International Development, Community, and Environment
International Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE) is home to scholar-practitioners pursuing solutions to pressing challenges in the 21st century. Our mission is to strive for a more just and sustainable world. We embrace the complexity of urgent social, political, and ecological problems and seek to approach these challenges through multidisciplinary teaching and learning, collaborative scholarship, and innovation.
Complex challenges require novel solutions built on a deep, multifaceted understanding of the task at hand. For example, how can we support marginal communities as they adapt to the impacts of climate change? When do market forces succeed in increasing wealth and well-being, and when do they fail? What gives rise to health disparities across communities and countries, and how can we address them? The IDCE community engages in translational, hands-on research that defies disciplinary categorization, and is uniquely effective.
Areas of Research:
IDCE Faculty Works from 2023
Climate Services and Transformational Adaptation, Edward R. Carr
IDCE Faculty Works from 2022
Diversity of Farmers’ Varieties of Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) in Northeastern andSsouthwestern Ethiopia, Asmamaw Andualem, Tsinat Legesse, Amsalu Nebiyu, Asmare Dejen, Faris Hailu, Zemede Asfaw, Morgan Ruelle, Alex Mcalvay, Alison Power, and Abush Tesfaye
Caribbean Dreams: Education For More Than Just Sustainable Development, Nigel O.M. Brissett
Showing up “More as My True Self”: Gender and Mushing in the United States, Cynthia Caron and Victoria Beyer
"Health as a Social-technical Enterprise Anchored in Social-ecological Justice and Stakeholder Collaboration: Insights from Mexico-Lerma-Cutzamala Hydrological Region", Timothy Downs, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Morgan Ruelle, Ravi Kumar Hanumantha, Marisa Mazari-Hiriart, Matiana Ramírez-Aguilar, and Carlos Santos-Burgoa
Multiple Metals in Children’s Deciduous teeth: Results from a Community-Initiated Pilot Study, Alexa Friedman, Julia Anglen Bauer, Christine Austin, Timothy Downs, Yorghos Tripodis, Wendy Heiger-Bernays, Roberta White, Manish Arora, and Birgit Claus Henn
What to Expect When You Don’t Know What You are Expecting: Vigilance and the Monitoring and Evaluation of an Uncertain World, Robert Goble, Edward Carr, and Jon Anderson
Tracking Forest Dynamic Trends in Belize: The Role of Protected Areas, Agriculture, and Fire in the South Eastern Selva Maya, Kasyan Green, John Rogan, Laura Sauls, Nicholas Cuba, Roberta Kamille Pennell, and Denise Bebbington
Field Pea Diversity and Its Contribution to Farmers' Livelihoods in Northern Ethiopia, Yirga Gufi, Alemtsehay Tsegay, Morgan Ruelle, Kassa Teka, Sarah Tewolde-Berhan, and Alison Power
Impact Pathways From Climate Services to SDG2 (“Zero Hunger”): A Synthesis of Evidence, James Hansen, Geneva List, Shauna Downs, Edward Carr, Rahel Diro, Walter Baethgen, Andrew Kruczkiewicz, Melody Braun, John Furlow, Kayla Walsh, and Nitin Magima
Is Push-Pull Climate and gender smart for Ethiopia? A review, Ryan W. Kopper and Morgan L. Ruelle
Vaccines and the Social Amplification of Risk, Heidi Larson, Leesa Lin, and Rob Goble
Land-Cover Change and Urban Growth in the Mexico-Lerma-Cutzamala Hydrological Region, 1993–2018, Ethan Manley, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Morgan Ruelle, Ravi Hanumantha, Marisa Mazari-Hiriart, and Timothy Downs
