Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Green New England? Regional Implementation Of Grant-Based Provisions Of The Inflation Reduction Act In The Northeastern U.S., Samuel Cooper

Sustainability and Social Justice

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has been described as “the most significant action Congress has taken on clean energy and climate change in the nation’s history,” totaling some $370 billion in tax credits and federal grants for everything from residential solar panels to urban forestry. As the first of its size in U.S. climate policy, the IRA has been a subject of study and debate since its introduction, but it is only in this past year that funding reporting data has become available. This thesis utilizes this federal data to produce a novel analysis of IRA implementation at the …

The Potential Of Ethiopian Medicinal Plants To Treat Emergent Viral Diseases, Mekbib Fekadu, Ermias Lulekal, Solomon Tesfaye, Morgan Ruelle, Nigist Asfaw, Tesfaye Awas, Kebu Balemie, Kaleab Asres, Sebastian Guenther, Zemede Asfaw, Sebsebe Demissew

Sustainability and Social Justice

Ethiopians have deep-rooted traditions of using plants to treat ailments affecting humans and domesticated animals. Approximately 80% of the population continues to rely on traditional medicine, including for the prevention and treatment of viral diseases. Many antiviral plants are available to and widely used by communities in areas where access to conventional healthcare systems is limited. In some cases, pharmacological studies also confirm the potent antiviral properties of Ethiopian plants. Building on traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and testing their antiviral properties may help to expand options to address the global pandemic of COVID-19 including its recently isolated virulent variants …

Manganese In Residential Drinking Water From A Community-Initiated Case Study In Massachusetts, Alexa Friedman, Elena Boselli, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Wendy Heiger-Bernays, Paige Brochu, Mayah Burgess, Samantha Schildroth, Allegra Denehy, Timothy Downs, Ian Papautsky, Birgit Clauss Henn

Sustainability and Social Justice

Background: Manganese (Mn) is a metal commonly found in drinking water, but the level that is safe for consumption is unknown. In the United States (U.S.), Mn is not regulated in drinking water and data on water Mn concentrations are temporally and spatially sparse. Objective: Examine temporal and spatial variability of Mn concentrations in repeated tap water samples in a case study of Holliston, Massachusetts (MA), U.S., where drinking water is pumped from shallow aquifers that are vulnerable to Mn contamination. Methods: We collected 79 residential tap water samples from 21 households between September 2018 and December 2019. Mn concentrations …

Bridging And Breaking Silos: Transformational Governance Of The Migration–Sustainability Nexus, Caroline Zickgraf, Dominique Jolivet, Claudia Fry, Emily Boyd, Anita Fabos

Sustainability and Social Justice

Sustainability and migration are typically treated as discrete policy spheres in inter-national, national, and local fora, separated in governance structures and institutions. This results in policy incoherence that hinders just transitions toward more sustainable societies cognizant of mobile realities. This explorative effort identifies the (dis)connec-tions between policy domains using data collected on how the sustainability–migration nexus is governed in four countries with a special emphasis on urban areas: Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. Results of 73 interviews show that migration and sustainability actors find it challenging to see how they could be working together and that migrants …

Covid-19 Responses Restricted Abilities And Aspirations For Mobility And Migration: Insights From Diverse Cities In Four Continents, Dominique Jolivet, Sonja Fransen, William Neil Adger, Anita Fábos, Mumuni Abu, Charlotte Allen, Emily Boyd, Edward R. Carr, Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, Maria Franco Gavonel, François Gemenne, Mahmudol Hasan Rocky, Jozefina Lantz, Domingos Maculule, Ricardo Safra De Campos, Tasneem Siddiqui, Caroline Zickgraf

Sustainability and Social Justice

Research on the impacts of COVID-19 on mobility has focused primarily on the increased health vulnerabilities of involuntary migrant and displaced populations. But virtually all migration flows have been truncated and altered because of reduced economic and mobility opportunities of migrants. Here we use a well-established framework of migration decision-making, whereby individual decisions combine the aspiration and ability to migrate, to explain how public responses to the COVID-19 pandemic alter migration patterns among urban populations across the world. The principal responses to COVID-19 pandemic that affected migration are: 1) through travel restrictions and border closures, 2) by affecting abilities to …

