Pub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2116361
Nicholas Theis, Richard York
ABSTRACT Due to the many plausible decisions researchers can make during the scientific process, varying results can be obtained to research questions. In the environmental sociological literature, key theories and findings highlight how modernization, militarization, demographic factors, and globalization and trade influence carbon dioxide emissions. We use multiverse analysis to address how robust central findings in this literature are to model specification choices. Our results indicate that findings related to modernization and demographic factors are mostly robust, while those concerning militarization and globalization are more subject to model selection.
{"title":"How Robust Are Social Structural Predictors of Carbon Dioxide Emissions? A Multiverse Analysis","authors":"Nicholas Theis, Richard York","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2116361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2116361","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Due to the many plausible decisions researchers can make during the scientific process, varying results can be obtained to research questions. In the environmental sociological literature, key theories and findings highlight how modernization, militarization, demographic factors, and globalization and trade influence carbon dioxide emissions. We use multiverse analysis to address how robust central findings in this literature are to model specification choices. Our results indicate that findings related to modernization and demographic factors are mostly robust, while those concerning militarization and globalization are more subject to model selection.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"9 1","pages":"80 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46490152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-27DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2115660
Patrick CoatarPeter, Brian J. Gareau
ABSTRACT This paper analyzes an important facet in international environmental governance: the development and implementation of Chile’s national forestry strategy. As a national program designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and to enhance the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and forest carbon stocks (i.e., a national REDD+ program), Chile’s national forestry strategy demonstrates the norm diffusion and institutional structuration commonly exhibited in world polity approaches to global and transnational sociology. Yet, world-system analysis of Chile’s forest conservation program highlights the role of power and positionality along the global division of labor in its implementation. The organized hypocrisy of the Chilean state leads to means-ends decoupling in which the practices of the global institutional order are faithfully executed but have an opaque relationship to climate governance goals. This paper, then, joins a growing scholarship that combines these divergent approaches to highlight advances in environmental governance born from connection to the global institutional order of environmentalism while simultaneously explaining structural issues that hinder efforts to achieve global climate targets.
{"title":"Combining world-system and world polity approaches to analyze international environmental governance: a case study of forest governance in Chile","authors":"Patrick CoatarPeter, Brian J. Gareau","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2115660","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2115660","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper analyzes an important facet in international environmental governance: the development and implementation of Chile’s national forestry strategy. As a national program designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and to enhance the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and forest carbon stocks (i.e., a national REDD+ program), Chile’s national forestry strategy demonstrates the norm diffusion and institutional structuration commonly exhibited in world polity approaches to global and transnational sociology. Yet, world-system analysis of Chile’s forest conservation program highlights the role of power and positionality along the global division of labor in its implementation. The organized hypocrisy of the Chilean state leads to means-ends decoupling in which the practices of the global institutional order are faithfully executed but have an opaque relationship to climate governance goals. This paper, then, joins a growing scholarship that combines these divergent approaches to highlight advances in environmental governance born from connection to the global institutional order of environmentalism while simultaneously explaining structural issues that hinder efforts to achieve global climate targets.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"9 1","pages":"67 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48413302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-24DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2115654
J. Schwörer, Xavier Romero Vidal, S. Vallejo
ABSTRACT Social and environmental scientists usually argue that political parties hold hostile positions towards GMOs, yet we are confronted with a lack of systematic comparative analyses in the West European context. Conducting a quantitative content analysis of 265 election manifestos in seven Western European countries from 1990 until 2020, we test this assumption and explore the salience of GMOs in election manifestos and the positions of political parties on this domain. Our findings reveal that GMOs are neither a particular salient nor ignored issue by political parties and that most party families do tend to reject GMOs. Mainstream parties are more likely to talk about GMOs and to take a critical stance during periods of high mobilization of anti-GMO movements. Additionally, we hypothesize that the presence of a Green party in the national party system may make a difference. The findings provide insights into mainstream parties’ behaviour on niche issues and information for the scientific community about how political parties may become less hostile towards GMOs.
