Notes from Chair
Annual Report, 2000-2001, 2001-2002
Netting award
CESG members in Atlantic Monthly
LA meeting business and name change
Student awards 2002
Obituary - Jim Ellis, Theo Hills
Calls: Conferences, meetings, publications
African Studies Association
IFSA conference
Special Issue, J of Cultural Geography
Doug Johnson
Research, Clark
Chad Staddon
Hires
Sluyter
Whitmore & Turner
Bussman
| The CESG Listserv (AAG-CESG-L) is for general exchange of information, news, views, debate, questions and answers by the members of the specialty group.All current CESG members have been subscribed to the list. Go to http://lists.psu.edu/archives/aag-cesg-l.html, select the link to join the list, and follow the instructions. Thereafter, you can manage your subscription and access the archives through the same interface. For all queries, email mstein@usm.maine.edu. Only list members (CESG members) can post messages. To do so, send your message to the list address: AAG-CESG-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU. Everyone on the list will receive your message so please ensure that the subject line is informative, and the content is appropriate. Contributions sent to this list are automatically archived for posterity. |
Notes from the Chair - Spring 2002
Dear CESG members:
Remember to send the Board your nominations for the 2002 Netting Award. The Board struggles with this difficult decision, and a supporting statement in addition to a name will help. The CESG website provides the award's terms of reference to assist in preparing such a statement.
On the agenda for the 2002 Business Meeting:
- Approving the 2001 minutes; you can find them in the Spring 2001 CEN.
- Voting on the proposed James Blaut award; see it in the Fall 2001 CEN.
- Election of a new Board: Chair; Secretary/Treasurer; Eastern, Central, and
Western Regional Representatives; and Student Representative.
Remember to send in your entries for the 2002 Student Paper and Field Study Awards. You can find details at the CESG website. Applicants for the paper award need to notify the Board before the meetings, even though the papers are not due until afterward, so that we can be sure to attend your session.
Please send me agenda items for the business meeting. And visit the CESG website for further information on those and other items.
Andrew Sluyter, CESG Chair
Annual Report 2000-2001, 2001-2002
The Group's 2000-1 Annual Report to the AAG is
posted here
The Group's 2001-2 Annual Report to the AAG is
posted here
Netting Award
Emilio F. Moran will be awarded the 2002 Robert McC. Netting Award at the Los Angeles meeting to recognize his distinguished research and other professional activities that bridge geography and anthropology. Notably, this is the first time the award has gone to an anthropologist rather than a geographer. Past awardees are Philip W. Porter, Harold C. Brookfield, William M. Denevan, Karl W. Butzer, Barney Q. Nietschmann, and Billie Lee Turner II. Dr. Moran is James H. Rudy Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Environmental Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Geography at Indiana University. He is Director of the Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change. His honors include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. He is perhaps best known among group members for sustained research, since his 1975 dissertation, on agroecology and deforestation in the Amazon basin and, more recently, for his leadership in the multidisciplinary study of long-term landscape change.
CESG Members in Atlantic Monthly
The cover article of the March 2002 Atlantic Monthly popularizes the work of many CESG members. It mentions by name Bill Denevan, Bill Woods, and Joe McCann. ( - you have to pay to read online, now).
Los Angeles Business Meeting, name change
Full 2002 Business meeting minutes by Tom Whitmore
The new CESG committee voted in for 2002-2004 is as follows: Paul Robbins, (Ohio State, chair) Kendra McSweeney (Ohio State, Secretary/Treasurer), Brad Jokisch (Ohio, Eastern Regional Councilor), Steven Rainey (McNeese State, Central Regional Councilor), Leslie Gray (Santa Clara, Western Regional Councilor), Susannah McCandless (Clark, Student Representative).
Paul Robbins says "We are also deeply indebted to the outgoing chair Andrew Sluyter for the last two successful years, as well as the rest of the outgoing board: Thomas Whitmore, Michael Steinberg, Karl Offen, Rheyna Laney, and David Carr. Their work, as well as that of Oliver's board and that of previous chairs, has set a truly productive tone and sense of forward momentum that should make our work all the easier and better.
