Organization & Environment

Although there has been a tremendous amount of past and future development in the James Bay region of northern Canada, there has been very little empirical research that examined the impact of economic development on Cree tallymen, who are the senior grassroots managers of this vulnerable ecosystem. This oversight is particularly important because the region is currently facing the possibility of additional large-scale hydroelectric development and there is no existing baseline information on past impacts on Cree tallymen. In addition, tallymen continue to have important cultural significance to the Cree Nation and also broader significance to the field of sustainable management. This article attempts to fill this gap by providing ethnographic research on the impact of past development on Cree tallymen from the perspectives of the tallymen themselves. The author also draws implications for environmental impact assessments in the region and, more broadly, for the future study of ecologically embedded managers such as the Cree tallymen.

As Native peoples have challenged the assault on their lands and cultures by mining and oil corporations, social scientists have become increasingly involved in research, consultation, and advocacy on behalf of Native peoples. Although there is considerable controversy about the appropriate role of social scientists in these conflicts, little academic commentary about the effects of nongovernmental environmental advocacy organizations on the outcomes of these conflicts exists. Nor is sufficient attention paid to the specific historical dynamics of Native struggles over resources in social movement theory. This Wisconsin case study addresses these issues with an examination of the author’s participation in an Indian, environmental, and sport fishing alliance that defeated the world’s largest resource corporation (Exxon) and the world’s largest mining company (BHP Billiton). The author’s involvement with the Sokaogon Ojibwe is used to reflect on the role of the sociologist as advocate and the political consequences of engaging in participatory action research.

This article presents an historical sketch of the insights and applications provided by social science scholars on environmental governance. The authors begin with a review of the conceptual developments during the past 50 years characterized in terms of six conceptual perspectives: pluralism, agency capture, ecological Marxism, ecological modernization, social constructionism, and global environmentalism. This section is followed by an empirical analysis of academic journal coverage of research on environmental governance from 1963 to 2001 listed in the database Sociological Abstracts. The authors conclude that an understanding of the potential for environmental improvement could be advanced by the treatment of works that fall within the conceptual typology described herein, as a cumulative body of interdisciplinary knowledge. Advancements in this area could, furthermore, be facilitated through a broadening of empirical and methodological treatment of environmental governance and a greater attention to macro-structural relations among state and societal forces and environmental phenomena.

The antiglobalization movement (AGM) focuses on action directed against neoliberal economic globalization. It shuns theory and theorizing; yet to deserve intellectual credit, it needs such a foundation and a perspective on the alternative it offers. In addition to its current forms of critique of economic policy, this article argues that the AGM also needs a far more elaborate and radical articulation of its environmental interests. Both as a form of reflection on its possible aims and as a useful tool in an academic analysis of the (in)consistencies of AGM critique, the author introduces a new research tool—“controlled” or “laboratory” utopianism—and illustrates the use of this tool by giving an outline and critique of the AGM’s implicit vision of a better world (Globotopia) by combining the ideals defended by the movement.