Narrating Agricultural Resilience After Hurricane María: How Smallholder Farmers in Puerto Rico Leverage Self-sufficiency and Collaborative Agency in a Climate-Vulnerable Food System, Abrania Marrero, Andrea Lόpez-Cepero, Ramón Borges-Méndez, and Josiemer Mattei
Using Space–Time Cube to Analyze Trends in Adverse Birth Outcomes and Maternal Characteristics in Massachusetts, USA, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger and Madeleine Haynes
Nonprofit Political Engagement: The Roles of 501(c)(4) Social Welfare Organizations in Elections and Policymaking, Margaret A. Post and Elizabeth T. Boris
The Advocacy Universe: A Methodology to Identify Politically Active 501(C)(4) Organizations, Margaret Post, Elizabeth Boris, and Carol Stimmel
Make Way for the 'New King': Farmers' Multifaceted relationships with Eucalyptus Globulus in Northwestern Ethiopia, Morgan Ruelle and Zemede Asfaw
Social Perception of Systemic Risks, Pia Johanna Schweizer, Robert Goble, and Ortwin Renn
IDCE Faculty Works from 2021
CARICOM Caribbean’s HRD 2030 Strategy: Inscribing the Neoliberal Imaginary Through Social Planning?, Nigel O.M. Brissett
‘I left because…’: Caribbean High-Skilled Emigrants’ Reasons to Migrate to the US, Nigel O.M. Brissett
Women’s Insights on Bargaining for Land in Customary Tenure Systems: Land Access as an Individual and Collective Issue, Cynthia Caron
‘Tradescapes’ in the Forest: Framing Infrastructure's Relation to Territory, Commodities, and Flows, Pilar Delpino Marimón, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Anthony Bebbington, Laura Sauls, Nicholas Cuba, Avecita Chicchon, Susanna Hecht, John Rogan, Rebecca Ray, Oscar Diaz, Susan Kandel, Tracey Osborne, Madelyn Rivera, and Viviana Zalles
Femininity and the Paradox of Trust Building in Patriarchies During Covid-19, Cynthia Enloe
Foreword, Cynthia Enloe
Moving Stories: Methodological Challenges to Mapping Narratives and Networks of People in Diasporas, Anita Fábos, Leora Kahn, and Marianne Sarkis
Evaluating Power Building: Concepts and Considerations for Advocacy Evaluators, Katie Fox and Margaret Post
The Migration-Sustainability Paradox: Transformations in Mobile Worlds, Maria Franco Gavonel, William Neil Adger, Ricardo Safra de Campos, Emily Boyd, Edward R. Carr, Anita Fábos, Sonja Fransen, Dominique Jolivet, Caroline Zickgraf, Samuel NA Codjoe, Mumuni Abu, and Tasneem Siddiqui
Understanding Stakeholder Positionalities and Relationships to Reimagine Asylum at the US–Mexico Border: Observations from McAllen, TX, Halley L. Glier, Emma Gregory, Temperance Staples, Megan Martínez, Anita Fábos, S. E.D. Mitchell, and Timothy J. Downs
Through a Glass Darkly: How Natural Science and Technical Communities Looked at Social Science Advances in Understanding Risk, Robert Goble
Forum: Militarization 2.0: Communication and the normalization of political violence in the digital age, Susan Jackson, Rhys Crilley, Ilan Manor, Catherine Baker, Modupe Oshikoya, Jutta Joachim, Nick Robinson, Andrea Schneiker, Nicole Sunday Grove, and Cynthia Enloe
Medicinal Plants and Health Sovereignty in Badakhshan, Afghanistan: Diversity, Stewardship, and Gendered Knowledge, Munira Karamkhudoeva, Murodbek Laldjebaev, Morgan Ruelle, and Karim Aly Kassam
Engaging Transformation: Using Seasonal Rounds to Anticipate Climate Change, Karim Aly Kassam, Morgan Ruelle, Isabell Haag, Umed Bulbulshoev, Daler Kaziev, Leo Louis, Anna Ullmann, Iriel Edwards, Aziz Ali Khan, Antonio Trabucco, and Cyrus Samimi
Development of a Method to Improve Statistical Forecasts Using Interpolation and Cluster Analysis, Ronald Klimberg and Samuel Ratick
Prologue: The “Brave New World” of Social Sciences in Interdisciplinary Risk Research, Andreas Klinke, Ortwin Renn, and Robert Goble
