Division of Society and Environment

Faculty and students of the Division of Society & Environment study how social distributions of power and resources affect environmental dynamics and their social consequences. Research and teaching focus

1. on how cultural, social, political and economic institutions affect the treatment of natural resources and its interactions with environmental phenomena, and
   
2. on the practical processes, methods and implications of forming, choosing and applying policy and management regimes in different institutional frameworks and environmental settings.

This knowledge is applied to concrete problems in human-ecosystem relations from local to global scales in a wide variety of cultural and historical contexts. Theories and methods are chosen from the full range of science and interpretive analysis to satisfy the standards of both significant scholarship and effective practical contribution for the problem of interest. Current topics of interest include, for example:

· global environmental change and international agreements
· resource-dependent communities, regions and industries
· comparative national and local development
· property, jurisdiction and sovereignty
· environmental equity
· decision models and methods in ecosystem management
· policies for land, water, forest, coastal and environmental resources
· watershed and river basin regimes
· environmental history and ethics

Faculty