Newsletter March 1996
NEWS FROM THE ESS BUSINESS MEETING
The annual business meeting of the ESS was held on April 25, 1996 at the ISA convention in San Diego with section chair Philippe Le Prestre (University of Quebec at Montreal) presiding. Approximately 40 members of the section were present.
Executive Committee (1996-97)
Newly elected members (terms expire in 1998)
Andrew Hurrell (Oxford University)
Miriam Lowi (Trenton State College)
Detlef F. Sprinz (Postdam Institute fr Climate Impact Research)
Carry-over members (terms expire in 1997)
Marian Miller (University of Akron)
Ronald Mitchell (University of Oregon)
Paul Wapner (American University)
Sprout Award Committee (1996-97)
Newly elected members (terms expire in 1998)
Valerie J. Assetto (Colorado State University)
Gary Bryner (Brigham Young University)
Hugh C. Dyer (University of Leeds)
Tom Princen (University of Michigan)
Carry-over members (terms expires in 1997):
Barbara Jancar-Webster (SUNY Brockport)
Ronnie Lipschutz (withdrew)
Nominating Committee (1996-97)
Ken Conca (University of Maryland)
Mary Durfee (Michigan Technological University)
Neil Harrison (University of Wyoming)
Junior Travel Awards
(for the San Diego meetings)
Geoffrey Dabelko (University of Maryland)
Charles Hall (University of South Carolina)
Phyllis Mofson (University of Maryland)
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
PROGRAMME (IHDP)
LePrestre announced at the ESS business meeting that the ISA Governing Council had agreed to transfer responsibility for organizing ISA’s liaison with the IHDP (previously the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme). The IHDP is co-sponsored by the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) as a social scientific counterpart to the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme, headquartered at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, which concentrates on the scientific aspects of global environmental change. In past years, the ISA president has appointed a HDGECP committee. Marvin Soroos, who chaired the ISA HDGECP Committee from 1989 to 1991, has been appointed to take charge of organizing the new committee. While the liaison activity will be housed in ESS, it will involve other study sections with interests in the study of environmental change.
SPROUT AWARD FOR 1996
The winner of the 1996 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for the best work in the field of international environmental politics is Marian A. L. Miller for her book The Third World in Global Environmental Politics (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995). In making the award, the selection committee, chaired by Dimitris Stevis, observed the following:
“Professor Miller utilizes central cncepts from institutional analysis to provide theoretically driven explanations of the capacities and limitations of the Third World in shaping international environmental policy. She examines the issue using three important cases (ozone layer, hazardous waste trade and biodiversity). Her synthesis and use of the theoretical and substantive literature is confident and appropriate to her research task. Thus the volume adds to the theoretical discussion by accentuating the distributive dimensions of international environmental politics.
The Committee was also impressed by the author’s success in conveying her theoretical arguments and substantive information in a well organized and lucid manner. We expect that the significance of the issue and the quality of the exposition will make the book accessible to both scholars and students interested in various aspects of international environmental affairs.”
TEXT POSSIBILITIES
Here are several additional text possibilities for courses in international environmental politics. If others come to your attention, please refer them to the editor. Don’t hesitate to call attention to your own books as they are published. To be included in this section, the books must be reasonably affordable and be written in a style that lends itself to text adoption.
Lamont C. Hempel, Environmental Governance: The Global Challenge. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1996, 291 pp., $22.95 paper.
Written by an ESS member, this volume takes on the challenge of redesigning institutions and policies to promote sustainable communities. Using political theory, applied policy analysis, and case studies, Hempel argues that political institutions, if they are to cope successfully with growing biospheric crises, must become glocal in design and operation, with environmental authority redistributed to both supranational entities and local communities. (undergraduate or graduate)
Dennis C. Pirages (ed.), Building Sustainable Societies: A Blueprint for a Post-Industrial World. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996, 361 pp., $19.96 paper.
