Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations:
Movements, Networks, Partnerships
Fall 2013
M,W 5-6:20PM
Prof. Carmen Sirianni
Pearlman 210, x62652
sirianni@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: TBA
Kim Lucas
klucas@brandeis.edu
Teaching assistant
This course focuses on the many kinds of organizations that make up the larger field of
environmentalism in the United States: mainstream, national advocacy organizations as
well as state and local ones; innovative community-based organizations and movements;
new forms of partnerships among local stakeholders, as well as on larger scales (across a
region or ecosystem), or among environmental groups, corporations, and professional and
trade associations. We will also explore some with international scope.
We look at a broad range of arenas, including watersheds, sustainable communities,
environmental justice and urban health, ecosystem restoration, land trusts, ecosystem
partnerships, community forests and farms, wind energy industry and other corporate
greening strategies. We also examine civic action to mitigate climate change as well as to
adapt to and prepare for impacts at the community and regional levels and look at new
organizations and initiatives, as well as how some of the older national groups have been
transforming their strategies to combine broad civic action with various other policy
tools. We examine environmental regulation, but focus particularly on those areas where
community-based and other approaches are leading to regulatory innovations and how
some public agencies are reinventing themselves. We examine both conflict and
collaboration in environmental disputes, with special attention to how empowered
citizens and communities can move from conflict to forms of collaboration that make
sustainable improvements. And we pose a larger question throughout: how can civic
environmentalism strengthen American democracy?
Case Study Method. We will place much emphasis on the case study method in class,
and students will be expected to present case studies from the readings, organizational
websites, strategic plans (or from their own research, should they so choose). These case
study presentations can also be done in teams, and we will make adjustments according
to class size. The Chicago Wilderness controversy will be the basis for a week-long class
exercise in alternative dispute resolution for resolving conflicts with deep-seated
differences in interests, values, and competing “constructs” of nature. These class
presentations and exercises are central to our Oral Communication requirement, and
students will receive guidance for oral case study, PowerPoint, and other forms of
presentation as well. Professor Sirianni, our teaching assistant, and other students in the
class will provide constructive feedback to help you refine your presentation skills. See
the last two pages of this syllabus below for a basic case-study presentation guide.
Service Learning: students have the option of combining the usual reading,
presentations, and writing with internships and other forms of active civic engagement.
Students must work out a specific agreement (on community engagement, business
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 1
internship, and course writing) with the professor and TA in order for this work to count
as part of the grade for Soc 175b. Students can also use this course to help survey and
decide upon spring or summer internships.
International Projects: while this course is primarily limited to the U.S. in its core readings (due
to the professor’s own limitations of expertise), students are welcome to develop projects and
presentations with an international scope that are broadly in line with the themes of civic
environmentalism, community-based and sustainable development, and climate action.
Laptop and cell phone policy: since all students deserve a distraction free environment,
all laptops and cell phones are to be shut off and placed out of view during class. If a
student needs to be available for emergency information, such as a family illness, please
see instructor for special permission. If you take notes on laptop, notify me; but
absolutely no texting, emailing, or other online activities during class.
Course Requirements
The class will be combine lectures, discussion, and presentations. Students are expected
to do all readings before each session (including those cases that other students are
presenting), to participate actively in discussions, and to present case material on various
occasions.
There will be 2 writing assignments (approximately 20 pages total), and at least one
presentation (in addition to the Chicago Wilderness exercise):
1. Midterm essays (10 pages), due Oct 7 (in class): 45% of grade
2. Final essays (10 pages), due Dec 9 (in class): 45% of grade
3. Class participation: 10% of grade -- ongoing contributions to class discussions;
individual and team presentations, Chicago Wilderness controversy.
Required readings: these include books available in the bookstore, plus pdfs on LATTE.
Bookstore:
Jason Corburn, Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice
(MIT Press 2005).
Edward Weber, Bringing Society Back In: Grassroots Ecosystem Management,
Accountability, and Sustainable Communities (Cambridge: MIT Press 2003).
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 2
Sept. 4: Introduction: syllabus, requirements, overview of topics
Sept 9-18: National Advocacy within the Command-and-Control Regulatory
Regime
The development of the environmental movement and the policy system from the
1960s onwards. Mainstream environmental groups and the big national organizations:
structure, growth, funding, membership, issue niches.