Assessing The Impacts Of Increasing The Availability Of Non-Automobile Modes Of Transportation On Carbon Emissions And Accessibility In Worcester, William Schechter

Sustainability and Social Justice

Over-reliance on cars in Worcester, Massachusetts represents a significant barrier to the introduction of accessible and ecologically sound modes of transportation. Through increases in frequency, accessibility, and service area, bus transportation in Worcester can offer a viable alternative to personal vehicle usage. In conjunction with the changes to buses, improvements to infrastructure for non-motorist transportation modes such as cycling, walking and assistive equipment will further reduce reliance on personal motor vehicles. Additional policies discouraging the use of motor vehicles is also suggested, with limited traffic zones and vehicle weight restrictions being implemented. With the developments and policy outlined within this …

Nonprofit Political Engagement: The Roles Of 501(C)(4) Social Welfare Organizations In Elections And Policymaking, Margaret A. Post, Elizabeth T. Boris

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper provides a framework for understanding the role of member-based, politically active 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations in U.S. civil society. Tax-exempt social welfare (501(c)(4)) organizations make up the second largest group of nonprofit organizations in the United States. Among them are a mix of membership organizations, social clubs, professional associations, and advocates that are permitted to lobby and engage in partisan political activities. Informed by the literature, case study research, and a dataset of politically active 501(c)(4) organizations, we identify categories of politically active (c)(4) organizations involved in electoral and policy change actions including national advocacy organizations, local and …

Rhythms Of The Earth—Editorial Introduction, Karim-Aly S. Kassam, Morgan Ruelle, Christopher P. Dunn, Raj Pandya, Felice Wyndham

Sustainability and Social Justice

This special issue of GeoHealth, entitled Rhythms of the Earth: Ecological Calendars and Anticipating the Anthropogenic Climate Crisis, is a transdisciplinary articulation of a methodology of hope to confront the multiple injustices of the Anthropocene. One of the greatest challenges of the climate crisis is the lack of predictability at the scale of communities where impacts are most immediate. Indigenous and rural societies face an ever shifting “new normal” through increasing inconsistency in the seasonality of temperature and precipitation, as well as greater frequency of extreme weather events. With global food systems dependent on local and small producers, climatic variability …

Climate Services And Transformational Adaptation, Edward Carr

Sustainability and Social Justice

The Working Group II contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report states that effective adaptation to the changing climate will require transformational changes in how people live. This article explores the potential for climate services to catalyze and foster transformational adaptation. I argue that weather and climate information are not, in and of themselves, tools for transformation. When designed and delivered without careful identification of the intended users of the service and the needs that service addresses, they can fail to catalyze change amongst the users of that information. At worst, they can reinforce the status quo and drive maladaptive …

We Shall Overcome: A Case Study Of The Lgbt Asylum Task Force, A Parish Ministry, Max Niedzwiecki

Sustainability and Social Justice

This is a case study of the LGBT Asylum Task Force in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Task Force is a ministry of Hadwen Park Congregational Church, UCC. It is the only program in the U.S. dedicated to providing wrap-around services, including housing, to LGBT asylum seekers. Since its inception in 2008, it has provided services to over 219 people from 24 countries. The discussion of the Task Force makes extensive use of interviews with its leadership and membership to showcase lived experiences of asylum seekers and those who assist them. © 2023, The Author(s).