For those of you unable to attend the business meeting in LA, a short set of minutes will be available shortly. So too, I will be sending along a synopsis of the AAG Specialty Group Chairs Meeting when it is available.
As proposed in the meeting, the current order of business is to put before the membership a proposal for changing the name of the group from the "Cultural Ecology Specialty Group" to the "Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group." (below)
BEFORE laying out the proposal for a vote, however, we will be producing a statement of explanation and rationale for the proposed change as well as a potentially amended version of our statement of purpose based on feedback from the entire community. [Thanks to Tom Bassett for this sensible recommendation]. Currently, the statement reads:
"To promote and conduct scholarly activities on cultural ecological topics ranging from pre-history to third world development, and from environmental to economic problems."
Please send comments to me (robbins.30@osu.edu), as well as to the List as a whole, if you feel that is appropriate.
Looking forward to serving this great community. Please do not hesitate to send me any comments or suggestions for the group as a whole. And start planning now for the Big Easy!
Cheers, Paul"
Email discussion of name change for posterity
The Vote on the Name Change
[from the Cultural Ecology listserv) It is my responsibility to here provide a formal motion on the name change. The intention in sending out this motion for a vote is NOT to stifle or end the conversation; rather, it is an opportunity to continue discussion, but perhaps on more carefully spelt out terms. Also, during the business meeting in LA we moved to do this in April, and we need to leave a couple of weeks for voting.
It has been moved that the name of the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group be changed to the "Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group" and that the mission statement be amended to read:
"To promote scholarly activities on the cultural, economic, demographic and political dimensions of resource use and ecological change, focusing on these issues and their linkages at and across multiple spatial and temporal scales."
Below is a short and provisional statement drafted in consultation with the group. While the statement is too brief to be comprehensive, it is hoped that it will, in spirit, convey the inclusive and broad aims of our diverse community. (see attachments to emails for elaboration) Paul Robbins, Chair
******
Statement
Political Ecology, a growing field of study in Geography, Anthropology, Planning, Environmental History, and related fields, has emerged quickly in the last few decades, both alongside and within the thriving research domain of Cultural Ecology, which itself continues to grow. Political Ecology now has its own journal and the number of contributions to major publications in many fields has expanded dramatically in the last few years. Courses teaching the topic are burgeoning in universities across Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, and research and teaching are also expanding throughout Latin America, Africa, and South Asia. The field therefore represents a globally emergent set of research concerns tying environmental conditions to the political, economic, and institutional contexts in which they are situated. The scholarly literature contains a growing number of synthetic or summary articles on the topic, and several new texts have arrived to cement the subdiscipline, each of which addresses important methodological or philosophical problems faced by a growing field.
At the same time, however, Cultural Ecology has continued to develop and grow as a field, with its traditional concerns human adaptation to environmental change and the decision-making structure of producers under changing conditions, for example suddenly at the center of important debates in globalization studies, climate change science, biological conservation, and other broad areas of practical and intellectual concern. Indeed, the core questions of Cultural Ecology have never been more relevant.
Both fields share a common heritage, moreover, though with roots branching in great diversity (Figure 2). They also share a set of common concerns and practices, such that many scholars would have difficulty in defining their work exclusively in either field.
These common concerns and practices include among many others:
1) A focus on production as a key site of social-environmental process
2) Rigorous archival and field-based empirical research
3) Concern for marginalized and disenfranchised communities
4) Interest in the position and power of traditional environmental knowledges
5) Land use and land cover (landscape) as a central focus of explanation
6) Integrated and often multi-disciplinary approaches
To be sure, the modes of explanation in the two fields can differ significantly, as can the use and selection of evidence, especially in the incorporation of demography, political economy, etc. The social and political aims of varying practitioners can also differ widely. But the commonalties outweigh the differences to a degree not often seen in other specialty areas in Geography. This coherence is visible in any solid survey of the literature or any rigorous investigation of the subdiscipline's history.