Command-and-control regulation and business response. Public values and public
opinion. The changing politics of environmental regulation under Republicans and
Democrats. Why some businesses comply and adapt, while others resist. The
emerging issue of climate change and how mainstream environmental organizations
have responded to it. How have the big nationals accommodated other forms of
environmentalism?
The institutional field of environmental advocacy. Selected case studies.
Required Reading:
Sept 9: Overview of field
Carmen Sirianni and Stephanie Sofer, “Environmental Organizations,” in The State of
Nonprofit America, second edition, ed. Lester Salamon (Brookings Press, 2012),
pp. 294-328. LATTE pdf.
Sept 11: Sierra Club
Marshall Ganz And Ruth Wageman, Sierra Club Leadership Development Project
(Harvard University, 2008). LATTE pdf.
Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org/ (one-half hour general perusal)
Sept 16: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
John H. Adams and Patricia Adams, A Force of Nature: The Story of NRDC and the
Fight to Save Our Planet (Chronicle Books, 2010), chapters 1-2 (pages 12-43).
LATTE pdf.
NRDC: http://www.nrdc.org/ (one-half hour general perusal)
Sept 18: Environmental Defense Fund
Eric Pooley, The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight
to Save the Earth (Hyperion, 2010), pp. 55-101.
EDF: http://www.edf.org/ (one-half hour general perusal)
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 3
Sept 23-Oct 2: Environmental Justice and Street Science
The rise of grassroots anti-toxics and environmental justice (EJ) movements. Racism
and environmental harm. Citizens as scientists using local knowledge, and melding
this with professional science (“street science”). The emergence of the “collaborative
EJ problem solving model.” The role of community-based organizations, local health
and planning departments, schools of medicine and public health, universities, as well
as National Environmental Justice Council (NEJAC), Community Action for a
Renewed Environment (CARE) at U.S. EPA, and other innovative federal, state, and
local programs.
Required Reading:
Jason Corburn, Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health
Justice (MIT Press 2005).
Environmental Justice Collaborative Model:
http://www.cpn.org/topics/environment/pdfs/EJ_Collaborative_Model.pdf (onehalf hour perusal)
Center for Health and Environmental Justice: http://chej.org/
Midterm DUE Oct 7 in class: 10-pages typed, paginated, stapled, doublespaced, 12-point font
Oct 7-16: The Watershed Movement
Watershed associations, councils, and alliances. Save-the-bay and estuary groups.
Friends-of-the-river groups. The watershed approach to environmental protection.
National Estuary Program. The watershed movement and “watershed democracy.”
New forms of multi-stakeholder collaboration. Volunteer watershed monitoring. The
role that federal agencies play in helping develop the tools and networks for the
watershed movement.
Required Reading:
Carmen Sirianni, “Watersheds as Democratic Commonwealths,” selection from
chapter 5 of Sirianni, Investing in Democracy (Brookings Press, 2009), 158-83.
Anne Taufen Wessells, “Ways of Knowing the Los Angeles River Watershed:
Getting from Engaged Participation to Inclusive Deliberation,” in Jennifer
Girouard and Carmen Sirianni, eds., Varieties of Civic Innovation (Vanderbilt
University Press, 2014 forthcoming). LATTE pdf.
River Network, Strategic Plan 2010-2015:
http://www.rivernetwork.org/sites/default/files/River%20Network%20strategic%
20plan%202010-2015.pdf (also LATTE pdf)
Peruse: (2 hours general perusal for all links)
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 4
River Network: www.rivernetwork.org (two hours general perusal for all links)
Restore America’s Estuaries: http://www.estuaries.org/
“Enhancing Our Coast and Our Lives”:12-minute video
http://www.estuaries.org/restoration-video.html
Volunteer monitoring: http://water.epa.gov/type/rsl/monitoring/issues.cfm
Watershed Planning Handbook (2008):
http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/handbook_index.cfm
Volunteer Estuary Monitoring: A Methods Manual, second edition (Washington, DC:
Ocean Conservancy and U.S. EPA, 2002, 2006:
http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/nep/monitor_index.cfm
EPA Watershed Academy: www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/ (peruse course
listing and webcasts)
Oct 21-23: Land Trusts: Movement and Business Model
Land trusts have emerged as an important component in conservation over the past
half century, with notable growth especially in recent years. The core model and its
variants: buying land, conservation easements, investing in nature. We will look at
the major organizations (national, state, local, international) in the land trust
movement (e.g. The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, Land Trust
Alliance) and the promises and pitfalls of the land trust as a set of organizational and
financial tools.