Current Practice And Recommendations For Advancing How Human Variability And Susceptibility Are Considered In Chemical Risk Assessment, Julia R. Varshavsky, Swati D.G. Rayasam, Jennifer B. Sass, Daniel A. Axelrad, Carl F. Cranor, Dale Hattis, Russ Hauser, Patricia D. Koman, Emily C. Marquez, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Catherine Oksas, Sharyle Patton, Joshua F. Robinson, Sheela Sathyanarayana, Peggy M. Shepard, Tracey Woodruff

Sustainability and Social Justice

A key element of risk assessment is accounting for the full range of variability in response to environmental exposures. Default dose-response methods typically assume a 10-fold difference in response to chemical exposures between average (healthy) and susceptible humans, despite evidence of wider variability. Experts and authoritative bodies support using advanced techniques to better account for human variability due to factors such as in utero or early life exposure and exposure to multiple environmental, social, and economic stressors. This review describes: 1) sources of human variability and susceptibility in dose-response assessment, 2) existing US frameworks for addressing response variability in risk …

A Science-Based Agenda For Health-Protective Chemical Assessments And Decisions: Overview And Consensus Statement, Tracey J. Woodruff, Swati D.G. Rayasam, Daniel A. Axelrad, Patricia D. Koman, Nicholas Chartres, Deborah H. Bennett, Linda S. Birnbaum, Phil Brown, Courtney C. Carignan, Courtney Cooper, Carl F. Cranor, Miriam L. Diamond, Shari Franjevic, Eve C. Gartner, Dale Hattis, Russ Hauser, Wendy Heiger-Bernyas, Rashmi Joglekar, Juleen Lam, Jonathan I. Levy, Patrick M. Macroy, Maricel V. Maffini, Emily C. Marquez, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Keeve E. Nachman, Greylin H. Nielsen, Catherine Oksas, Dimitri Panagopoulos Abrahamsson, Heather B. Patisaul, Sharyle Patton, Joshua F. Robinson, Kathryn M. Rodgers, Mark S. Rossi, Ruthann A. Rudel, Jennifer B. Sass, Sheela Sathyanarayana, Ted Schettler, Rachel M. Shaffer, Bhavna Shamasunder, Peggy Shepard, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Gina M. Solomon, Wilma A. Subra, Laura N. Vandenberg, Julia R. Varshavsky, Roberta F. White, Ken Zarker, Lauren Zeise

Sustainability and Social Justice

The manufacture and production of industrial chemicals continues to increase, with hundreds of thousands of chemicals and chemical mixtures used worldwide, leading to widespread population exposures and resultant health impacts. Low-wealth communities and communities of color often bear disproportionate burdens of exposure and impact; all compounded by regulatory delays to the detriment of public health. Multiple authoritative bodies and scientific consensus groups have called for actions to prevent harmful exposures via improved policy approaches. We worked across multiple disciplines to develop consensus recommendations for health-protective, scientific approaches to reduce harmful chemical exposures, which can be applied to current US policies …

At Home In The Field, In The Field At Home? Reflections On Power And Fieldwork In Familiar Settings, Arda Bilgen, Anita Fabos

Sustainability and Social Justice

Critical epistemologies and methodologies have over time challenged the static and mono-dimensional approaches to fieldwork, allowing researchers to contemplate and conduct their research in spaces of in-betweenness. Despite this important shift, the essentialist idea that both ‘the field’ and ‘home’ in a fieldwork setting must be actual places persists. In this article, we challenge the conceptualization and operationalization of ‘home’ not only as the juxtaposition to ‘the field’, but also as the embodiment of a place in a specific temporality. We argue that the postulation of ‘home’ as a constant disregards the non-predetermined and unpredictable nature of fieldwork relationships that …

Ecological Calendars, Food Sovereignty, And Climate Adaptation In Standing Rock, Morgan L. Ruelle, Aubrey Joshua Skye, Evan Collins, Karim-Aly S. Kassam

Sustainability and Social Justice

Indigenous food sovereignty relies on ecological knowledge of plants and animals, including knowledge related to their development and behavior through the seasons. In the context of anthropogenic climate change, ecological calendars based on Indigenous knowledge may enable communities to anticipate seasonal phenomena. We conducted research with communities in the Standing Rock Nation (North and South Dakota, USA) to develop ecological calendars based on their ecological knowledge. We present ecological calendars developed in seven communities through a series of workshops and interviews. These calendars are rich with knowledge about temporal relations within each community's ecosystem, including the use of plants and …