This book is a collection of twenty previously unpublished articles, edited by a long-time member of the ESS, which address the question of whether the industrial model of human progress can be sustained over time. The articles examine the moral, social, political, economic, and environmental implications of development, while focusing on institutional and value issues, international issues such as Global North versus Global South, and the debate between growth and development. Among the authors are Ken Conca, William Ophuls, Ann Ehrlich, Herman Daly, Vaclav Smil, Dennis Goulet, Kenneth Dahlberg, and Lester Milbrath. (advanced undergraduate or graduate).
Lester R. Brown, Who Will Feed China? Wake-Up Call for a Small Planet. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995, 163 pp, $8.95.
This thin volume notes that China, with its continuing population growth and rapid industrialization, will soon have to import grain in such quantities that would cause an unprecedented rise in world food prices. China’s dependence on massive imports may be a wake-up call for the world of the magnitude of the collapse of the world’s fisheries, leading to a redefinition of security away from military preparedness and toward maintaining adequate food supplies. (undergraduate)
Paul Wapner, Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996, 238 pp., $16.95.
Also written by an ESS member, this book analyzes the strategies that NGOs use to advance global environmental protection as they work through transnational social, economic, and cultural networks to alter corporate practices, educate large numbers of people, pressure multilateral development banks, and shift standards of good conduct. The book contains in-depth case studies of three NGOs: Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and Friends of the Earth. Wapner argues that the activities of these and other NGOs constitute a world civic politics. (undergraduate or graduate).
OTHER PUBLICATIONS OF ESS MEMBERS
Paul G. Harris, Ethics, Interests and American Foreign Policy: The Case of Ozone Depletion, International Relations, Vol. 12, No. 6 (December 1995), pp. 53-76.
Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Ingenuity Gap: Can Poor Countries Adapt to Resource Scarcity? Population and Development Review, Vol. 21, No. 3, (September 1995), pp. 587-612.
Leo M. Van der Mey, Sustainable Development in Dutch Policy: A National Response to an International Appeal, Journal of Environment & Development, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Summer 1995), pp. 205-19.
OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED
Harold Brookfield, Lesley Potter, and Yvonne Byron, In Place of Forest: Environmental and Socio-economic Transformation in Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1995, 310 pp. , $30 paper. (Distributed by UNIPUB, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391; e-mail: .
This book describes the natural environment of Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula and the human impacts on the region since the Second World War. Specific attention is given to the environmental endangerment in relation to the timber-based industries, bio-diversity, transmigration and other settlers, the indigenous shifting cultivators, possible consequences of deforestation for global warming, as well as drought, fire, and the creation of grasslands.
Lawrence R. Klein and Fu-chen Lo, (eds.) Modeling Global Change. Tokyo: United Nations Press, 1995, 427 pp., $35 paper (distributed by UNIPUB–see above)
The eleven articles in this book focus on global modeling and simulation studies in an effort to contribute to the growing literature supporting the development of new methods of forecasting global change and formulating policy alternatives for environmentally, socially, and politically sustainable development. Among the models discussed are the LINK project, the EPA World Model, the Global Input- Output System, and the FUGI Global Model.
ESS member Peter M. Haas, along with Sheila Jasanoff and Gene Rochlin, announce a new series of books on the theme of Politics, Science, and the Environment, to be published by The MIT Press. The series will publish innovative books on the multifaceted relationship between human beings, social institutions, and the environment from a variety of disciplinary lenses. They will stress the roles of politics, science, and technology in the recognition, framing, analysis, and management of environmental problems and related contemporary issues. Those with prospective manuscripts may contact Haas at the Department of Political Science, Thompson Hall, University of Massachusetts–Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003.
JOURNALS
The inaugural issue of Environment & Security has been recently released. Edited by ESS members Simon Dalby and Paul Painchaud, it is the journal of the International Institute for Environmental Strategies and Security (formerly the International Consortium for the Study of Environmental Security), based at Universite Laval in Quebec City, Canada. It is a social scientific journal devoted to the analysis of environmental forms of insecurity and to national and international efforts to address them. It includes articles written in either English or French. For further information contact IIESS, 2336 Chemin Ste-Foy, Ste-Foy (QC), Canada G1K 7P4 – phone 418-656-2316.