Thus, it is hereby moved that the name of the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group be changed to the "Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group" (CAPE) and that the mission statement be amended to read:
"To promote scholarly activities on the cultural, demographic, economic, and political dimensions of resource use and ecological change, focusing on these issues and their linkages at and across multiple spatial and temporal scales."
To vote on the motion, respond by sending an email message to Secretary-Treasurer Kendra McSweeny (kmcsween@geography.ohio-state.edu). Place the words "CAPE Vote" in the subject line of your message, and a simple YES (noting approval of the proposed changes) or NO (noting disapproval of the proposed changes) in the body of the text. Voting will be open from the present moment until April 20th. All members of the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group are eligible to vote (but only once each!).
The results: For: 36 Against: 2. Our group will change its name to the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group.
Student Awards 2002
The members of the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group wish to congratulate the recipients of its student awards for 2002. The Student Paper Award has gone to David Carr of the Carolina Population Center of the University of North Carolina for his paper "The Event Ecology of Deforestation on the Agricultural Frontier: the Sierra de Lacandón National Park, Guatemala". The Student Field Study Award has gone to Brian King of the Department of Geography of the University of Colorado for his project proposal "In the Shadow of Kruger: Community Conservation in the Former KaNgwane homeland, South Africa". Andrew Sluyter
Necrology: Jim Ellis
James Ellis, an ecosystem scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory of Colorado State University, died in an avalanche in western Colorado on March 14, 2002. Jim applied integrated, interdisciplinary approaches to understanding pastoral ecosystem ecology throughout the world--in Africa, the Mideast, Asia, and North America. His work supported wise management and policy. Particularly notable was his extensive research on the ecology of pastoralism in the Turkana District of Kenya during the 1980’s, studies supported by the National Science Foundation. This project produced over 200 scientific publications. It was the first example of a major research project integrating social and ecosystem science, an example that has been frequently imitated. Jim was a systems ecologist in the classical sense-his greatest strength was his ability to conceptualize large, complex scientific problems as whole systems, to sketch the interactions among their significant components, and to develop ways to understand their dynamics. Dr. Ellis was a leader in demonstrating that few important ecological problems would yield to the efforts of single scientists working alone and as such, he can be credited with motivating fundamental shifts in national research priorities. Jim attracted more than $10 million in research funds to Colorado State. He was recently awarded a $1.9 million National Science Foundation Biocomplexity award to support studies of scale and complexity in arid land ecosystems, focusing on the effect of landscape fragmentation on the ecology and economics of arid grazing systems worldwide. He mentored many students, several of whom are now international leaders in ecosystem science and ecology. Two papers authored by Ellis and his colleagues have exerted especially strong impact on contemporary scientific thinking.
Ellis, JE & Swift, DM. 1988. Stability of African Pastoral Ecosystems: alternative paradigms and implications for development. Journal of Range Management 41(6):450-459
has been cited over 130 times and has motivated symposia and research all over the world. In 1994, Dr. Ellis and his wife and colleague, Dr. Kathleen Galvin, published an important paper explaining dynamics of climate and land-use in arid regions of Africa;
Ellis, J. and K. A. Galvin. 1994. Climate patterns and land use practices in the dry zones of east and west Africa. BioScience 44(5):340-349.
Jim was a Senior Scientist at Colorado State’s Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory since 1971. From 1989-1995 he was also a Professor in the Range Science Department, and held many other international positions during his career. Jim lived in a house that was built largely by his own hands in the foothills northwest of Fort Collins. He was a superb athlete, running marathons when he was 60, and an active outdoorsman. He is survived by his wife and longstanding scientific colleague, Dr. Kathleen Galvin, and four sons, Gregory, Eric, Ian, and Stefan. Donations may be sent to the James E. Ellis Memorial Scholarship Fund in care of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523.