Troubling the Idealised Pageantry of Extractive Conflicts: Comparative Insights on Authority and Claim-making from Papua New Guinea, Mongolia and El Salvador, Jennifer Lander, Pascale Hatcher, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Anthony Bebbington, and Glenn Banks
Gender-Disaggregated Seasonal and Daily Calendars of Farmers in Uganda and Tanzania, Pricilla Marimo, Clare Shelton, Cynthia Caron, Rhiannon Crichton, Noel Madalla, Mpoki Shimwela, Rony Swennen, Inge van den Bergh, and Charity Kibooga
Participatory Community Wealth Ranking in Banana-Producing Regions of Uganda and Tanzania, Pricilla Marimo, Clare Shelton, Cynthia Caron, Noel Madalla, Innocent Mpiriirwe, Rhiannon Crichton, Lilian Ndagire, Victor Manyong, Daud Batson Mbongo, and Asher Wilson Okurut
From Digital Divide to Digital Literacies and Mother-Child Pedagogies: The Case of Latina Mothers, Jie Y. Park, Laurie Ross, and Deisy Rodriguez Ledezma
Guest Editorial: Power in Engaged Scholarship: Dimensions and Dynamics of Knowledge Co-Creation, Margaret Post and Morgan Ruelle
Property Rights and Wrongs: Land Reforms for Sustainable Food Production in Rural Mali, Edmond Totin, Alcade Segnon, Carla Roncoli, Mary Thompson-Hall, Amadou Sidibé, and Edward Carr
IDCE Faculty Works from 2020
Diversity, Use and Production of Farmers’ Varieties of Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Fabaceae) in Southwestern and Northeastern Ethiopia, Betelhem Abera, Menbere Berhane, Amsalu Nebiyu, Morgan Ruelle, Alex McAlvay, Zemede Asfaw, Abush Tesfaye, and Zerihun Woldu
Priorities for Governing Large-scale Infrastructure in the Tropics, Anthony Bebbington, Avecita Chicchon, Nicholas Cuba, Emily Greenspan, Susanna Hecht, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Susan Kandel, Tracey Osborne, Rebecca Ray, John Rogan, and Laura Sauls
Targets and Technologies: Sayana Press and Jadelle in Contemporary Population Policies, Daniel Bendix, Ellen Foley, Anne Hendrixson, and Susanne Schultz
A Feminist Exploration of ‘Populationism’: Engaging Contemporary Forms of Population Control, Rajani Bhatia, Jade Sasser, Diana Ojeda, Anne Hendrixson, Sarojini Nadimpally, and Ellen Foley
Aquifer Storage and Recovery: Can an Updated Inventory Predict Future System Success?, Frederick Bloetscher, Chi Ho Sham, and Samuel J. Ratick
Community Development Corporations and Reconstruction Policy in Puerto Rico, Ramón Borges-Méndez
Teaching Like a Subaltern: Postcoloniality, Positionality, and Pedagogy in International Development and Education, Nigel O.M. Brissett
Inequitable Rewards: Experiences of Faculty of Color Mentoring Students of Color, Nigel O.M. Brissett
Home-Keeping in Long-Term Displacement, Cathrine Brun and Anita Fábos
Who’s Governing Community Forests? Gendered Participation in Liberian Forest Management, Cynthia Caron, Sheila Onzere, Natalie Elwell, and Edward Carr
Resilient Livelihoods in an Era of Global Transformation, Edward Carr
Identifying Climate Information Services Users and Their Needs in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review and Learning Agenda, Edward Carr, Rob Goble, Helen Rosko, Catherine Vaughan, and James Hansen
From the Virocene to the Lovecene Epoch: Multispecies Justice as Critical Praxis for Virocene Disruptions and Vulnerabilities, Jude Fernando
The Virocene Epoch: the Vulnerability Nexus of Viruses, Capitalism and Racism, Jude Fernando
Use and Management of Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L., Fabaceae) Local Orphotypes by Communities in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, Hailay Girmay, Sarah Tewolde-Berhan, Hadgu Hishe, Zemede Asfaw, Morgan Ruelle, and Alison Power
