In 2012, the SSRC Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship Program convened the Ecological History research field, a cohort of twelve graduate students and two faculty advisers. Now, nearly six years later, the cohort…
environment
From Our Archives
Environmentalism and the Poor
by Items Editors
In this archive piece from 1992, Joan Martínez-Alier and Eric Hershberg reflect on the then-emerging area of research that examines how poor people’s movements advance the goals of sustainable development. Many popular movements can be seen as having an environmental component to their struggles, whether those struggles arise from direct conflicts over natural resources or from related socioeconomic and political inequities. Rather than traditional notions of the “tragedy of the commons,” the authors find that an “ecology of survival” can lead the poor toward environmental conservation. Thus, poor people’s movements potentially offer models for the improved management of natural resources.
From Our Fellows
A Contested Past and Present: Australian Trees in South Africa
by Brett Bennett
Brett Bennett was a 2010 International Dissertation Research Fellowship recipient. In this Research Snapshot, he explores how state scientific programs in Australia and South Africa encouraged the introduction of exotic species of trees into each region. The Research Snapshots series is an initiative aimed at highlighting important and innovative research by SSRC fellows who are currently conducting or who have recently returned from doing international research.