{"title":"The rise and fall of GMOs in politics: party positions and mainstream party behaviour in Western Europe","authors":"J. Schwörer, Xavier Romero Vidal, S. Vallejo","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2115654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2115654","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Social and environmental scientists usually argue that political parties hold hostile positions towards GMOs, yet we are confronted with a lack of systematic comparative analyses in the West European context. Conducting a quantitative content analysis of 265 election manifestos in seven Western European countries from 1990 until 2020, we test this assumption and explore the salience of GMOs in election manifestos and the positions of political parties on this domain. Our findings reveal that GMOs are neither a particular salient nor ignored issue by political parties and that most party families do tend to reject GMOs. Mainstream parties are more likely to talk about GMOs and to take a critical stance during periods of high mobilization of anti-GMO movements. Additionally, we hypothesize that the presence of a Green party in the national party system may make a difference. The findings provide insights into mainstream parties’ behaviour on niche issues and information for the scientific community about how political parties may become less hostile towards GMOs.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"9 1","pages":"93 - 106"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41684695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-17DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2112888
Edward E. Millar, Stephanie L Melles, J. Klug, Terry Rees
ABSTRACT Although citizen science can be characterised as a mechanism to counter anti-science attitudes and build public trust in science, the popularity of citizen science may be indicative of growing populism trends and public hostility towards professional expertise. We undertook a qualitative study of the attitudes of volunteer lake stewards in a long-running lake monitoring program in Ontario, Canada, considering themes related to fostering public trust in science. Semi-structured interviews (n = 40) were conducted with volunteers in the Lake Partner Program (LPP), Ontario, Canada, who were asked questions related to how they use the data they collect, how they communicate results to local audiences, and the extent to which they see themselves playing a role in strengthening community trust in scientific knowledge, institutions, and individuals that are involved in the program. Though trust in science is relational, imprecise, and difficult to categorise, our findings suggest that trust is linked to community reputation, the accessibility of scientific concepts, the ability to act when appropriate, and ongoing institutional support for volunteer efforts. Lake stewards see themselves as translators and emissaries of environmental science within their communities: under certain conditions, stewards can help to strengthen community trust.
{"title":"Stewarding relations of trust: citizen scientist perspectives on fostering community trust in science","authors":"Edward E. Millar, Stephanie L Melles, J. Klug, Terry Rees","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2112888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2112888","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Although citizen science can be characterised as a mechanism to counter anti-science attitudes and build public trust in science, the popularity of citizen science may be indicative of growing populism trends and public hostility towards professional expertise. We undertook a qualitative study of the attitudes of volunteer lake stewards in a long-running lake monitoring program in Ontario, Canada, considering themes related to fostering public trust in science. Semi-structured interviews (n = 40) were conducted with volunteers in the Lake Partner Program (LPP), Ontario, Canada, who were asked questions related to how they use the data they collect, how they communicate results to local audiences, and the extent to which they see themselves playing a role in strengthening community trust in scientific knowledge, institutions, and individuals that are involved in the program. Though trust in science is relational, imprecise, and difficult to categorise, our findings suggest that trust is linked to community reputation, the accessibility of scientific concepts, the ability to act when appropriate, and ongoing institutional support for volunteer efforts. Lake stewards see themselves as translators and emissaries of environmental science within their communities: under certain conditions, stewards can help to strengthen community trust.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"9 1","pages":"31 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47525199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-27DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2106087
F. Mempel, F. Bidone
ABSTRACT Brazil plays a central role in Western depictions of and narratives on tropical deforestation. In this contribution, we gather a large text corpus from Western media outlets with articles on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes. The sources include outlets from Europe, the US, Canada and Australia and span a time period from the late 1980s to 2020. Leveraging several text-mining approaches, such as topic modeling and automated narrative network analysis, we disentangle the way that Western media have tried to make sense of deforestation in the Amazon and the Cerrado biomes. We show that the former has received disproportionately more news coverage, specifically in times of international concern over the Brazilian government’s commitment to tackle deforestation. Further, Western media frequently report on the struggles of indigenous populations in the Amazon, often following an essentialist depiction of these communities, while in the case of the Cerrado, traditional populations are hardly mentioned at all. Our findings provide a methodologically innovative and empirically grounded case for the often raised concern over a relative invisibility of the Cerrado biome and its traditional populations, which may help explain observed disparities in governance interventions.
