Sustainability and Social Justice
The Sustainability and Social Justice department (formerly International Development, Community, and Environment or 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 Sustainability and Social Justice community engages in translational, hands-on research that defies disciplinary categorization, and is uniquely effective.
Faculty Works from 2015
HIV/AIDS in Mid-Sized Cities in Senegal: From Individual to Place-Based Vulnerability, Fatou Maria Drame and Ellen Foley
Closing Reflection: Militiamen Get Paid; Women Borrowers Get Beaten, Cynthia Enloe
The Recruiter and the Sceptic: A Critical Feminist Approach to Military Studies, Cynthia Enloe
Microbuses and Mobile Homemaking in Exile: Sudanese Visiting Strategies in Cairo, Anita Fábos
Refugees in the Arab Middle East: Academic and Policy Perspectives, Anita Fábos
Understanding Refugees in Worcester, MA, Anita Fábos, Maya Pilgrim, Muinate Said-Ali, Joseph Krahe, and Zack Ostiller
The Influence of Gendered Roles and Responsibilities on the Adoption of Technologies that Mitigate Drought Risk: The Case of Drought-Tolerant Maize Seed in Eastern Uganda, Monica Fisher and Edward R. Carr
Negotiating Love and Marriage in Contemporary Senegal: A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Dinah Hannaford and Ellen Foley
Gas and Development: Rural Territorial Dynamics in Tarija, Bolivia, Leonith Hinojosa, Anthony Bebbington, Guido Cortez, Juan Pablo Chumacero, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, and Karl Hennermann
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Incorporating a Commitment to Fieldwork Throughout an Academic Career, Kristal Jones, Matthew Schnurr, Edward Carr, and William Moseley
A Wealth of Expertise and Lived Experience, Jana Krause and Cynthia Enloe
Environmental Injustice in the Spatial Distribution of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: A Case Study from Ohio, USA, Julia Lenhardt and Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger
Modeling the Sociospatial Constraints on Land-Use Change: The Case of Periurban Sprawl in the Greater Boston Region, Stephen M. McCauley, John Rogan, James T. Murphy, Billie L. Turner, and Samuel Ratick
The Restructured Landscape of Economic Development: Challenges and Opportunities for Regional Workforce Development Collaborations, Edwin Meléndez, Ramón Borges-Méndez, M. Anne Visser, and Anna Rosofsky
Spatial Distribution of Unconventional Gas Wells and Human Populations in the Marcellus Shale in the United States: Vulnerability Analysis, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger and Liyao Huang
CALPUFF and CAFOs: Air Pollution Modeling and Environmental Justice Analysis in the North Carolina HOG Industry, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Liyao Huang, and Hao Xin
Multi-Organizational Alliances and Policy Change: Understanding the Mobilization and Impact of Grassroots Coalitions, Margaret Post
Movement-Building Opportunities for Change: Perspectives on Criminal Justice Reform Today, Margaret Post and Sian ÓFaoláin
Characterizing Landscapes of Regional Risk Governance, Thomas Webler, Seth Tuler, Robert Goble, and Pia Johanna Schweizer
Faculty Works from 2014
The Next Generation of Research on Sustainable Consumption, Halina Szejnwald Brown
Land Tenure and Disasters: Strengthening and Clarifying Land Rights in Disaster Risk Reduction and Post-Disaster Programming, Cynthia Caron, Gayatri Menon, and Lauren Kuritz
From Description to Explanation: Using the Livelihoods as Intimate Government (LIG) Approach, Edward Carr
Conclusions - Engaging Critical Perspectives in Development Policy and Implementation, Edward Carr and David Simon
Gender and Climate Change Adaptation in Agrarian Settings: Current Thinking, New Directions, and Research Frontiers, Edward Carr and Mary Thompson
