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Mission Statement
The Environment and Technology program at Rutgers investigates the ways in which people interact with the physical and natural environment, with particular attention to social processes that create inequalities in exposure to environmental abuses, construct sustainable or unsustainable patterns of natural resource use, and conduct the science that informs our relationship with the physical environment. We draw upon a wide range of theoretical orientations and use a variety of methodological tools to analyze environment – society interactions. Depending on the substantive focus of our investigations, we draw upon theories from environmental sociology, organizational sociology, political sociology, economic sociology, development sociology, world systems analysis, and the sociology of science and technology in crafting explanations. Our methods for collecting and analyzing our data range from ethnographic field methods, archival research, and network analyses to remote sensing analyses and multivariate analyses of cross-national data. The following sampling of recent research projects suggests the range of research that the faculty in the environment and technology program undertake here at Rutgers: the political sociology of flood control in the United States, evacuation plans for disasters, networking among NGOs intent on reducing GHG emissions, weather prediction and complexity management, and the dynamics of deforestation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Interdisciplinary Initiatives
To analyze many environment – society interactions, environmental sociologists have to engage in interdisciplinary research. In so doing, they must master the language and research traditions of other disciplines, often in the natural sciences. Rutgers offers ample opportunities for students to undertake this type of interdisciplinary research. For the last ten years the Graduate School at Rutgers has offered an interdisciplinary certificate in The Human Dimensions of Environmental Change which students receive with their terminal degree. The three courses in the certificate focus on different social scientific approaches to studying environmental problems. A pro-seminar acquaints students with different disciplinarily based, substantive foci, like the commons dilemma in fisheries, cultures of environmentally significant consumption, and disaster planning + relief. Another, more topically focused course examines a particular area of concern, like natural hazards or tropical deforestation, in more depth. These courses bring together students from different disciplines who share an interest in environment-society issues. Because Rutgers has a Geography Department and a Department of Human Ecology (environmental social scientists) in the School for Environmental and Biological Sciences, the university attracts a relatively large number of graduate students with environmental concerns. University wide initiatives on climate change and alternative sources of energy, involving students and faculty from many different disciplines, add to the opportunities available to students with interests in environmental sociology.
Financial Support
The University supports students with substantive interests in environment and technology in several different ways. Graduate students can work as research assistants on the faculty grant funded projects with the grant paying for their tuition, health benefits, room, and board. Alternatively, they can use support from fellowships and teaching assistantships while they pursue their own substantive interests in environmental sociology. Teaching assistantships are available through the Department of Human Ecology as well as the Sociology Department.
Affiliated Faculty
Lee Clarke – Organizations, Risk, Risk Communication, Disasters, Sociology of Science.
Phaedra Daipha – Weather Forecasting, Science and Technology Studies, Qualitative Methods.
Karen O’Neill – Political Sociology, Politics of Environmental Issues, Historical Sociology, Sociology of Natural Resources.
Robyn Rodriguez – Political Sociology, Development, Migration, Gender, Southeast Asia
Thomas K. Rudel – Sociology of Natural Resources, Development, Suburbanization, Land Use and Land Cover Change, Climate Change, Latin America
Rachael Shwom – Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Social Movements, Social Networks, Organizations
Graduate Courses offered (last ten years) by these faculty have included: Environmental Sociology, Technology and Society, the Human Dimensions of Environmental Change, Risk and Disasters, Sociology of Science, Tropical Deforestation.
Recent Dissertations and Qualifying Papers (last ten years, with current places of employment, if applicable) of Graduate Students.
Dissertations
Lorenzen, Janet. Restricting Consumption: Creating and Maintaining Contrary Lifestyle Practices in the American Consumer Economy, (McLean, Cerulo, Daipha, Rudel), in progress.
Marlor, Chantelle. 2009. Ways of Knowing: Epistemology, Ontology, and Community Among Ecologists, Biologists and First Nations Clam Diggers. (Martin, Zerubavel, Rudel). Asst. Prof., University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Department of Social, Cultural and Media Studies.
Lang, John. 2007. Acceptable Trust? The Public Perception of Organizations Involved in Genetically Modified Food. (Clarke, McLean, Roos) Asst. Prof., Occidental College, Sociology.
MacLennan, Jamie. 2005. Solitude and Sociability: The Social World of Long Distance Hikers on the Appalachian Trail. (Rudel, Smith, Carr) Asst. Prof., Georgia Southwestern State University, Sociology.
Perez-Lugo, Marla. 2003. Vulnerability to Natural Disasters and the Mass Media. (Rudel, O’Neill, Cerulo) Assoc. Prof., U of Puerto Rico/Mayaguez, Sociology.
Bates, Diane. 2000. Environmental Refugees? Colonist Migration from the Ecuadorian Amazon. (Rudel, Roos, Friedman) Assoc. Prof., The College of New Jersey, Sociology/ Anthropology.
Qualifying Papers
Bruce, Analena. The Troubled Legacy of Agrarian Reform: Small Coffee Farmers and Foundations of the Fair Trade Cooperative System, (Rudel, Mische, Salime), in progress.
Merdjanoff, Alexis. There's No Place Like Home: Examining th Emotional Consequences of Hurricane Katrina on the Displaced Residents of New Orleans, (Clarke, Roos, Springer), in progress.
Burger, Allison. "You Are What You Eat": Food-Related Values and Participation in Community-Supported Agriculture, (Rudel, O'Neill), 2007.
Stein, Karen. Understanding Consumption and Environmental Change in China: A Cross-National Comparison of Consumer Patterns, (Rudel, Leichenko), 2007.
Lang, John. Reducing the Risk of Technology: Socially Embedded Trust, (Clarke, Roos), 2005.
Lorenzen, Janet. Global Markets and Local Consumer Culture: A Reinterpretation of the McDonaldization Thesis, (Rudel, Leichenko) 2005.
Perez-Lugo, Maria. Media Uses in Disaster Situations: A New Focus on the Impact Phase, (Rosenfield, Cerulo), 2001. Perez-Lugo, Maria.
The Mass Media and Disaster Awareness in Puerto Rico: A Case Study of the Floods in Barrio Tortugo, (Rudel, O'Neill), 2000.
Bates, Diane. Green Imperialism Or Underdevelopment?: Sources of Variation in Tropical Rainforest Protection (Rudel, Smith), 1997.
Lane, Katharine. Mountain Miners of a Mineral Colony: Evidence of Agency Within Economic Dependency, (Rudel, Oppenheimer), 1996.
Roper, Jill. We Grow People: Community Gardening Programs as Solutions to the Problems of Low Income Neighborhoods, (Edin, Rudel), 1996.
Simpson, Ruth. The 'Uncertain Response' in Studies of Risk Perception, (Roos, Clarke), 1996.
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