{"title":"Re-MEDIAting distant impacts - how Western media make sense of deforestation in different Brazilian biomes","authors":"F. Mempel, F. Bidone","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2106087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2106087","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Brazil plays a central role in Western depictions of and narratives on tropical deforestation. In this contribution, we gather a large text corpus from Western media outlets with articles on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes. The sources include outlets from Europe, the US, Canada and Australia and span a time period from the late 1980s to 2020. Leveraging several text-mining approaches, such as topic modeling and automated narrative network analysis, we disentangle the way that Western media have tried to make sense of deforestation in the Amazon and the Cerrado biomes. We show that the former has received disproportionately more news coverage, specifically in times of international concern over the Brazilian government’s commitment to tackle deforestation. Further, Western media frequently report on the struggles of indigenous populations in the Amazon, often following an essentialist depiction of these communities, while in the case of the Cerrado, traditional populations are hardly mentioned at all. Our findings provide a methodologically innovative and empirically grounded case for the often raised concern over a relative invisibility of the Cerrado biome and its traditional populations, which may help explain observed disparities in governance interventions.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"9 1","pages":"51 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59992555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-02DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2094995
P. Gardner, Tiago Carvalho, Maria Valenstain
ABSTRACT This article offers an analysis of social movement transnationalisation, using Extinction Rebellion as its case study. In order to investigate the temporal and geographical dynamics of Extinction Rebellion’s transnational diffusion, and the interaction of these dynamics with protest events, we draw on two primary datasets: one describing where and when all 1265 of the movement’s local groups emerged globally, the other containing all major protest events with which it is associated. We contend that although Extinction Rebellion has been impressively international from its early stages, the highest density of local groups – or ‘chapters’ – is found in Western Europe and the Anglosphere. Drawing on della Porta’s theory of ‘eventful protest’, we argue that peaks in the creation of new local groups across the world followed major protest events. Hence, we argue that Extinction Rebellion protests were instrumental in the movement’s own transnational diffusion. The data also reveal that the period from early 2020 to June 2021 (the time of data collection) represented a nadir in new chapter creation, indicating a possible COVID-19 effect in the movement’s diffusion.
{"title":"Spreading rebellion?: The rise of extinction rebellion chapters across the world","authors":"P. Gardner, Tiago Carvalho, Maria Valenstain","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2094995","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2094995","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article offers an analysis of social movement transnationalisation, using Extinction Rebellion as its case study. In order to investigate the temporal and geographical dynamics of Extinction Rebellion’s transnational diffusion, and the interaction of these dynamics with protest events, we draw on two primary datasets: one describing where and when all 1265 of the movement’s local groups emerged globally, the other containing all major protest events with which it is associated. We contend that although Extinction Rebellion has been impressively international from its early stages, the highest density of local groups – or ‘chapters’ – is found in Western Europe and the Anglosphere. Drawing on della Porta’s theory of ‘eventful protest’, we argue that peaks in the creation of new local groups across the world followed major protest events. Hence, we argue that Extinction Rebellion protests were instrumental in the movement’s own transnational diffusion. The data also reveal that the period from early 2020 to June 2021 (the time of data collection) represented a nadir in new chapter creation, indicating a possible COVID-19 effect in the movement’s diffusion.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"8 1","pages":"424 - 435"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41819757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-14DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2069216
N. Godden, Doreen Wijekoon, Kylie Wrigley
ABSTRACT Climate change is a social justice issue, and people who experience disadvantage and marginalisation are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In 2019–2020, the government of the state of Western Australia (WA) held the world’s first inquiry into climate change and health. The Inquiry report, submissions, and hearing transcripts make an important contribution to a small but growing body of evidence that climate change exacerbates and reinforces existing social inequalities in WA in areas such as health, economics, gender relations, and access and inclusion. However, in late-2020, the WA government released its 38-page Climate Policy, with very limited reference to social justice and only one use of the word ‘people’. Our critical intersectional feminist analysis finds a prevailing dissonance between climate evidence and climate policy in WA. Climate governance in WA is ill prepared, if not unwilling, to support people who experience disadvantage and are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. There is an urgent need for policies and actions to address multiple dimensions of inequality under climate change, across the fields of climate change mitigation, adaptation, and disaster response.