Synthesis/Regeneration: A Magazine of Green Social Thought, is published by Greens/Green Party USA. It covers environmental issues and activism, labor activism, and struggles for social justice in other areas, while covering such topics as ecofeminism, green electoral politics, free trade versus visions of a green society, and nuclear hot spots. Subscriptions are $12 a year (three issues) for individuals, $25 for institutions/libraries. Contact WD Press, P.O. Box 24115, St. Louis, MO, 63130 or for further information.
The Journal of Environment and Development is now being published by Sage Periodicals Press and will appear quarterly. The journal seeks to further research and debate on the nexus of environment and development issues at the local, national, regional, and international levels. The editors have issued a call for papers on topics such as trade and the environment, institutions in environmental governance, international environmental agreements, legal and scientific issues related to sustainable development, and the impact of property rights on development. Annual subscriptions for individuals are $45 and institutions $95. Contact Sage Publications, Inc., PO Box 5084, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359; phone: 805-499-9774; fax: 805-499-0871.
Global Society: Journal of Interdisciplinary International Relations (formerly Paradigms: The Kent Journal of International Relations is published by Carfax Publishing Company (875-81 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 or ). It seeks to cover the new agenda in international relations and encourages innovative approaches to the studies of international issues from a range of disciplines, including international relations, political science, political philosophy, IPE, international law, international conflict analysis, and sociology. Subscriptions are $38 for individuals, $128 for institutions.
Channel View Publications (Frankfurt Lodge, Levedon Hall, Victoria Road, Cevedon, Avon, England BS21 7SJ) publishes two journals of potential interest. International Research and Geographical and Environmental Education publishes research studies in geographical and environmental education and provides an international forum for the critique and discussion of relevant research issues. Subscriptions are $89 for individuals and $119 for institutions. The Journal of Sustainable Tourism looks into the complex and rapidly evolving world of sustainable tourism. Subscriptions are $63 for individuals and $179 for libraries. Free back issues are offered with new subscriptions.
The Journal of Political Ecology: Case Studies in History and Society is an on-line peer reviewed journal begun in 1994 that welcomes submissions in English, French and Spanish from a broad range of disciplines and hopes to encourage research into the linkages between political economy and human environmental impacts. It is provided free and supported by the Political Ecology SOciety (PESO). The Political Ecology Society (PESO) will make an annual $500 award for the best article published in the Journal of Political Ecology. The journal can be accessed at .
ESS ON THE INTERNET
Ron Mitchell (University of Oregon) has created an ESS Home Page on the Internet at http://csf.colorado.edu/ess. It has the following components:
Description of the Environmental Studies Section
List of Environmental Studies Section Officers
* ESS Contact List
* ESS Member Home Page List
* Hot Home Page Hot Link
* ESS Journal Description List
* Electronic Library of Papers by ESS Section members
Bibliography of recent books on international
environmental issues (a composite list from all
ESS Newsletters beginning in 1989)
ESS Newsletters – (1990 to present)
International Studies Association Home Page – with connection to program for San Diego conference
ISA-West 1996 Conference Home Page – Theme:
Global Ecology, Global Economy, Global Security: Making Linkages
The five starred items have forms attached to them so that you can add your own information. If you want your contact information made available, or want to add a journal title and description, or want to advertise your own Home Page, or want to put up an ASCII version of the paper you presented at ISA in San Diego so that you don’t have to pay copying and postage to mail it to you, please make use of this. All of the forms are automated, so when you fill out anything, it is instantly available on the appropriate web page. Questions may be referred to Ron by e-mail: rmitchel@oregon.uoregon.edu.
