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.

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Faculty Works from 2015

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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

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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

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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

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CALPUFF and CAFOs: Air Pollution Modeling and Environmental Justice Analysis in the North Carolina HOG Industry, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Liyao Huang, and Hao Xin

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Characterizing Landscapes of Regional Risk Governance, Thomas Webler, Seth Tuler, Robert Goble, and Pia Johanna Schweizer

Faculty Works from 2014

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The Next Generation of Research on Sustainable Consumption, Halina Szejnwald Brown

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Land Tenure and Disasters: Strengthening and Clarifying Land Rights in Disaster Risk Reduction and Post-Disaster Programming, Cynthia Caron, Gayatri Menon, and Lauren Kuritz

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Integrating a Raster Geographical Information System with Multi-Objective Land Allocation Optimization for Conservation Reserve Design, Weiwei Dai and Samuel J. Ratick

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Gallipoli, the Somme and the Hague: Feminist Reflections on the Myriad Wars of the First World War, Cynthia Enloe

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Toward a Feminist Analysis of “Impact”: Sondra Hale's Scholarship and Activism in and beyond the University, Anita Fábos and Emily Haddad

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Counter-Accounting with Invisible Data: The Struggle for Transparency in Myanmar's Energy Sector, Ken MacLean

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From Land to Water: Fixing Fluid Frontiers and the Politics of Lines in the South China/Eastern Sea, Ken MacLean

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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

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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

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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

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Becoming a Youth Worker in a Classroom Community of Practice, Laurie Ross

Faculty Works from 2013

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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

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Extraction, Inequality and Indigenous Peoples: Insights from Bolivia, Denise Humphreys Bebbington

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Grassroots Innovations and Socio-Technical System Change: Energy Retrofitting of the Residential Housing Stock, Halina Szejnwald Brown and Philip J. Vergragt

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Societal Innovation in a Constrained World: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Philip J. Vergragt, and Maurie J. Cohen

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Innovations in Sustainable Consumption: New Economics, Socio-Technical transitions and Social Practices, Maurie J. Cohen, Halina Szejnwald Brown, and Philip J. Vergragt

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Conflict Over the Consequences of Humiliation, Joseph de Rivera

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Are You Missing Gender Right in Front of You?: How to Do a Gender Analysis of ANYTHING, Cynthia Enloe

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Are You Missing Gender Right in Front of You?: Patriarchy 101: How It is Being Updated, Cynthia Enloe

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Are You Missing Gender Right in Front of You?: You Can’t Militarize Men Without Militarizing Women, Cynthia Enloe

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Combat and ‘Combat’: A Feminist Reflection, Cynthia Enloe

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Masculinities, Policing, Women and International Politics of Sexual Harassment, Cynthia Enloe

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Seriously!: Investigating Crashes and Crises As If Women Mattered, Cynthia Enloe

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When Feminists Explore Masculinities in IR: An Engagement with Maya Eichler, Cynthia Enloe

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Mbaraan and the Shifting Political Economy of Sex in Urban Senegal, Ellen Foley and Fatou Maria Drame

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Rethinking nuclear emergency planning, preparations, and response, Robert Goble and Vicki Bier

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Risk Assessment Can Be a Game-Changing Information Technology-But Too Often It Isn't, Robert Goble and Vicki Bier

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2013 Massachusetts Family Impact Seminar: Youth at Risk, Part 2, Denise A. Hines, Fern L. Johnson, Donna Haig Friedman, and Deborah A. Frank

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Environmental Injustice in the Spatial Distribution of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: A Case Study from Ohio, USA, Julia Lenhardt and Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger

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The Government of Mistrust: Illegibility and Bureaucratic Power in Socialist Vietnam, Ken MacLean

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Examining the Impact of Environmental Factors on Quality of Life Across Massachusetts, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Rahul Rakshit, and Hamil Pearsall

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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

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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

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Mental Health and Gun Control Briefing Report, Harris Rollinger

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Urban Youth Workers' Use of "Personal Knowledge" in Resolving Complex Dilemmas of Practice, Laurie Ross

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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

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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

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Conversion to Organic Farming in the Continental United States: A Geographically Weighted Regression Analysis, Alina Taus, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, and John Rogan

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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

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Sustainability Science Needs to Include Sustainable Consumption, Halina Szejnwald Brown

