipping point” when the ecological benefits of the demographic transition are trumped by rising consumption, and assessing public understanding of nuclear risks. His policy focus is on the democratization of public decisions about technological and environmental risks.
- Rosa, Eugene A., Andreas Diekmann, Carlo Jaeger, and Thomas Dietz (eds.) 2010. Human Footprints on the Global Environment: Threats to Sustainability. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Rosa, Eugene A., Aaron McCright, and Ortwin Renn 2010. “Jürgen Habermas and the Risk Society: The Meeting of Passing Ships” (in Italian), Quaderni di Teoria Sociale (available in English from first author).
- York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas Dietz. York, “A Tale of Contrasting 2009. Trends: Three Measures of the Ecological Footprint in China, India, Japan, and the United States, 1961-2003.” Journal of World Systems Research XV:134-146. http://jwsr.ucr.edu/archive/vol15/York_etal-vol15n2.pdf
- Dietz, Thomas, Eugene A. Rosa, and Richard York. 2009. “Environmentally Efficient Well-Being: Rethinking Sustainability as the Relationship between Human Well-being and Environmental Impacts.” Human Ecology Review 16:114-123.
Sociology department faculty who contribute to the Environment, Technology, and Community cluster employ a variety of methodological approaches, analytical tools, and theoretical traditions to examine environment-society interactions across micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of organization.