Integrating a Raster Geographical Information System with Multi-Objective Land Allocation Optimization for Conservation Reserve Design, Weiwei Dai and Samuel J. Ratick
Gallipoli, the Somme and the Hague: Feminist Reflections on the Myriad Wars of the First World War, Cynthia Enloe
Toward a Feminist Analysis of “Impact”: Sondra Hale's Scholarship and Activism in and beyond the University, Anita Fábos and Emily Haddad
Counter-Accounting with Invisible Data: The Struggle for Transparency in Myanmar's Energy Sector, Ken MacLean
From Land to Water: Fixing Fluid Frontiers and the Politics of Lines in the South China/Eastern Sea, Ken MacLean
2014 Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar: A Lot On Our Plate; Chronic Health Threats in Massachusetts, Ira S. Ockene M.D., Christina D. Economos Ph.D, Barbara Goldoftas Ph.D, Denise A. Hines Ph.D., Caitlin Alcorn, Jacqueline A. Daigneault, Jordan R. Daley, Maura A. Flanagan, Carsten-Hendrik Rasche, Heather Rios, Julia Tran, and Liam Kelly Fleming
Geospatial Analysis of Neighborhood Characteristics and Access to Fresh Produce: The Role of Farmers' Markets and Roadside Farm Stands, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger and Fei Meng
Environmental Ascription in Worcester County, MA: Toxic Pollution and Education Outcomes, Anna Rosofsky, Cristina A. Lucier, Bruce London, Helen Scharber, Ramón Borges-Méndez, and John Shandra
Becoming a Youth Worker in a Classroom Community of Practice, Laurie Ross
Introduction: Engaging Critically from theory to policy and implementation, David Simon and Edward Carr
Woody Plant Diversity in an Afromontane Agricultural Landscape (Debark District, Northern Ethiopia), Belay Tefera, Morgan Ruelle, Zemede Asfaw, and Berhanu Abraha Tsegay
Faculty Works from 2013
Anatomies of Conflict: Social Mobilization and New Political Ecologies of the Andes, Anthony Bebbington, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Leonith Hinojosa, María Luisa Burneo, and Jeffrey Bury
Extraction, Inequality and Indigenous Peoples: Insights from Bolivia, Denise Humphreys Bebbington
Grassroots Innovations and Socio-Technical System Change: Energy Retrofitting of the Residential Housing Stock, Halina Szejnwald Brown and Philip J. Vergragt
Societal Innovation in a Constrained World: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Philip J. Vergragt, and Maurie J. Cohen
Livelihoods as Intimate Government: Reframing the logic of livelihoods for development, Edward Carr
Innovations in Sustainable Consumption: New Economics, Socio-Technical transitions and Social Practices, Maurie J. Cohen, Halina Szejnwald Brown, and Philip J. Vergragt
Conflict Over the Consequences of Humiliation, Joseph de Rivera
Are You Missing Gender Right in Front of You?: How to Do a Gender Analysis of ANYTHING, Cynthia Enloe
Are You Missing Gender Right in Front of You?: Patriarchy 101: How It is Being Updated, Cynthia Enloe
Are You Missing Gender Right in Front of You?: You Can’t Militarize Men Without Militarizing Women, Cynthia Enloe
Combat and ‘Combat’: A Feminist Reflection, Cynthia Enloe
Masculinities, Policing, Women and International Politics of Sexual Harassment, Cynthia Enloe
Seriously!: Investigating Crashes and Crises As If Women Mattered, Cynthia Enloe
When Feminists Explore Masculinities in IR: An Engagement with Maya Eichler, Cynthia Enloe
Mbaraan and the Shifting Political Economy of Sex in Urban Senegal, Ellen Foley and Fatou Maria Drame
Rethinking nuclear emergency planning, preparations, and response, Robert Goble and Vicki Bier
Risk Assessment Can Be a Game-Changing Information Technology-But Too Often It Isn't, Robert Goble and Vicki Bier