Vaccines And The Social Amplification Of Risk, Heidi Larson, Leesa Lin, Rob Goble

Sustainability and Social Justice

In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) named “Vaccine Hesitancy” one of the top 10 threats to global health. Shortly afterward, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as the world's predominant health concern. COVID-19 vaccines of several types have been developed, tested, and partially deployed with remarkable speed; vaccines are now the primary control measure and hope for a return to normalcy. However, hesitancy concerning these vaccines, along with resistance to masking and other control measures, remains a substantial obstacle. The previous waves of vaccine hesitancy that led to the WHO threat designation, together with recent COVID-19 experience, provide a window for …

Social Perception Of Systemic Risks, Pia Johanna Schweizer, Robert Goble, Ortwin Renn

Sustainability and Social Justice

The article distinguishes between two types of risks: conventional and systemic risks. Conventional risks can be contained in space and time, follow linear cause–effect relationships and can be addressed with effective and pointed interventions into the cause–effect chain. Systemic risks, however, are characterized by high complexity, transboundary effects, stochastic relationships, nonlinear cause–effect patterns with tipping points, and are often associated with less public attention than they require. The article addresses the reasons why systemic risks seem to be attenuated in public perception. The article goes on to consider how the social amplification of risk framework is useful in the context …

Narrating Agricultural Resilience After Hurricane María: How Smallholder Farmers In Puerto Rico Leverage Self-Sufficiency And Collaborative Agency In A Climate-Vulnerable Food System, Abrania Marrero, Andrea Lόpez-Cepero, Ramón Borges-Méndez, Josiemer Mattei

Sustainability and Social Justice

Climate change is a threat to food system stability, with small islands particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events. In Puerto Rico, a diminished agricultural sector and resulting food import dependence have been implicated in reduced diet quality, rural impoverishment, and periodic food insecurity during natural disasters. In contrast, smallholder farmers in Puerto Rico serve as cultural emblems of self-sufficient food production, providing fresh foods to local communities in an informal economy and leveraging traditional knowledge systems to manage varying ecological and climatic constraints. The current mixed methods study sought to document this expertise and employed a questionnaire and narrative interviewing …

Multiple Metals In Children’S Deciduous Teeth: Results From A Community-Initiated Pilot Study, Alexa Friedman, Julia Anglen Bauer, Christine Austin, Timothy Downs, Yorghos Tripodis, Wendy Heiger-Bernays, Roberta White, Manish Arora, Birgit Claus Henn

Sustainability and Social Justice

Background: Characterizing retrospective exposure to toxicants during multiple early-life developmental periods is challenging, yet critical for understanding developmental effects. Objective: To characterize early-life metal exposure using deciduous teeth in a community concerned about past exposures. Methods: Naturally shed teeth were collected from 30 children ages 5–13 years who resided in Holliston, Massachusetts since conception. We estimated weekly prenatal and postnatal (up to 1 year of age) exposure to 12 metals by measuring dentine concentrations using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Multivariable linear mixed models were used to explore sociodemographic, dietary, and behavioral correlates of dentine metal concentrations. Results: Temporal trends …

Showing Up “More As My True Self”: Gender And Mushing In The United States, Cynthia Caron, Victoria Beyer

Sustainability and Social Justice

Mushing exists in several forms: short and long-distance races, adventure tourism, recreation, and sport. While some scholars assert that gender does not influence a musher’s experience, this research, based on interviews with mushers, broadens understanding of how gender influences mushing and a musher’s sense of self. Nearly all research participants initially stated that gender is irrelevant in mushing; for example, in competitions, people of all genders compete directly against one another. As interviews unfolded, participants spoke about how gender norms and stereotypes complicated their experiences and how non-mushers perceive them. Despite depictions of mushing as masculine, participants stated that mushing …

Field Pea Diversity And Its Contribution To Farmers' Livelihoods In Northern Ethiopia, Yirga Gufi, Alemtsehay Tsegay, Morgan Ruelle, Kassa Teka, Sarah Tewolde-Berhan, Alison Power