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Temporal Variations in the Distribution of West Nile Virus Within the United States; 2000-2008, Alexander Carnes and Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger

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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

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Militarism, Patriarchy and Peace Movements, Cynthia Cockburn and Cynthia Enloe

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Emotions as Transformational Structures, Joseph De Rivera

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Resisting Blackness, Embracing Rightness: How Muslim Arab Sudanese Women Negotiate Their Identity in the Diaspora, Anita Fábos

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The Spatial Variability of Heat-Related Mortality in Massachusetts, David Hattis, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, and Samuel Ratick

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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

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Bodies in Perpetual Motion: Struggles Over the Meaning, Value, and Purpose of Fuzzy Labor on the Eve of Collectivization, Ken MacLean

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Enacting Anticorruption: The Reconfiguration of Audit Regimes in Contemporary Vietnam, Ken MacLean

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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

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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

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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

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Federating and Defending: Water, Territory and Extraction in the Andes, Anthony Bebbington, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, and Jeffrey Bury

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Stateside Puerto Ricans and the public workforce development system: New York City, Hartford, Springfield/Holyoke, Ramón Borges-Méndez

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Teaching About the Culture of Peace as an Approach to Peace Education, Joseph de Rivera

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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

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The Mundane Matters, Cynthia Enloe

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Diaspora, Faith, and Science: Building a Mouride Hospital in Senegal, Ellen Foley and Cheikh Anta Babou

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From Population Control to AIDS: Conceptualising and Critiquing the Global Crisis Model, Ellen Foley and Anne Hendrixson

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Courting Success in HIV/AIDS Prevention: The Challenges of Addressing a Concentrated Epidemic in Senegal, Ellen Foley and Rokhaya Nguer

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"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

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The Global Reporting Initiative: Collaboration and Conflict in the Development of Non-Financial Reporting, David L. Levy and Halina Szejnwald Brown

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The Global Reporting Initiative: Promise and limitations, David L. Levy and Halina Szejnwald Brown

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Revolutionising the AIDS Response, Jessica Ogden, Geeta Rao Gupta, Ann Warner, and William F. Fisher

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Sustaining Youth Participation in a Long-Term Tobacco Control Initiative: Consideration of a Social Justice Perspective, Laurie Ross

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Training the "Wizards": A model for building self efficacy and peer networks among Urban youth workers, Laurie Ross, Suzanne Buglione, and Jennifer Safford-Farquharson

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Social Capital and AIDS-Resilient Communities: Strengthening the AIDS Response, Barbara Thomas-Slayter and William Fisher

Faculty Works from 2010

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Extraction, Territory, and Inequalities: Gas in the Bolivian Chaco, Denise Bebbington and Anthony J. Bebbington

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Individual Consumption and Systemic Societal Transformation: Introduction to the Special Issue, Maurie J. Cohen, Halina Szejnwald Brown, and Philip J. Vergragt

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Vulnerability-Based Spatial Sampling Stratification for the National Children's Study, Worcester County, Massachusetts: Capturing Health-Relevant Environmental and Sociodemographic Variability, Timothy Downs, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Onesky Aupont, Yangyang Wang, Ann Raj, Paula Zimmerman, Robert Goble, Octavia Taylor, Linda Churchill, Celeste Lemay, Thomas Mclaughlin, and Marianne Felice

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Participatory Testing and Reporting in an Environmental-Justice community of Worcester, Massachusetts: A pilot project, Timothy Downs, Laurie Ross, Danielle Mucciarone, Maria Camila Calvache, Octavia Taylor, and Robert Goble

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Nimo's War, Emma's War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War, Cynthia Enloe

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The Risks of Scholarly Militarization: A Feminist Analysis, Cynthia Enloe

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Your Pocket is What Cures You: The Politics of Health in Senegal, Ellen Foley

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Are Conundrums with Uncertainty Factors an Obstacle to Developing Probabilistic Interpretations of Noncancer Risks from Chemicals?: Commentary, Robert Goble and Dale Hattis

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Modeling data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficient location/allocation decisions, Ronald K. Klimberg, Samuel J. Ratick, Vinay Tavva, Sasanka Vuyyuru, and Daniel Mrazik

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The Contested Politics of Corporate Governance: The Case of the Global Reporting Initiative, David L. Levy, Halina Brown, and Martin de Jong