2013 Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar: Youth at Risk, Part 2, Denise A. Hines, Fern L. Johnson, Donna Haig Friedman, and Deborah A. Frank
Environmental Injustice in the Spatial Distribution of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: A Case Study from Ohio, USA, Julia Lenhardt and Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger
The Government of Mistrust: Illegibility and Bureaucratic Power in Socialist Vietnam, Ken MacLean
Examining the Impact of Environmental Factors on Quality of Life Across Massachusetts, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Rahul Rakshit, and Hamil Pearsall
Promise Arizona: Building Immigrant Political Power, Margaret Post
Measuring the Vulnerability of Populations Susceptible to Lead Contamination in the Dominican Republic: Evaluating Composite Index Construction Methods, Samuel J. Ratick and Jeffrey P. Osleeb
The Impact of Tree Cover Loss on Land Surface Temperature: A Case Study of Central Massachusetts Using Landsat Thematic Mapper Thermal Data, John Rogan, Martha Ziemer, Deborah Martin, Samuel Ratick, Nicholas Cuba, and Verna DeLauer
Mental Health and Gun Control Briefing Report, Harris Rollinger
Urban Youth Workers' Use of "Personal Knowledge" in Resolving Complex Dilemmas of Practice, Laurie Ross
Foodways Transmission in the Standing Rock Nation, Morgan Ruelle and Karim Aly Kassam
A comparison of support vector machines and manual change detection for land-cover map updating in Massachusetts, USA, Brenna Schwert, John Rogan, Nicholas Giner, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Samuel Blanchard, and Curtis Woodcock
Characterizing the Potential Distribution of the Invasive Asian Longhorned Beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Andrew Shatz, John Rogan, Florencia Sangermano, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, and Hao Chen
Conversion to Organic Farming in the Continental United States: A Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis, Alina Taus, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, and John Rogan
Vulnerability to Climate-Induced Highland Malaria in East Africa, Shem Wandiga, Maggie Opondo, Daniel Olago, Andrew Githeko, Faith Githui, Michael Marshall, Timothy Downs, Alfred Opere, Pius Yanda, Richard Kangalawe, Robert Kabumbuli, Edward Kirumira, James Kathuri, Eugene Apindi, Lydia Olaka, Laban Ogallo, Paul Mugambi, Rehema Sigalla, Robinah Nanyunja, Timothy Baguma, and Pius Achola
Faculty Works from 2012
Sustainability Science Needs to Include Sustainable Consumption, Halina Szejnwald Brown
Temporal Variations in the Distribution of West Nile Virus Within the United States; 2000-2008, Alexander Carnes and Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger
Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Extreme Storms: The Case of Revere, Massachusetts, US, George E. Clark, Susanne C. Moser, Samuel J. Ratick, Kirstin Dow, William B. Meyer, Srinivas Emani, Weigen Jin, Jeanne X. Kasperson, Roger E. Kasperson, and Harry E. Schwarz
Militarism, Patriarchy and Peace Movements, Cynthia Cockburn and Cynthia Enloe
Emotions as Transformational Structures, Joseph De Rivera
Resisting Blackness, Embracing Rightness: How Muslim Arab Sudanese Women Negotiate Their Identity in the Diaspora, Anita Fábos
The Spatial Variability of Heat-Related Mortality in Massachusetts, David Hattis, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, and Samuel Ratick
Youth at Risk: Part 1, 2012 Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar, Lisa M. Jones, Ramon Borges-Mendez, Janis Wolak, Denise Hines, Michelle E. Collett, Lillian Denhardt, Lindsay A. Evans, Rashmi Nair, and Stephanie L. Nguyen
Enacting Anticorruption: The Reconfiguration of Audit Regimes in Contemporary Vietnam, Ken MacLean
Lawfare and Impunity in Burma Since the 2000 Ban on Forced Labour, Ken MacLean
