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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Whose Values Count: Is A Theory Of Social Choice For Sustainability Science Possible?, Mark W. Anderson, Mario F. Teisl, Caroline L. Noblet May 2016

Whose Values Count: Is A Theory Of Social Choice For Sustainability Science Possible?, Mark W. Anderson, Mario F. Teisl, Caroline L. Noblet

Publications

If sustainability science is to mature as a discipline, it will be important for practitioners to discuss and eventually agree upon the fundamentals of the paradigm on which the new discipline is based. Since sustainability is fundamentally a normative assertion about tradeoffs among values, how society chooses the specifics among these tradeoffs is central to the sustainability problem. Whose values should count in making social decisions and how should the multiplicity of values that exist be known and used in that decision process? Given the vast spatial domains and temporal domains at work in the sustainability problem, we need some …


Transdisciplinary Research Partnerships In Sustainability Science: An Examination Of Stakeholder Participation Preferences, Karen H. Beiluch, Kathleen P. Bell, Mario F. Teisl, Laura Lindenfeld, Jessica Leahy, Linda Silka Mar 2016

Transdisciplinary Research Partnerships In Sustainability Science: An Examination Of Stakeholder Participation Preferences, Karen H. Beiluch, Kathleen P. Bell, Mario F. Teisl, Laura Lindenfeld, Jessica Leahy, Linda Silka

Publications

Sustaining coupled natural and human systems requires multiple forms of knowledge, experiences, values, and resources be brought into conversation to address sustainability challenges. Transdisciplinary research partnerships provide the opportunity to meet this requirement by bringing together interdisciplinary scientists with stakeholders in some or all stages of the knowledge production process. However, building partnerships to produce sustainability outcomes is a complex process requiring an understanding of the social psychological and contextual variables impacting partnerships. Here, we explore local government officials’ (LGOs’) preferences for participation in these partnerships. Using data from a statewide survey, we develop a theoretically and empirically derived model …


The Incompatibility Of Benefit-Cost Analysis With Sustainability Science, Mark W. Anderson, Mario F. Teisl, Caroline L. Noblet, Sharon Klein Sep 2014

The Incompatibility Of Benefit-Cost Analysis With Sustainability Science, Mark W. Anderson, Mario F. Teisl, Caroline L. Noblet, Sharon Klein

Publications

Participants in sustainability science, as an emerging discipline, have not yet developed fully a coherent ontology, epistemology, ideology, or methodology. There is clearer agreement on the ideology of sustainability science, agreement that can be used to consider the compatibility of that ideology with methodologies brought to bear in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research teams. Benefit–cost analysis, one such methodology from the neoclassical economics tradition, is often used in the context of sustainability science. As currently formulated and practiced, benefit–cost analysis is incompatible with the ideology of sustainability science and should not be used to evaluate proposed solutions to sustainability problems. Other …


Intergenerational Bargains: Negotiating Our Debts To The Past And Our Obligations To The Future, Mark W. Anderson Nov 2013

Intergenerational Bargains: Negotiating Our Debts To The Past And Our Obligations To The Future, Mark W. Anderson

Publications

The question of intergenerational obligation can be framed in multiple ways. Here, we use the idea of bargains to think about how those of us in the present relate to both the past and the future. To understand this approach assumptions behind the idea of intergenerational bargains are posited, three potential ontologies for intergenerational thinking are explored, and principles that might be applied to intergenerational obligations are considered. Finally, an ethic for intergenerational obligation is proposed. The idea of intergenerational bargains reveals common frameworks among futures studies, ecological economics, and sustainability science.