Necrology: Theo Hills
On April 1 2002, one of our 'elders' -- Theo Hills -- passed away at home in his sleep. In a research career that spanned over 35 years, Theo's work explored a wide range of tropical ecologies -- cultural and otherwise -- and he was perhaps best known for his work on the savannas of the Rupinuni and dooryard gardens of the Caribbean. Hills was Professor Emeritus at McGill University, and on the board of the International Small Islands Studies Association. To those who knew him, he was a warm, fine gentleman with a deep interest in the people, places and landscapes around him. He will be sorely missed.
Oliver T. Coomes
Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Call for Papers, Panels and Roundtables
CESG members with African research interests are invited to submit proposals for papers, panels and roundtables for the 45th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association (5-8 December 2002 in Washington, D.C.). The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2002. Guidelines regarding submissions and conference registration may be found at: http://www.africanstudies.org/. Proposals should be submitted directly to the African Studies Association (African Studies Association, Rutgers University, 132 Georgie Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1400 USA. Tel: 732-932-8173, Fax: 732-932-3394, Email: callasa@rci.rutgers.edu). As a member of the National Program Committee for the 45th Annual Meeting and section head for the environmental sub-theme, I am particularly keen to encourage submissions regarding human-environment interactions from a broad range of disciplines. A description of the environmental sub-theme is as follows:
“The evolving character of the African environment, real and imagined, has long been a subject of debate among scholars and practitioners. At the dawn of the new century, we find a segment of the research community concerned that the continent is ever-engaged in a downward spiral of environmental destruction, poverty and population expansion. Other scholars suggest that we have inappropriately blamed local people for environmental problems that are better understood within the broader context of globalization, national versus and local interests, and excessive consumption in Northern countries. How to best manage the environment for the benefit of local people is, and will continue to be, a contentious nut to crack. Elucidating this conundrum is likely to require, among other things, closer collaboration between biophysical and social scientists (an underdeveloped facet of a yet, truly interdisciplinary African Studies). The increasingly global nature of environmental discourse will also impact, and be influenced by, African practice and scholarship. One example of this is the Rio+10 conference (to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2002) that will again focus global attention on the theory and practice of sustainable development, an approach closely associated with contemporary environmental policy and programs in Africa. This sub-theme welcomes proposals for papers, panels and round tables addressing a wide array of environmental topics (e.g., water resources, biodiversity, wildlife and forest conservation, ecotourism, sustainable agriculture, urban environments and land degradation) and employing a range of analytical approaches (e.g., political ecology, cultural ecology, political economy, environmental history, cartographic and biophysical analysis, etc.). Given the overall conference theme of “Africa in the Information and Technology Age,” submissions regarding social, technical and managerial aspects of the use, or abuse, of technologies (e.g., geographic information systems, remote sensing) in the environmental realm are especially encouraged.”
I hope you will consider this excellent opportunity to interact with other Africanist scholars in an interdisciplinary atmosphere. While all proposals should be submitted directly to the African Studies Association, I am willing to entertain questions regarding the environmental sub-theme and the conference in general. William Moseley, Department of Geography, Northern Illinois University, Tel: 815-753-6839, Email: moseley@geog.niu.edu
Small farms in an ever-changing world: Meeting the challenges of sustainable livelihoods and food security in diverse rural communities
17th Symposium of the International Farming Systems Association (IFSA). November 17-20, 2002, The Grosvenor in the Walt Disney World® Resort, Lake Buena Vista (Orlando), Florida, USA. See http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/ifsa/ for registration and details.