Evaluating the Vulnerability of Drinking Water Resources to Climate Change, Chi Ho Sham, Samuel Ratick, Daniel Runfola, Kathleen White, Jeffrey Arnold, and Julie Blue
The Challenge of Energy Retrofitting the Residential Housing Stock: Grassroots Innovations and Socio-Technical System Change in Worcester, MA, Philip J. Vergragt and Halina Szejnwald Brown
Climate, Malaria and Cholera in the Lake Victoria Region: Adapting to Changing Risks, Pius Yanda, Shem Wandiga, Richard Kangalawe, Maggie Opondo, Dan Olago, Andrew Githeko, Timothy Downs, Robert Kabumbuli, Alfred Opere, Faith Githui, James Kathuri, Lydia Olaka, Eugene Apindi, Michael Marshall, Laban Ogallo, Paul Mugambi, Edward Kirumira, Robinah Nanyunja, Timothy Baguma, Rehema Sigalla, and Pius Achola
Faculty Works from 2011
Cool Aid? Health, Wellbeing and Place in the Work of Bono and U2, Gavin Andrews, Robin Kearns, Paul Kingsbury, and Edward Carr
Federating and Defending: Water, Territory and Extraction in the Andes, Anthony Bebbington, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, and Jeffrey Bury
Stateside Puerto Ricans and the public workforce development system: New York City, Hartford, Springfield/Holyoke, Ramón Borges-Méndez
Delivering Development: Globalization’s Shoreline and the Road to a Sustainable Future, Edward Carr
Teaching About the Culture of Peace as an Approach to Peace Education, Joseph de Rivera
Vulnerability, Risk Perception, and Health Profile of Marginalized People Exposed to Multiple Built-Environment Stressors in Worcester, Massachusetts: A Pilot Project, Timothy Downs, Laurie Ross, Robert Goble, Rajendra Subedi, Sara Greenberg, and Octavia Taylor
The Mundane Matters, Cynthia Enloe
Diaspora, Faith, and Science: Building a Mouride Hospital in Senegal, Ellen Foley and Cheikh Anta Babou
From Population Control to AIDS: Conceptualising and Critiquing the Global Crisis Model, Ellen Foley and Anne Hendrixson
Courting Success in HIV/AIDS Prevention: The Challenges of Addressing a Concentrated Epidemic in Senegal, Ellen Foley and Rokhaya Nguer
"Is the Concept of a Green Economy a Useful Way of Framing Policy Discussions and Policymaking to Promote Sustainable Development?", Sheng Fulai, Gary Flomenhoft, Timothy Downs, Maángeles Grande-Ortiz, Dana Graef, Bert Scholtens, Arthur P.J. Mol, David Sonnenfeld, Gert Spaargaren, Rajeev Goel, Edward W.T. Hsieh, Serban Scrieciu, Reinhard Steurer, Christine Polzin, Genia Kostka, Tiho Ancev, Elke Pirgmaier, Frank Boons, Karl Henrik Robèrt, Christopher Bryant, Ke Zhou, Surya Raj Acharya, David Huberman, Denis Sonwa, Michelle Mycoo, Dabo Guan, Klaus Hubacek, U. Rashid Sumaila, Hector Lopez-Ruiz, G. Jason Jolley, Michael Dougherty, André Francisco Pilon, and Ravi Prakash
Ecology of Time: Calendar of the Human Body in the Pamir Mountains, Karim Aly Kassam, Umed Bulbulshoev, and Morgan Ruelle
The Global Reporting Initiative: Collaboration and Conflict in the Development of Non-Financial Reporting, David L. Levy and Halina Szejnwald Brown
The Global Reporting Initiative: Promise and limitations, David L. Levy and Halina Szejnwald Brown
Revolutionising the AIDS Response, Jessica Ogden, Geeta Rao Gupta, Ann Warner, and William F. Fisher
Combining Community-Based Learning and Catholic Social Teaching in Educating for Democratic Citizenship, Margaret Post and Susan Crawford Sullivan
Training the "Wizards": A model for building self efficacy and peer networks among Urban youth workers, Laurie Ross, Suzanne Buglione, and Jennifer Safford-Farquharson
Diversity of Plant Knowledge as an Adaptive Asset: A Case Study with Standing Rock Elders, Morgan Ruelle and Karim Aly Kassam
Social Capital and AIDS-Resilient Communities: Strengthening the AIDS Response, Barbara Thomas-Slayter and William Fisher