Sustainability and Social Justice

Field pea is grown by smallholder farmers in Ethiopia as a source of food, fodder, income, and soil fertility. This study explores intraspecific diversity of field pea and its contribution to farmers' livelihoods in two agroecological zones of South Tigray and South Wollo, northeastern Ethiopia. Interviews were conducted with 168 farming households. The number of varieties and the Shannon Diversity Index (SDI) were higher in South Tigray (seven varieties, 0.35 SDI) than South Wollo (two varieties, 0.025 SDI). Farmers in South Tigray plant field pea during two growing seasons, allowing for integration of multiple varieties into their farming systems. The …

Impact Pathways From Climate Services To Sdg2 (“Zero Hunger”): A Synthesis Of Evidence, James Hansen, Geneva List, Shauna Downs, Edward Carr, Rahel Diro, Walter Baethgen, Andrew Kruczkiewicz, Melody Braun, John Furlow, Kayla Walsh, Nitin Magima

Sustainability and Social Justice

Climate services can help address a range of climate-sensitive development challenges, including agricultural production and food security. However, generating empirical evidence of impact is challenging. In this paper, we synthesize published evidence of pathways by which climate services contribute to improved food security. A summary of key mechanisms by which climate risk drives food insecurity provides a context for understanding potential climate risk management interventions. Our review of available evaluation literature finds moderately strong evidence that climate services contribute to improvements in food security or its precursors through farmers’ risk management decisions and index-based agricultural insurance; and a weaker body …

Guest Editorial: Power In Engaged Scholarship: Dimensions And Dynamics Of Knowledge Co-Creation, Margaret Post, Morgan Ruelle

Sustainability and Social Justice

Collaboratively engaged research is shaped by dynamic power relationships among individuals, institutions and communities. Where some disciplines have explored the theoretical and methodological implications of power relations, the engagement movement writ large has suffered from a lack of explicit conceptual models and in-depth analyses of the role of power in the process of knowledge co-creation. Over the last 30 years, considerable attention has been paid to how resources and expertise within academic institutions can be brought to bear on the intractable social and economic problems of local communities. A necessary, yet under-theorised aspect of these dynamics is the extent to …

Caricom Caribbean’S Hrd 2030 Strategy: Inscribing The Neoliberal Imaginary Through Social Planning?, Nigel O.M. Brissett

Sustainability and Social Justice

The globalisation’s ‘knowledge economy’ has created a new set of human capital requirements. The guiding policy and planning document, The CARICOM Human Resource Development 2030 Strategy: Unlocking Caribbean Human Potential document, ‘serves as a roadmap for the CARICOM Caribbean’s responses to these human capital demands. I conduct a critical analysis of this document’s policy discourses to ascertain their core values and strategies, as well as their implications for the education and development of the CARICOM Caribbean. I find that the emergent discourses and ideas–neoliberal education reform and state-led social planning–provide a cautionary tale of the potential impact of educational change …

Customary Law, Norms, Practices And Other Factors That Enable And Constrain Women’S Access To Housing, Land And Property (Hlp) In South Sudan: A Desk Review, Cynthia Caron

Sustainability and Social Justice

Published by the International Organization for Migration

This report presents a review of the existing literature on customary law and practices, attitudes and beliefs (social norms) and other factors that create barriers to women’s access to and control over land and property in South Sudan. It also presents existing efforts to improve women’s property rights. The findings emphasize not only access, but also security of that access and its limitations, the ability to use land as desired and the ability to control income derived from land.