{"title":"Social (In)justice, climate change and climate policy in Western Australia","authors":"N. Godden, Doreen Wijekoon, Kylie Wrigley","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2069216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2069216","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Climate change is a social justice issue, and people who experience disadvantage and marginalisation are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In 2019–2020, the government of the state of Western Australia (WA) held the world’s first inquiry into climate change and health. The Inquiry report, submissions, and hearing transcripts make an important contribution to a small but growing body of evidence that climate change exacerbates and reinforces existing social inequalities in WA in areas such as health, economics, gender relations, and access and inclusion. However, in late-2020, the WA government released its 38-page Climate Policy, with very limited reference to social justice and only one use of the word ‘people’. Our critical intersectional feminist analysis finds a prevailing dissonance between climate evidence and climate policy in WA. Climate governance in WA is ill prepared, if not unwilling, to support people who experience disadvantage and are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. There is an urgent need for policies and actions to address multiple dimensions of inequality under climate change, across the fields of climate change mitigation, adaptation, and disaster response.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"8 1","pages":"377 - 387"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43969979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-07DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2073626
S. Shostak
ABSTRACT Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of urban agriculture in Massachusetts, this paper investigates the multiple meanings of soil for contemporary urban farmers and gardeners. I first consider how urban farmers speak for and with the soil in their neighborhoods to call attention to historical and ongoing environmental racism. These narratives highlight how racialized social processes – including redlining, blockbusting, white flight and disinvestment – have harmed the health of both people and the environment in urban communities of color. I then describe how urban farmers and gardeners articulate the importance of soil for health and well-being, especially for people whose relationships with the earth have been disrupted by capitalism, colonialism and racism. These narratives draw on both scientific and spiritual frameworks to highlight the healing potential of re-establishing direct relationships with nature, reclaiming ancestral knowledge about the healing properties of plants, and reconnecting with the ancestors themselves. Analysis of these interlinked narratives contributes to an emerging cross-disciplinary scholarship on the situatedness of ways of conceptualizing and interacting with soils, calling attention especially to the role of racialized inequities in the creation of harmful soil materialities and the possibilities of socioecological repair.
{"title":"‘When you heal the soil…’: Environmental racism and socioecological repair in contemporary urban agriculture","authors":"S. Shostak","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2073626","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2073626","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of urban agriculture in Massachusetts, this paper investigates the multiple meanings of soil for contemporary urban farmers and gardeners. I first consider how urban farmers speak for and with the soil in their neighborhoods to call attention to historical and ongoing environmental racism. These narratives highlight how racialized social processes – including redlining, blockbusting, white flight and disinvestment – have harmed the health of both people and the environment in urban communities of color. I then describe how urban farmers and gardeners articulate the importance of soil for health and well-being, especially for people whose relationships with the earth have been disrupted by capitalism, colonialism and racism. These narratives draw on both scientific and spiritual frameworks to highlight the healing potential of re-establishing direct relationships with nature, reclaiming ancestral knowledge about the healing properties of plants, and reconnecting with the ancestors themselves. Analysis of these interlinked narratives contributes to an emerging cross-disciplinary scholarship on the situatedness of ways of conceptualizing and interacting with soils, calling attention especially to the role of racialized inequities in the creation of harmful soil materialities and the possibilities of socioecological repair.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"8 1","pages":"400 - 412"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41956406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-05DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2073803
Rebecca Ewert
ABSTRACT Rumors spread during disasters as community members seek information and attempt to make sense of unexpected, anxiety-producing events. While considerable sociological research has examined the transmission and spread of rumors, less attention has been given to the creation of rumor narrative content itself. Drawing on interviews with wildfire survivors in one rural Northern California county, this study shows that rumor narrative creation reflects existing cultural values and power arrangements. In a contested post-disaster landscape, rumors are used to frame new information to maintain coherence with existing cultural beliefs while reinforcing prevailing ideas about safety, deservingness, and class. In this case, rumors are created to reflect cultural schemas such as beliefs about the government and environmental protection, and normative power arrangements instantiated through symbols of spatial stigma. The data presented in this article extends research on stigma, culture, and disaster by arguing existing dominant cultural values shape the content of rumors by dictating which pieces of information are seen as reasonable and reliable, providing residents with opportunities to frame information to explain and justify unequal disaster outcomes. In disaster situations where the transmission of reliable information is especially important, local culture enables and restricts which narratives are produced, shared, and believed.