Journal of Cultural Geography special
issue
The University of Iowa. Full-time, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography for the 2002-2003 academic year beginning August 2002. The successful candidate will have a strong research program and teaching expertise on environmental change in East Asia. The position requires teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels to strengthen the Department's program in environmental studies. Ph.D. at time of appointment and teaching experience, especially in introductory courses, are desired. Salary commensurate with qualifications. Submit a vita and a letter describing research and teaching interests, and arrange to have three letters of reference sent. Screening will begin 15 April 2002. The University of Iowa is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer; women and minorities are strongly urged to apply. Send application materials to George Malanson, Search Committee Chair, Department of Geography, 316 Jessup Hall. U of Iowa, Iowa City 52242. 319/335-0540, fax 319/335-2725; email george-malanson@uiowa.edu. For additional information about the department see www.uiowa.edu/~geog
Arizona post-doc. The Institute for the Study of Planet Earth (www.ispe.arizona.edu) seeks to fill a postdoctoral Research Associate position. We specifically seek a social scientist qualified to assist in coordinating activities of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) project (www.ispe.arizona.edu/climas) and carry out research, as a member of an interdisciplinary team, into the impacts of climate variability and change on human and natural systems in the southwestern United States. The researcher’s time would be devoted 50% to coordination and 50% to research activities. The position is a year-to-year appointment. The candidate must meet the following minimum qualifications: PhD in a relevant social science discipline, demonstrated expertise in carrying out assessment of the social implications/impacts of climate variability and change (including a working knowledge of climate processes as well as climate- environment interactions); and specific knowledge of social science research methods such as the design and use of surveys, policy and institutional analysis, and content analysis. We are looking for a candidate who also has the following preferred qualifications: excellent communication skills, experience in developing Web content, and knowledge of basic statistics. Review of applicants will continue until the position is filled. Submit a cover letter highlighting your interests and qualifications for the position, a resume, and the names and contact information for three references. Please be sure to also include reference to Job Number 22645. Apply: Dr. Barbara Morehouse, Associate Research Scientist, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth, The University of Arizona, 715 N. Park, 2nd Floor, Tucson, AZ 85721. email: morehoub@u.arizona.edu. The University of Arizona is an EEO/AA Employer – M/W/D/V.
Members' (or those who should be..) News
Douglas Johnson (professor, Clark University) and Viola Haarman have been appointed as the new editors of the Geographical Review from Jan. 2003.
New research at Clark (B.L.Turner II et.al.):
1) SUST. The Sustainability Systems Project (SUST) is a multi-institution research program that includes Clark University, Harvard University, Stockholm Environment Institute, Potsdam Institute, and Stanford University. SUST seeks to foster the design and evaluation of strategies with which the next generation of national and international global environmental change programs can more effectively integrate and support their research, assessment and decision-support activities. Expected to operate from 2000-03, SUST is funded through NSF by various agencies within the USGCRP (US Global Change Research Program).
2) SYPR. A second, three-year phase (2001-04) of research on the Southern Yucatán Peninsular Region (SYPR) has been funded by NASA’s LCLUC (Land-Cover and Land-Use Change) program (base support $590,000), with annual contributions from the NSF sponsored Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, Carnegie Mellon University.
Dianne Rocheleau (Clark University) has been awarded a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship (Bunting Fellowship) at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, for the year 2002-2003. Dianne is only the second woman geographer to be awarded this honor - the first being Susanne Freidberg (Dartmouth) in 2000-2001.
Chad Staddon (University of the West of England, UK: PhD Kentucky) has been awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Neville Shulman award. The $8000 award will be used to facilitate community cooperation for natural resource management in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovnia, working with the University of Sarajevo and the Regional Centre for Central and Eastern Europe.
Matt Turner, Associate Professor of Geography, University of
Wisconsin, Madison
and
Karl Zimmerer, Professor of Geography and Director, Environment and
Development Research Institute, University of Wisconsin, Madison have been
awarded 2002 Guggenheim Fellowships
by the The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Matt will work on "the
history of environmental scientific practice in the Sahel" and Karl on "the
rural-urban geography of conservation and resource management".
Hires
Emma Archer (post-doc, Columbia University: PhD Clark) has been appointed lecturer, Dept. of Environmental & Geographical Science, University of Cape Town, South Africa, from May 2002.
Pat Benjamin (PhD student, Clark University & librarian, Marsh Institute) has been appointed assistant professor, Geography, Worcester State College, MA, from January 2002.
Jeff Bury (PhD student, University of Colorado) has been appointed assistant professor, Geography, San Francisco State University, from August 2002.
William Gartner (PhD student, University of Wisconsin, Madison) has been appointed to the faculty of the Department of Philosophy, Religious Studies and Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Steven's Point and runs the Central Wisconsin Archaeology Center.
