Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations:
Movements, Networks, Partnerships
Fall 2015
M,W 3:30-4:50PM
Prof. Carmen Sirianni
Pearlman 210, x62652
sirianni@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: M, W 5-6:00 pm, Thurs by appointment
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 direct action groups, and some with international scope, especially in global climate
action. Our last book of the semester will focus specifically on the various global civil society
organizations engaged in UN climate talks, with an eye to the important Paris negotiations due to
open on November 30.
We look at a broad range of arenas, including water, rivers, and watersheds, sustainable
communities, environmental justice and urban health, ecosystem restoration, land trusts,
ecosystem partnerships, wind energy industry, corporate greening strategies, and cultural divides
on climate belief/denial. 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
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.
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 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 casestudy presentation guide.
Service Learning: students have the option (NOT requirement) 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 or campus engagement or business,
nonprofit, government internship, and course writing) with the professor in order for this work to
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2015 - 1
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.
ABSOLUTELY NO USE OF LAPTOPS OR CELL PHONES DURING CLASS
Out of respect for each other’s contributions during class, all cellphones and laptops will be
shut off and stored out of sight. Get a paper notebook for note taking, if you do not typically
utilize one. (I will make an exception only if there is a dire emergency, such as a family member
in surgery. You must inform me of such an emergency ahead of class.)
Keeping Up To Date on Environmental News
Several sources are especially good (but please inform us of others!):
National Public Radio, Living on Earth: www.loe.org (weekly one-hour podcasts, in topic
segments; original reports and interviews, high quality reporting, innovative strategies).
Daily Climate: http://www.dailyclimate.org/ (sign up for daily selection of best articles from
wide range of sources, latest reports summarized, and PDF links available).
Course Requirements
The class will 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 10 pages each), and at least one
presentation:
Midterm essays (10 pages), due Oct 7 (in class): 40% of grade
Final essays (10 pages), due Dec 16, by midnight: 40% of grade; email as attachment:
sirianni@brandeis.edu
Class participation: 20% of grade -- ongoing contributions to class discussions; individual
and team presentations.
Required readings: these include books available in the bookstore, plus PDFs on LATTE.
Hoffman, Andrew. 2015. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate. Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press.
Mapes, Jeff. 2009. Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities.
Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.
Hadden, Jennifer. 2015. Networks in Contention: The Divisive Politics of Climate
Change. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2015 - 2
Aug 31: Introduction: syllabus, requirements, overview of topics.
Sept 2-10: Public Opinion and Culture in the Climate Debate
Trends in public opinion on environmental issues over time, by socio-demographic group.
The problem of high issue support, but chronically low salience (i.e. relative to other issues).
Deep cultural and political divisions on climate change in the US: WHY?
The role of costs, taxes, benefits, economy, time horizons, critical events, policy tools in
forming opinion. The role of the “sociology of emotions” in understanding denial in climate
change. The role of the media. Organizations supporting systematic climate denial. Framing
and action for a politics of HOPE!
Required Reading:
Hoffman, Andrew. 2015. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press.
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.
Sept 16-21: 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 communitybased organizations, local health and planning departments, schools of medicine and public
health, universities, as well as National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC),
Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) at U.S. EPA, and other innovative
federal, state, and local programs. Climate justice as an emergent approach.
Required Reading:
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2015 - 3
Jason Corburn, Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice
(MIT Press 2005), chapter 1 (“Local Knowledge in Environmental Health Policy,” pages
27-45) and chapter 4 (“Tapping Local Knowledge to Understand and Combat Asthma,”
pages 111-44).
Sept 29-Oct 7: The Watershed and Rivers Movement
Watershed associations, councils, and alliances. Save-the-bay and estuary groups. Friends-ofthe-river groups. The watershed approach to environmental protection. National Estuary
Program. The watershed movement and “watershed democracy.” New forms of multistakeholder collaboration. Volunteer watershed monitoring.
The role that federal agencies can play in helping develop the tools and networks for the
watershed movement and environmental justice.
Required Reading:
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),
23-45. LATTE PDF.
Carmen Sirianni, “Bringing the State Back in Through Collaborative Governance: Emergent
Mission and Practice at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” in Jennifer Girouard
and Carmen Sirianni, Varieties of Civic Innovation: Deliberative, Collaborative,
Narrative, and Network Approaches (Vanderbilt University Press, 2014), 203-238.
LATTE PDF.
The River Network: http://www.rivernetwork.org/
Midterm DUE Oct 7 in class: 10-pages typed, paginated, stapled, double-spaced, 12-point
font. Midterm is based on readings and discussions for these first three topics.
Oct 12-14: 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 185-215. LATTE
PDF.