Engaging Transformation: Using Seasonal Rounds To Anticipate Climate Change, Karim Aly Kassam, Morgan Ruelle, Isabell Haag, Umed Bulbulshoev, Daler Kaziev, Leo Louis, Anna Ullmann, Iriel Edwards, Aziz Ali Khan, Antonio Trabucco, Cyrus Samimi

Sustainability and Social Justice

Seasonal rounds are deliberative articulations of a community’s sociocultural relations with their ecological system. The process of visualizing seasonal rounds informs transdisciplinary research. We present a methodological approach for communities of enquiry to engage communities of practice through context-specific sociocultural and ecological relations driven by seasonal change. We first discuss historical précis of the concept of seasonal rounds that we apply to assess the spatial and temporal communal migrations and then describe current international research among Indigenous and rural communities in North America and Central Asia by the creation of a common vocabulary through mutual respect for multiple ways of …

Forum: Militarization 2.0: Communication And The Normalization Of Political Violence In The Digital Age, Susan Jackson, Rhys Crilley, Ilan Manor, Catherine Baker, Modupe Oshikoya, Jutta Joachim, Nick Robinson, Andrea Schneiker, Nicole Sunday Grove, Cynthia Enloe

Sustainability and Social Justice

Scholars of international relations frequently explore how states normalize the use of military force through processes of militarization, yet few have analyzed how new information and communication technologies impact on these processes. The essays in this forum address this gap, and consider the political significance of new technologies, new actors, and new practices that shape "Militarization 2.0" and normalize political violence in the digital age. The authors in this forum rely, to varying degrees, on common militarized tropes and dichotomies (such as authenticity, belonging, and (de)humanizing framings) that are key to militarization, including those devices that rest on gender, race/ethnicity, …

Femininity And The Paradox Of Trust Building In Patriarchies During Covid-19, Cynthia Enloe

Sustainability and Social Justice

Sustainable trust building is a crucial yet underanalyzed process, both in its successes and its more common failures. Because the politics of masculinization and feminization play salient roles in so many sustained and unsustained trust-building efforts, it is valuable during any public health crisis anywhere to pay close attention to women as trust builders and to nurses as feminized actors.

Participatory Community Wealth Ranking In Banana-Producing Regions Of Uganda And Tanzania, Pricilla Marimo, Clare Shelton, Cynthia Caron, Noel Madalla, Innocent Mpiriirwe, Rhiannon Crichton, Lilian Ndagire, Victor Manyong, Daud Batson Mbongo, Asher Wilson Okurut

Sustainability and Social Justice

Published by the Alliance of Bioversity International & the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The former is a research-for-development organization that provides scientific evidence of the role that on-farm and wild agricultural and forest biodiversity can play in a more nutritious, resilient, productive and adaptable food and agricultural system. The latter works in collaboration with hundreds of partners to help developing countries make farming more competitive, profitable, and resilient through smarter, more sustainable natural resource management.

Organizations Affiliated to the Authors:

Bioversity International; University of East Anglia; Clark University; National Agricultural Research Organization, Uganda; International …

Gender-Disaggregated Seasonal And Daily Calendars Of Farmers In Uganda And Tanzania, Pricilla Marimo, Clare Shelton, Cynthia Caron, Rhiannon Crichton, Noel Madalla, Mpoki Shimwela, Rony Swennen, Inge Van Den Bergh, Charity Kibooga

Sustainability and Social Justice

This report discusses the agricultural activities (seasonal, weekly, and daily) that take place in a typical year to provide insight into men’s and women’s perceptions of the seasons, agricultural activities, crops grown, and sex-disaggregated division of labor related to those crops and activities performed during specific times in a day or week in selected regions of Uganda and Tanzania. Qualitative data were collected from 38 sex-disaggregated focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted with a total of 341 participants. Sixteen FGDs consisted of men only and 22 consisted of women only.

Foreword, Cynthia Enloe

Sustainability and Social Justice

Abstract for the full book:

This book explores how gender equality, a central part of the Nordic imaginary, is used in the political communication of Nordic states. The analyses presented move beyond conventional images and discourses of Nordic gender- and women-friendliness by critically investigating how and to what extent gender equality serves nation-branding in the Nordic region.

Nation-branding is an unescapable part of globalisation, which is a market-oriented process dominated by the West and predicated on the creation of winners and losers. Hence, efforts to strengthen the national brand or reputation of specific Nordic countries with the aid of gender …