Nick Haan (PhD student, Clark University), has been appointed Regional Programme Advisor for East and Southern Africa, UN World Food Programme, FAO, Rome, Italy.
Eric Keys (PhD student, Clark University) has been appointed visiting research associate, LUCC focus 1 office, Indiana University from Jan 2002.
And again...Eric Keys (PhD student, Clark University) has been appointed assistant professor, Geography, Arizona State University, from August 2002.
Paul Laris (PhD student, Clark University) has been appointed assistant professor, Geography, California State University, Long Beach, from August 2002.
Steve Manson (PhD student, Clark University) has been appointed assistant professor, Geography, University of Minnesota, from Aug 2002.
Bill Moseley (assistant professor, Northern Illinois) has been appointed assistant professor, Geography, Macalester College, MN from Sept 2002.
Joshua Muldavin (assistant professor, UCLA) has been appointed Henry R. Luce assistant professor in east Asian cultural and human geography, Sarah Lawrence College, NY from Jan 2002. Tenure case support
Jim Murphy (PhD student, University of Florida) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Geography & International Studies, University of Richmond, VA from Aug 2002.
Liz Oglesby (post-doc, Yale; PhD Berkeley) has been appointed assistant professor, Latin American Studies, University of Arizona, from Aug 2002.
René Véron (visiting assistant professor, Trent University and lecturer, LSE: PhD Zurich) has been appointed assistant professor, University of Guelph, Canada from Sept 2002.
Jim Wescoat (professor, University of Colorado) has been appointed professor and head, Landscape Architecture Department, University of Illinois, from Sept 2002.
Emily Young (assistant professor, University of Arizona) became Director of Environment Analysis & Strategy at the San Diego Foundation in 2001.
Sluyter, A. 2002. Colonialism and Landscape: Postcolonial Theory and Development Applications. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Cloth 0-7425-1559-1 $75.00 Paper 0-7425-1560-5 $27.95 (15% discount from web)
Spurred by the dramatic landscape transformation associated with European colonization of the Americas, this original and extensively illustrated work creates a prototype theory to explain relationships between colonialism and landscape. Andrew Sluyter adeptly weaves historical sources and empirical research into a comprehensive geographical theory and applies it to a case study of the Veracruz lowlands along the Gulf Coast of Mexico. He then explores broader considerations of environmental conservation, development, and global policy challenges. This book will be of significance to geographers and others interested in development and environmental studies.
Whitmore, T. & B.L. Turner II. 2002. Cultivated Landscapes of Middle America on the Eve of Conquest. Oxford Geographical and Environmental Studies Series. Oxford University Press. Hardback $105.00. ISBN 0199244537
Focusing on Middle America, this book completes a trilogy (see CEN 38) which has made the most comprehensive survey ever achieved of pre-Colombian agriculture and culture throughout the continents. It addresses the question of what lands were permanently occupied; how they were used; and what the environmental and social implications of this use were. The answers to these questions are central to such wide-ranging themes as indigenous land rights, the conservation and preservation 'ethic' of these native people, and the global carbon cycle. The kind, scale, and location of land use is documented and mapped in detail. The book not only demonstrates the sophistication of the agricultural landscapes and their local integration, but also investigates the omissions and land degradation of the native agriculturalists. Drawing on this wealth of data the authors make a stimulating contribution to the debate about resource, land, and population in the Americas.
Bejár, E., Bussmann, R.W., Roa, C., Sharon, D. 2002. Medicinal Herbs of Southern Ecuador – Hierbas Medicinales del Sur Ecuatoriano, 352p. San Diego, Latino Herbal Press. US$34,95.- plus shipping .ISBN 0-9715204-0-2.
Orders for the Americas under www.latinoherbal.com Orders for Europe, Africa, Asia to: ceja.andina@t-online.de
This page maintained by Simon Batterbury. Notes, comments,
suggestions may be posted to:
batterbu@u.arizona.edu
Webcounter hits since 30 June 2000