Reading:
Richard Brewer, Conservancy: The Land Trust Movement in America (Dartmouth
College Press, 2003), chapter 10, “The Nature Conservancy” (TNC), pages 185215. LATTE pdf.
TNC, Conservation by Design
http://www.nature.org/ourscience/conservationbydesign/cbd.pdf and LATTE pdf.
Sally Fairfax et al., Buying Nature (MIT Press 2005), chapter 8 (pages 203-243),
“Meagdeals and Management Mosaics in the 1990s.” LATTE pdf.
Land Trust Alliance, 2010 National Land Trust Census
http://www.landtrustalliance.org/land-trusts/land-trust-census/2010-final-report
also LATTE pdf.
Peruse: one hour total
The Nature Conservancy: http://www.nature.org/
Land Trust Alliance: https://www.landtrustalliance.org/
Oct 28-Nov 6: Grassroots Ecosystem Management: the Opportunities and
Challenges of Collaboration on Land in the West
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 5
Ecosystem partnerships as a form of democratic management and public
accountability. The grassroots ecosystem management (GREM) movement in the
American West: environmental and conservation groups, commodity interests
(ranching, farming, irrigation, timber), local community institutions, state and federal
agencies. The critics of collaboration. Successive regimes for land governance in the
history of the American West. Does GREM represent a new form of governance and
democratic accountability? Is it time to rethink what public management of public
lands means?
Required Reading:
Edward Weber, Bringing Society Back In: Grassroots Ecosystem Management,
Accountability, and Sustainable Communities (MIT Press, 2003).
Nov 11-20: Local climate action; Business strategies for low-carbon futures
The mechanisms of climate denial in everyday life, even by those who know
better. Sociology of emotions in understanding denial, as well as action.
The many dimensions of empowered individual and civic action, as well as
strategic actions by cities linked globally. City climate action plans.
International organizations as networks, with shared resources, practices,
templates, governance (especially ICLEI: Local Governments for
Sustainability).
Climate strategies in the corporate sector, as well as in universities.
Required Reading and Viewing:
FILM: “Carbon Nation: A Climate Change Solutions Movie (that doesn’t
even care if you believe in climate change),” Peter Byck, documentary
(2011).
Norgaard, Kari Marie. 2006. “ ‘People Want To Protect Themselves A Little
Bit’: Emotions, Denial, and Social Movement Non-Participation The Case
of Global Climate Change,” Sociological Inquiry 76(3): 372-396. LATTE
pdf.
Ion Bogdan Vasi, "Organizational Environments and Compatibility: The
Diffusion of the Program against Global Climate Change Among Local
Governments in the U.S." Sociological Forum. 21(3): 439-466. LATTE
pdf.
Ion Bogdan Vasi, Winds of Change: The Environmental Movement and the
Global Development of the Wind Energy Industry (Oxford UP, 2011),
chapter 4, pages 116-141 (“From Thinking Globally about Climate
Change to Acting Locally on the Energy Challenge,” on university and
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 6
corporate strategies), and pages 170-182 (“Environmental Activism and
the Development and Operation of Wind Farms in the U.S.”). LATTE pdf.
Peruse (one hour total):
ICLEI USA Annual Report (2010): LATTE pdf.
ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability, Corporate Report 2012-2013:
http://archive.iclei.org/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Global/governa
nce/ICLEI-Corporate_Report2012-final-www.pdf . LATTE pdf.
ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability: http://www.iclei.org/
Seattle Climate Action Plan (2013):
http://www.seattle.gov/environment/documents/2013_CAP_20130612.pdf
also LATTE pdf.
Dec 2-4: “Restoring Nature”
The restoration movement. The ethics and politics of “restoring nature.” Chicago
Wilderness and Volunteer Stewards Network.
Dispute resolution class exercise/project: based on Chicago Wilderness controversy.
Required Reading:
Reid Helford, “Constructing Nature as Constructing Science: Expertise, Activist
Science, and the Public Conflict in the Chicago Wilderness,” chapter 6 (119-42)
in Paul Gobster and R. Bruce Hull, Restoring Nature: Perspectives from the
Social Sciences and Humanities (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000).
Joanne Vining, Elizabeth Tyler, and Byoung-Suk Kweon, “Public Values, Opinions,
and Emotions in Restoration Controversies,” chapter 7 in Restoring Nature (143161). LATTE pdf.