{"title":"Like wildfire: creating rumor content in the face of disaster","authors":"Rebecca Ewert","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2073803","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2073803","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Rumors spread during disasters as community members seek information and attempt to make sense of unexpected, anxiety-producing events. While considerable sociological research has examined the transmission and spread of rumors, less attention has been given to the creation of rumor narrative content itself. Drawing on interviews with wildfire survivors in one rural Northern California county, this study shows that rumor narrative creation reflects existing cultural values and power arrangements. In a contested post-disaster landscape, rumors are used to frame new information to maintain coherence with existing cultural beliefs while reinforcing prevailing ideas about safety, deservingness, and class. In this case, rumors are created to reflect cultural schemas such as beliefs about the government and environmental protection, and normative power arrangements instantiated through symbols of spatial stigma. The data presented in this article extends research on stigma, culture, and disaster by arguing existing dominant cultural values shape the content of rumors by dictating which pieces of information are seen as reasonable and reliable, providing residents with opportunities to frame information to explain and justify unequal disaster outcomes. In disaster situations where the transmission of reliable information is especially important, local culture enables and restricts which narratives are produced, shared, and believed.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"8 1","pages":"436 - 447"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49472430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-27DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2022.2070904
Landen Longest, Alison E. Adams, Thomas E. Shriver
ABSTRACT Extant research emphasizes the resonance of gendered collective identities in mobilizing women’s environmental activism, particularly around motherhood and caregiving. Gaps remain, though, in our understanding of the specific barriers that can obstruct the formation of collective identity among groups of women who share environmental concerns. To interrogate this issue, we explore the case of two cancer clusters in North Carolina that many residents suspect are related to coal ash contamination. We use qualitative interviews with women affected by the clusters (n = 36) to identify factors that have inhibited the formation of a mobilizing collective identity. Our results suggest that the reciprocal relationship between disempowerment and isolation, as well as the compounding burdens of emotional and care labor associated with managing environmental illness, prevented the formation of a collective identity in this case. These findings highlight how factors particular to cases of environmental illness can forestall, rather than drive, women’s environmental activism.
{"title":"Barriers to women’s collective identity formation in contaminated communities","authors":"Landen Longest, Alison E. Adams, Thomas E. Shriver","doi":"10.1080/23251042.2022.2070904","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2022.2070904","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Extant research emphasizes the resonance of gendered collective identities in mobilizing women’s environmental activism, particularly around motherhood and caregiving. Gaps remain, though, in our understanding of the specific barriers that can obstruct the formation of collective identity among groups of women who share environmental concerns. To interrogate this issue, we explore the case of two cancer clusters in North Carolina that many residents suspect are related to coal ash contamination. We use qualitative interviews with women affected by the clusters (n = 36) to identify factors that have inhibited the formation of a mobilizing collective identity. Our results suggest that the reciprocal relationship between disempowerment and isolation, as well as the compounding burdens of emotional and care labor associated with managing environmental illness, prevented the formation of a collective identity in this case. These findings highlight how factors particular to cases of environmental illness can forestall, rather than drive, women’s environmental activism.","PeriodicalId":54173,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sociology","volume":"8 1","pages":"413 - 423"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49013834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}