Analyzing Temporal Trends and Spatial Patterns in adverse Birth Outcomes in Massachusetts from 2000–2014, Madeleine Haynes and Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger
Confronting Populationism: Feminist Challenges to Population Control in an Era of Climate Change, Anne Hendrixson, Diana Ojeda, Jade Sasser, Sarojini Nadimpally, Ellen Foley, and Rajani Bhatia
Developing Composite Indices for Assessing Vulnerability, Ronald Klimberg and Samuel Ratick
Evaluating Effective Performance Using Ordered Weighted Averaging and Data Envelopment Analysis Optimization, Ronald Klimberg and Samuel Ratick
Doing Feminism: A Conversation Between Cynthia Enloe and Roxani Krystalli, Roxani Krystalli and Cynthia Enloe
Gender and Trait Preferences for Banana Cultivation and Use in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Literature Review1, Pricilla Marimo, Cynthia Caron, Inge Van den Bergh, Rhiannon Crichton, Eva Weltzien, Rodomiro Ortiz, and Robooni Tumuhimbise
Spatial patterns of adverse birth outcomes among black and white women in massachusetts – the role of population-level and individual-level factors, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger and Madeline Haynes
IDCE Faculty Works from 2019
Migration Transforms the Conditions for the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, W. Neil Adger, Emily Boyd, Anita Fábos, Sonja Fransen, Dominique Jolivet, George Neville, Ricardo Safra de Campos, and Marjanneke J. Vijge
Losing the Elite: Caribbean Educational Policy Responses to the Emigration of Skilled Labor, Nigel O.M. Brissett
Climate-Governance Entrepreneurship, Higher-Order Learning, and Sustainable Consumption: The Case of the State of Oregon, United States, Halina Szejnwald Brown and Maurie J. Cohen
Hosting as Shelter During Displacement: Considerations for Research and Practice, Cynthia Caron
Properties and Projects: Reconciling Resilience and Transformation for Adaptation and Development, Edward Carr
Frontline Narratives on Sustainable Development Challenges/Opportunities in the ‘Illegal’ Gold Mining Region of Madre de Dios, Peru: Informing an Integrative Collaborative Response, Phyllis Duff and Timothy Downs
Modeling the Potential Dispersal of Asian Longhorned Beetle Using Circuit Theory, Arthur Elmes, John Rogan, Christopher Williams, Samuel Ratick, and David Nowak
Wounds: Militarized Nursing, Feminist Curiosity, and Unending War, Cynthia Enloe
Ask a Feminist: Gender and the Rise of the Global Right, Cynthia Enloe, Agnieszka Graff, Ratna Kapur, and Suzanna Danuta Walters
“The Prostitution Problem”: Insights from Senegal, Ellen Foley
Climate Services Can Support African Farmers' Context-Specific Adaptation Needs at Scale, James Hansen, Catherine Vaughan, Desire Kagabo, Tufa Dinku, Edward Carr, Jana Körner, and Robert Zougmoré
The Rohingya Crisis and the Practices of Erasure, Ken MacLean
Spatial Analysis of Drug Poisoning Deaths and Access to Substance-Use Disorder Treatment in the United States, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger
Analyzing the Relationship Between Perception of Safety and Reported Crime in n Urban Neighborhood Using GIS and Sketch Maps, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Laurie Ross, Thomas Caywood, Marina Khananayev, and Casey Starr
Politically Effective or Just Good at Campaigns?, Margaret Post
Why Some Politically Active 501(c)(4) Organizations Are More Effective Than Others (SSN Key Findings Brief), Margaret Post