Chicago Wilderness Annual Report 2012:
http://www.chicagowilderness.org/files/7213/4677/0952/Chicago_Wilderness_20
11-12_Annual_Report.pdf and LATTE pdf
Peruse:
Chicago Wilderness: www.chicagowilderness.org
Volunteer Stewardship Network (Illinois Nature Conservancy):
www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/illinois/volunteer/art9844.html
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 7
Sunset on Chesapeake Bay
And for the semester!
Final DUE Dec 9 in class: 10-pages typed, paginated, stapled, double-spaced,
12-point font
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 8
CASE PRESENTATION GUIDE
Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations
The main goal of a case presentation is to present enough of the basic architecture of a
case, plus some engaging details, to help trigger a discussion among the class. You
should be completely familiar with all the details, concepts (some of which might be
from earlier chapters of a book or lecture), and dynamics of the case (i.e. progression
over time) in order that you can help facilitate (I will also pitch in), but do not necessarily
have to put this all down on your handout or PowerPoint. In some cases, you might wish
to do this, so that you can easily recall, but don’t take everyone through every detail. That
would be boring. The more that you present architecture and then lead to questions and
discussion back and forth, the better. The goal is for you to be able to lead a dynamic
discussion. A team presentation should have a smooth and dynamic transition from one
member to another (thus rehearse or at least discuss division of responsibilities). A team
presentation often has more opportunity for creative transitions and fun exercises. But
whether individual or team, establish your presence and authority over the room.
There is no one right way to present a case study, but here are some basics in thinking
about the architecture you want to construct.
•
The problem: what is the problem or conundrum that has brought the actors to
the point of searching for new solutions? Is a specific threat (environmental
hazard, risk) to the community, or some part of the community (some racial or
ethnic group)? Has the community become stalemated, stuck in conflict or in the
courts? Is the problem that the old tools of regulation aren’t working well? Or that
some actors dominate the political and regulatory system? Of course, there may
be a number of interacting problems. Don’t be overly technical or longwinded on
this, you can always elaborate further in the discussion. WHAT IS THE CORE
DRAMA? (And how does it carry through the whole case presentation?)
•
Historical background, identity of community: what is the history of the
community, different factions, ethnic/racial/economic divisions (if relevant)? Are
there historical layers of tradition, problem accumulation, sources of common
identity or conflict extending back many years? Newcomers and old timers in
community? Past patterns of discrimination, housing segregation that might help
explain the problem?
•
Key players: what are the key organizations involved in the drama? Who are the
key individuals that take leadership, and what enables them to do so, to help move
others towards a different/higher ground?
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 - 9
•
Framing: how were the issues framed or reframed in the process? What slogans
and rhetoric were employed (e.g. environmental racism/justice, community
preservation, ranching traditions, community renewal, human rights, species
rights/protection, conflict/collaboration).
•
Existing tools: what tools for regulation or community action have been used
before in this community to address this or similar problems? Are they working?
Why or why not?
•
New tools: what new tools and approaches do citizens and stakeholders develop
to try to address the problem? For example: land trust, transit-oriented planning
and community development, watershed partnership, multi-stakeholder ecosystem
management, urban agriculture or aquaculture, university-community partnership,
environmental education, community visioning.
•
Key participants and stakeholders: what were their self-interests? Who joined
together in these efforts? How did they manage to collaborate (or not), engage
broad organizational memberships, manage to deal with their traditional
adversaries, reinvent themselves and their traditional missions? Did they develop
a set of common values and interests? How did they create a broader ethic of
stewardship? Build relationships? Get government bureaucracies to change their
practices?
•
Resources: what financial resources and community assets are available for the
new initiatives, and from which sources? Are new funding tools developed?
•
Networks: are there broader networks (social movement, professional, business
association, government) that enable local actors to work effectively in solving
problems and developing new approaches? What is the institutional field within
which they act?
•
Results: what were the results of these new efforts and innovations? Impact on
environment, and how measured? Impact on community, and how measured?
How did the stakeholders develop mutually acceptable measures?
•
Politics: what are the dynamics of local (city, county) politics (elections,
districting, ethnic/racial exclusion), as well as state and national politics (if
relevant) as these dynamics impact problem solving?
EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY: all students are responsible for the reading of that
class and to help make the presentation and discussion go well. If presenter(s) throw out a
question to elicit discussion, others should be able to pick up the thread, help catalyze
further discussion, add to the analytic toolbox. We are all invested in everyone’s
presentations going as well as possible and providing assistance and feedback.
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2013 -
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