Does Green Consumerism Increase The Acceptance Of Wind Power?, Caroline L. Noblet, John Thøgersen Dec 2012

Does Green Consumerism Increase The Acceptance Of Wind Power?, Caroline L. Noblet, John Thøgersen

Publications

In this paper, we discuss what might be termed an action-based learning approach to promoting important pro-environmental actions, such as support for or acceptance of environmental policy. Such an approach involves promoting simple and easy behaviours as entry points for more radical steps towards sustainability, referred to as “catalytic” or “wedge” behaviours. Despite the obvious need for innovative approaches to promote important pro-environmental behaviour, and sound theoretical backing for such concepts, there is a lack of research testing the key propositions of this approach. In a survey study based on a random sample of residents of the state of Maine, …


Giving Voice To The Future In Sustainability: Retrospective Assessment To Learn Prospective Stakeholder Engagement, Mark W. Anderson, Mario F. Teisl, Caroline L. Noblet Oct 2012

Giving Voice To The Future In Sustainability: Retrospective Assessment To Learn Prospective Stakeholder Engagement, Mark W. Anderson, Mario F. Teisl, Caroline L. Noblet

Publications

There is a broad understanding that intergenerational equity is a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for sustainability. Likewise, there is a growing consensus that sustainability science requires stakeholder engagement to be successful. These two ideas demand some meaningful way of engaging the future as a stakeholder if sustainability is to be operationalized. Rawls' theory of justice provides a model for how this might be accomplished, yet there are both conceptual and practical problems with a Rawlsian approach. We propose using retrospective assessment as a means of learning how to approach future stakeholder engagement in sustainability.


Does A Property‐Specific Environmental Health Risk Create A “Neighborhood” Housing Price Stigma? Arsenic In Private Well Water, Kevin Boyle, Nicolai Kuminoff, Congwen Zhang, Michael Devanney, Kathleen Bell Mar 2010

Does A Property‐Specific Environmental Health Risk Create A “Neighborhood” Housing Price Stigma? Arsenic In Private Well Water, Kevin Boyle, Nicolai Kuminoff, Congwen Zhang, Michael Devanney, Kathleen Bell

Publications

This paper examines the impact of arsenic contamination of groundwater on sale prices of residential properties and bare land transactions in two Maine towns, Buxton and Hollis, that rely on private wells to supply their drinking water. Prompted by tests of well water by the state of Maine, media attention focused on the communities in 1993 and 1994 when 14% of private wells were found to have arsenic concentrations exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard of 0.05 mg/L. Households could mitigate the serious health risks associated with arsenic ingestion by purchasing bottled water or by installing a reverse osmosis …


The Psychology Of Eco-Consumption., Mario F. Teisl, Caroline L. Noblet, Jonathan Rubin Dec 2009

The Psychology Of Eco-Consumption., Mario F. Teisl, Caroline L. Noblet, Jonathan Rubin

Publications

Information programs to promote cellulosic biofuels may not achieve their objectives unless consumers can be induced to care about the information presented to them. The social psychology literature highlights two commonly used models to link psychological variables to environmentally related behaviors: the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Norm Activation Theory (NAT). Other studies have compared the strength of these models or have adapted these models by adding additional variables, but few have compared across the alternative variable combinations noted in the literature. That is, most studies have added one or two psychological variables to the NAT or TPB …


Resource Use, Dependence And Vulnerability: Community-Resource Linkages On Alaska’S Tongass National Forest, Mekbeb E. Tessema, Robert J. Lilieholm, L. E. Kruger Jan 2009

Resource Use, Dependence And Vulnerability: Community-Resource Linkages On Alaska’S Tongass National Forest, Mekbeb E. Tessema, Robert J. Lilieholm, L. E. Kruger

Publications

Understanding how rural communities use and depend upon local natural resources is a critical factor in developing policies to sustain the long-term viability of human and natural systems. Such “community-resource” linkages are particularly important in Alaska, where rural communities – many of them comprised of indigenous Alaskan Natives – are highly dependent upon local resources found on public lands. Alaskan communities utilize forests in many ways. To better understand these coupled “social-ecological” systems, we combined socio-economic data from the 2000 U.S. Census with timber permit data from the USDA Forest Service to describe communities and their use of forest resources. …