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2015 - 4
TNC, Conservation by Design. http://www.nature.org/media/aboutus/conservation-bydesign-20th-anniversary-edition.pdf 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. (2015 may be soon available)
Peruse: one hour total:
The Nature Conservancy: http://www.nature.org/
Land Trust Alliance: https://www.landtrustalliance.org/
Oct 19-21: Grassroots Ecosystem Management: the Opportunities and Challenges of
Collaboration in the Western U.S.
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? The challenge of drought for land and water
management.
Required Reading:
Edward Weber, Bringing Society Back In: Grassroots Ecosystem Management,
Accountability, and Sustainable Communities (MIT Press, 2003), chapter 3
(“Operationalizing Accountability in a Decentralized, Collaborative, and Shared-Power
World,” pages 69-105), an chapter 5 (“Coping with Conflicting Water Resource
Demands in the Henry’s Fork Watershed,” pages 141-64).
Oct 26-Nov 4: Sustainable communities movement
The sustainable communities movement has emerged from multiple streams, including
architects and planners in green building and new urbanist design, bicycle associations and
equitable transportation, AARP and walkable communities, open space councils and urban
forestry, environmental justice and urban rivers, public health and urban agriculture, and city
climate action planning. We will look at several dimension of this movement.
Required reading:
Mapes, Jeff. 2009. Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities.
Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press.
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2015 - 5
Seattle Climate Action Plan (2013):
http://www.seattle.gov/environment/documents/2013_CAP_20130612.pdf also LATTE
PDF.
Peruse 1 hour:
Natural Resources Defense Council: NRDC: http://www.nrdc.org/ (Cities and Communities
section)
Nov 9-16: Business Strategies: resistance, adaptation, learning, innovation
While business often resists command-and-control regulation, it also can adjust strategies
under a variety of constraints and opportunities in the broader fields in which it has to
operate. We will examine a range of innovative strategies, differences among business
lobbies on issues of climate, and the intersection of social movements, entrepreneurial
opportunities, consumer power, and employee empowerment for sustainable solutions.
“Embedded sustainability” as model for developing the field. But: is capitalism the problem?
What do we even mean when we say this?
Required Reading:
Lazlo, Chris, and Nadya Zhexembayeva. 2011. Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big
Competitive Advantage. Stanford, CA: Stanford Business Books. Chapters 1 and 10.
LATTE PDF.
Esty, Daniel C. 2009. Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to
Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage. Revised & Updated edition.
Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Selections.
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 corporate strategies), and pages 170-182 (“Environmental
Activism and the Development and Operation of Wind Farms in the U.S.”). LATTE
PDF.
Eric Pooley, The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the
Earth (Hyperion, 2010), pp. 55-101. LATTE PDF.
Peruse (1/2 hour each site):
Environmental Defense Fund: http://www.edf.org/
CERES: http://www.ceres.org/
Kate Gordon (for the Risky Business Project), Risky Business: The Economic Risk of Climate
Change in the United States. June 2014.
http://riskybusiness.org/uploads/files/RiskyBusiness_Report_WEB_7_22_14.pdf and
LATTE pdf. (website for updates: http://riskybusiness.org )
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2015 - 6
Nov 18-23: Direct Action and Climate Protest
Direct action and protest in the U.S. on climate change, fracking, the XL pipeline, divestment
and other issues.
Required Reading:
Suzanne Staggenborg, “Grassroots Environmentalism in Pittsburgh,” in Dana Fisher, Carmen
Sirianni, and Kenneth Andrews, eds., Conflict and Collaboration in Environmental
Governance (forthcoming). LATTE PDF.
Peruse 1 hour: www.350.org
Nov 30-Dec 9: Global Civil Society and UN Climate Negotiations
The Paris “Conference of Parties” (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) meeting
scheduled for November 30-December 11, 2015 will provide the next major opportunity for a
global agreement. It offers various strategic options for national and global civil society
organizations. We will use a major scholarly study of the contentious politics of civil society
organizations at Copenhagen (2009) (and the meetings before and since) to set the stage for
understanding the potential opportunities and limits of this meeting. Diverse approaches to
framing and action repertoires, conflict and collaboration across the organizational field.
Required Reading:
Hadden, Jennifer. 2015. Networks in Contention: The Divisive Politics of Climate Change.
New York: Cambridge University Press
Final DUE Dec 16, midnight, as an attachment to email: 10-pages typed, paginated,
stapled, double-spaced, 12-point font.
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2015 - 7
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?
•
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).
Prof. Sirianni: Soc 175b: Environmental Organizations: Movements, Networks, Partnerships Fall 2015 - 8
•
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 2015 - 9