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Predicting Prehistoric Taro (Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum) Lo'i Distribution in Hawaii, Jocelyn Müller, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Stephen Lloyd, and J. Michael Reed

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Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Noise Pollution Near Boston Logan airport: Who Carries the Cost?, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger and Brian Cooperman

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Using Geographic Information Systems to Compare the Density of Stores Selling Tobacco and Alcohol: Youth Making an Argument for Increased Regulation of the Tobacco Permitting Process in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Laurie Ross, William Burdick, and Sheryl Ann Simpson

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An Interperiod Network Storage Location-Allocation (INSLA) Model for Rail Distribution of Ethanol Biofuels, Jeffrey P. Osleeb and Samuel J. Ratick

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Nuclear Waste: Progress with Public Engagement — Response, Eugene Rosa, Seth Tuler, Baruch Fischhoff, Thomas Webler, Sharon Friedman, Richard Sclove, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Mary English, Roger Kasperson, Robert Goble, Thomas. Leschine, William Freudenburg, Caron Chess, Charles Perrow, Kai Erikson, and James Short

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Nuclear Waste: Knowledge Waste?, Eugene Rosa, Seth Tuler, Baruch Fischhoff, Thomas Webler, Sharon Friedman, Richard Sclove, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Mary English, Roger. Kasperson, Robert Goble, Thomas Leschine, William Freudenburg, Caron Chess, Charles Perrow, Kai Erikson, and James Short

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Notes From the Field: Learning Cultural Humility Through Critical Incidents and Central Challenges in Community-Based Participatory Research, Laurie Ross

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GMO as a Sustainability Issue: The Role of the Global Reporting Initiative, Philip J. Vergragt and Halina Szejnwald Brown

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Vulnerability to Epidemic Malaria in the Highlands of Lake Victoria Basin: The Role of Climate Change/Variability, Hydrology and Socio-Economic Factors, Shem Wandiga, Maggie Opondo, Daniel Olago, Andrew Githeko, Faith Githui, Michael Marshall, Timothy Downs, Alfred Opere, Christopher Oludhe, Gilbert Ouma, Pius Yanda, Richard Kangalawe, Robert Kabumbuli, James Kathuri, Eugene Apindi, Lydia Olaka, Laban Ogallo, Paul Mugambi, Rehema Sigalla, Robinah Nanyunja, Timothy Baguma, and Pius Achola

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Measuring the Emotional Climate of an Organization, Gülçimen Yurtsever and Joseph de Rivera

Faculty Works from 2009

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The Rise of the Global Reporting Initiative: A Case of Institutional Entrepreneurship, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Martin de Jong, and Teodorina Lessidrenska

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Building Institutions Based on Information Disclosure: Lessons from GRI's Sustainability Reporting, Halina Szejnwald Brown, Martin de Jong, and David L. Levy

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Complexities of Holistic Community-Based Participatory Research for a Low Income, Multi-Ethnic Population Exposed to Multiple Built-Environment Stressors in Worcester, Massachusetts, Timothy Downs, Laurie Ross, Suzanne Patton, Sarah Rulnick, Deb Sinha, Danielle Mucciarone, Maria Calvache, Sarah Parmenter, Rajendra Subedi, Donna Wysokenski, Erin Anderson, Rebecca Dezan, Kate Lowe, Jennifer Bowen, Amee Tejani, Kelly Piersanti, Octavia Taylor, and Robert Goble

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Reflections, Cynthia Enloe

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The Anti-Politics of Health Reform: Household Power Relations and Child Health in Rural Senegal, Ellen Foley

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A Preliminary Operational Classification System for Nonmutagenic Modes of Action for Carcinogenesis, Dale Hattis, Margaret Chu, Nilufer Rahmioglu, Robert Goble, Priyanka Verma, K. Hartman, and Mary Kozlak

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How Can Revenues from Natural Resources Extraction Be More Efficiently Utilized for Local Sustainable Development?, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Keith Slack, Laurenf Baker, Timothy Downs, Jeffrey McNeely, Tulus Tambunan, M. S. Iftekhar, Daniel Franks, Waldemar Souza, Simon Munthali, Oscar Wambuguh, Sylvanus S.P. Doe, Carlos Peiter, and Roberto Villas Boas