OTHER INTERNET RESOURCES
The Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) has created a very useful database on 120 major international environmental treaties, which includes texts of the treaties, when they came into force, and the countries that are parties to them (and when). The treaty information can also be integrated with socioeconomic and political variables such as GNP/capita and level of political and civil rights as rated by Freedom House. This manipulable data base may be useful both for research and student projects. Its URL is http://sedac.ciesin.org/pidb/pidb-home.html.
CONFERENCES
The Third International Symposium and Exhibition on Environmental Contamination in Central and Eastern Europe will be held in Warsaw, September 10-13, 1996. For further information contact Warsaw `96 Symposium, Florida State University, 2035 East Paul Dirac Drive, 226 HMB, Tallahassee, FL 32310-3700; phone: 904-644-5524; fax: (904) 574-6704; e-mail Warsaw96@mailer.fsu.edu.
An interdisciplinary symposium on Responsible Environmental Behavior will be held in Berne, Switzerland, September 4-7, 1996. Topics include (a) determinants of responsible environmental behavior of individuals, (b) environmental management in business and public administration, c environmental education in schools and universities, and (d) cultural contexts and environmental ethics. For further information, contact Responsible Environmental Behavior, IKAOE, Universitaet Bern, Falkenplatz 16, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland; phone 41 31 631 39 58; e-mail: info@ikaoe.unibe.ch.
The Pecora Thirteen Conference, this year on Human Interactions with the Environment: Perspectives from Space will be held at the Ramkota Inn in Sioux Falls, SD, August 20-22, 1996. The symposium will provide an opportunity for the international remote sensing community to exchange information on the ways in which remote sensing is being used to understand and evaluate human impacts on the Earth and human adjustments to environmental change. For further information contact Pecora 13 Symposium, P.O. Box 1607, Sioux Falls, SD 57101-1607.
PROJECTS
ESS member Thomas Homer-Dixon (University of Toronto) has been directing a project on Environmental Scarcities, State Capacity, and Civil Violence with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Pew Global Stewardship Initiative. Case study workshops were held on India (in Rajasthan, December 1995), on China (in Hong Kong, April 1996), and on Indonesia (in Jakarta in April 1996). A final conference is scheduled for Washington in early 1997. The project has released separate reports on Environmental Scarcity and Violent and Violent Conflict in South Africa, Mexico (Chiapas), Gaza, and Rwanda, in addition to a report on Urban Growth and Violence : Will the Future Resemble the Past? To obtain publications contact Brian D. Smith, Project Coordinator, Program on Science and International Security, AAAS, 1333 H Street, NW, Washington, DC: e- mail bsmith@aaas.org.
NEWSLETTER
The Research Committee 24 of the International Sociological Association puts out a interesting newsletter entitled Environment & Society. It includes commentary, announcements, and an extensive bibliography of recent relevant publications. Membership dues are $50 ($20 for students) Riley Dunlap is the current president of the committee, address Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Pulman, WA 99164, e-mail dunlapr@wsuvm1.csc.wsu.edu.
RECENT BOOKS
Bibliography of books listed in past ESS newsletters.
PAPER/PANEL PROPOSALS FOR 1997 ISA CONVENTION
(from ESS Chair, Philippe Le Prestre, previously in the ESS Electronic Newsletter)
Please give some thought to forming a panel, presenting a paper and/or acting as chairperson or discussant of an ESS-sponsored panel at the 1997 International Studies Association meetings to be held in Toronto, Canada, March 22-26, 1997. Yes! It starts on a weekend; don’t ask why.
As an experiment, there will be poster sessions in Toronto. If you are interested in presenting your research in this format, please let me know. Obviously, to be successful, your story has to be short and visual.
NOTE THAT THE DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ALL SUBMISSIONS, INDIVIDUAL PAPERS, POSTERS AND PANELS, IS JULY 1st, 1996. ANY PROPOSALS RECEIVED AFTER THIS DATE WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR THE PROGRAM.