Inter- and Intraspecific Diversity of Food Legumes Among Households and Communities in Ethiopia, Morgan Ruelle, Zemede Asfaw, Asmare Dejen, Sarah Tewolde-Berhan, Amsalu Nebiyu, Tamado Tana, and Alison G. Power
Biocultural Diversity and Food Sovereignty: A Case Study of Human-Plant Relations in Northwestern Ethiopia, Morgan Ruelle, Karim Aly Kassam, Stephen Morreale, Zemede Asfaw, Alison Power, and Timothy Fahey
Advancing Sustainable Consumption and Production in Cities - A Transdisciplinary Research and Stakeholder Engagement Framework to Address Consumption-Based Emissions and Impacts, Patrick Schröder, Philip Vergragt, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Leonie Dendler, Neal Gorenflo, Kira Matus, Jaco Quist, Christoph D.D. Rupprecht, Arnold Tukker, and Ronald Wennersten
Research Frontiers at the Nexus of Gender, Environment, and Development: Linking Household, Community, and Ecosystem, Barbara Thomas-Slayter and Dianne Rocheleau
Evaluating Agricultural Weather and Climate Services in Africa: Evidence, Methods, and A Learning Agenda, Catherine Vaughan, James Hansen, Philippe Roudier, Paul Watkiss, and Edward Carr
IDCE Faculty Works from 2018
Why Achieving the Paris Agreement Requires Reduced Overall Consumption and Production, Eva Alfredsson, Magnus Bengtsson, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Cindy Isenhour, Sylvia Lorek, Dimitris Stevis, and Philip Vergragt
Governing Extractive Industries: Politics, Histories, Ideas, Anthony Bebbington, Abdul Gafaru Abdulai, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Marja Hinfelaar, and Cynthia Sanborn
Resource Extraction and Infrastructure Threaten Forest Cover and Community Rights, Anthony Bebbington, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Laura Sauls, John Rogan, Sumali Agrawal, César Gamboa, Aviva Imhof, Kimberly Johnson, Herman Rosa, Antoinette Royo, Tessa Toumbourou, and Ricardo Verdum
Mining, Movements and Sustainable Development: Concepts For a Framework, Anthony Bebbington and Denise Humphreys Bebbington
Conflicts Over Extractivist Policy and the Forest Frontier in Central America, Anthony Bebbington, Laura Sauls, Herman Rosa, Benjamin Fash, and Denise Humphreys Bebbington
The Infrastructure-Extractives-Resource Governance Complex in the Pan-Amazon: Roll backs and Contestations, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Ricardo Verdum, Cesar Gamboa, and Anthony Bebbington
Education for Social Transformation (EST) in the Caribbean: A Postcolonial Perspective, Nigel O.M. Brissett
Creating the ‘Girl Effect’: Including Boys and Men to Promote Girls’ Land and Asset Ownership, Cynthia Caron
Pursuing Gender-Transformative Change in Customary Tenure Systems: Civil Society Work in Zambia, Cynthia Caron
Really effective (for 15% of the men): Lessons in understanding and addressing user needs in climate services from Mali, Edward Carr and Sheila Onzere
Themes for the Celebration of Global Community, Joseph de Rivera
Promoting a Sense of Global Community, Joseph de Rivera and Caitlin O. Mahoney
Beyond the Ballot: Immigrant Integration Through Civic Engagement and Advocacy, Zita Dixon, Melissa L. Bessaha, and Margaret Post
Predictors of Mortality for Juvenile Trees in a Residential Urban-to-Rural Cohort in Worcester, MA, Arthur Elmes, John Rogan, Lara A. Roman, Christopher A. Williams, Samuel J. Ratick, David J. Nowak, and Deborah G. Martin
The Rise of Social Enterprises in Low-Trust Situations: Nonprofit Organizations’ Survival Strategies in Post-civil War and Disaster-affected Villages in Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka, Jude Fernando, Camilla Orjuela, and Sarah Khasalamwa-Mwandha