Send all paper and panel proposals for ESS sponsorship to:
Professor Philippe Le Prestre
Departement de science politique
Universite du Quebec a Montreal
C.P. 8888, Succ. centre-ville
Montreal (Qc) Canada H3C 3P8
Ph.: (514)987-7909
Fax: (514)458-8041 or 987-4749
E-mail: le_prestre.philippe@uqam.ca
Proposals can be sent by regular mail, fax, or e-mail. Acknowledgment of receipt will be by e-mail where possible, in order to reduce mailing costs; so please enclose your full e-mail address.
The program organizers have been deeply concerned with the number of no-shows. Please keep in mind that by requesting to participate, you have committed yourself to attending the meeting. Aside from professional and ethical considerations, it is worth remembering that no-shows have bumped scholars who needed to present their material and could not find space on the program. These are delicate issues: many no-shows were perfectly understandable and could not be helped. Although the ESS may not be a great culprit in this regard, this phenomenon needs our attention.
There will be about forty fewer panels next year. The Section has been allocated twenty panels; because of a lack of space, it is unlikely that we’ll be able to obtain more. There are, however, two ways of stretching our participation: propose theme panels (which don’t count in our total) and co-sponsor panels with other sections. We were able to have several panels co-sponsored in San Diego, but only one theme panel. I believe we can do better. Next year’s theme is “Coping with Insecurity: Threats More Than Enemies.” This should stimulate proposals from the Section, and not only from those interested in environmental security…
The ESS will look most favorably on proposals for complete panels (i.e. the proposal consists of three or four paper givers, one chairperson and one discussant; full mailing addresses, including e-mail addresses, for all participants; a session abstract; and individual paper abstracts).
NO PANEL WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL ALL OF THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY THE CHAIRPERSON AND/OR PARTICIPANTS, INCLUDING THE ABSTRACTS.
The program has placed an emphasis on panel proposals that combine faculty from different countries, disciplines and ranks. The ESS is particularly eager to offer multidisciplinary panels. Topics are open; however, we’ll try to promote diversity in the topics, questions, and methods presented. Comparative panels are welcome. Panels that mix conceptual/theoretical and pragmatic/practical approaches will also be favored.
The Section encourages the participation of advanced graduate students, those in their last year of work on their doctorate. For obvious reasons, the program organizers have asked that graduate students be discouraged from acting as discussants. Starting in 1997, the section will select and recognize the best paper presented by a graduate student at the ISA annual meeting.
Proposals where all faculty are from the same university are discouraged; those submitting such proposals should offer a compelling abstract to justify acceptance.
Each individual is only allowed to present one paper and participate in two panels regardless of role (e.g. as paper giver and chair, or discussant and chair, or round table participant and paper giver). Co-authored papers count for one-half participation that is, you can present one co-authored paper and one other paper). Scholars from outside the U.S. and Canada are allowed to give two papers.
Instead of going to the ESS, paper/panel proposals that fall under the General Themes of the ISA Convention may be sent directly to Mark Boyer, one of the ISA Program co-chairs (the other is Louis Pauly of the University of Toronto). His address is:
Mark A. Boyer
Associate Professor and Director
Connecticut Project in International Negotiation
Department of Political Science, U-24
University of Connecticut
Stores, CT 06269-1024 USA
Ph. (860) 486-3156
Fax:(860) 486-3347
E-mail: Boyer@uconnvm.uconn.edu
Last year, several faculty again submitted the same paper/panel proposal to two or more sections of ISA and/or also to the ISA co-chairs. This caused enormous confusion and disarray when two sections accepted the same paper proposal; whole panels had to be reconstructed as a result of these actions. The decision of the ISA Governing Council was to prohibit double submissions. Do NOT submit your paper/panel proposal to more than one section/theme in the ISA. If it is not clear which section is most appropriate for your paper/panel proposal, send it directly to the ISA Program co-chair, Mark Boyer. Failure to respect this rule led the 1996 program chairs to eliminate papers at the last minute, thus endangering whole panels.
The preferred proposal form is on the back side of this sheet. Incomplete proposals will NOT be forwarded for consideration.
