ÿþThe 61th Annual Meetings of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, August 19-21, promises to bring numerous sessions of great research and discussion. Plan on attending Environment and Technology Division sponsored sessions involving papers focused on food and social justice, environment and globalization, uncertainty and risk, animal rights, and teaching environmental sociology. Aside from the numerous sessions of exciting papers, Las Vegas promises not to disappoint! Check out the SSSP recommendations for visitors by clicking here http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/1468/ . We would love to hear what are members are working on! Whether you are interested in sharing an experience with teaching, research, writing, publishing, community partnerships, among other things, we would love to hear about what our members are engaged in. Please forward any short narratives, blurbs, or summaries to Erin Robinson at robinso5@canisius.edu. 2011 Las Vegas Meetings...So much to do! A Call for Content Environment and Technology Division Newsletter A Note From the Chair& As our 2011 meetings draw near, please begin to think about the sessions you would like to see for 2012. We will decide this at the Division Business meeting, Friday August 19, 4:30-6:10, Lake Tahoe meeting room. See inside for more details. We will be electing a new chair to begin their term next year, so think about who of your colleagues you might like to nominate. Self-nominations are encouraged as well! See you in Las Vegas! 2011 Meetings: Service Sociology 2-4 ETS Business Meeting 4 Student Paper Competition WinnerWu 5 Division Statement 6 Inside this issue: Society for the Study of Social Problems Summer 2011 Date: Friday, August 19 Time: 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM Session 7:  The Social Reconstruction After Natural and Unnatural Disasters I Room: Studio 1 Sponsors: Community Research and Development Environment and Technology Family Global Organizer, Presider &Discussant: Steven Lang, LaGuardia College at CUNY Papers:  Beyond Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico: The Social Construction of Catastrophe, Lynn Letukas, University of Delaware and John Barnshaw, University of South Florida   There s God, then there s Mac : Responses to Living in a Geography of Trouble, Daina Cheyenne Harvey, Rutgers University  Citizen Activism and the Reframing of a Slow-Moving Disaster, Steven Lang, LaGuardia College at CUNY Date: Friday, August 19 Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM Session 15:  The Social Reconstruction After Natural and Unnatural Disasters II Room: Studio 1 Sponsors: Community Research and Development Environment and Technology Family, Global Organizer, Presider & Discussant: Steven Lang, LaGuardia College at CUNY Papers:  Oh, did the women suffer, they suffered so much: Impacts of Gendered Based Violence on Kinship Networks in Rwanda, Nicole S. Fox, Brandeis University, 1st place Winner of the Family Division s Student Paper Competition  What Matters about  One dead cow ?: Institutional Responses and Adaptations to BSE and Food Risks in Canada, Kevin E. Jones and Debra J. Davidson, University of Alberta  Sociological insights in the search of the disaster resilient community: past, present and future, Fernando I. Rivera and Marc R. Settembrino, University of Central Florida Date: Friday, August 19 Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM Session 21:  Building Greener Communities: Redefining Quality of Life Room: Silver Sponsor: Environment and Technology Organizer &Presider: Janet A. Lorenzen, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Papers:  Living a Life of Free: the Motives and Rational of Dumpster Diving, Jessica R. Sullivan and Timothy E. Bauer, Western Michigan University  Constructing the Rights of Nature: Environmentalism, Indigenous Politics, and Legal Mobilization in Ecuador, 1970-2008, Maria Akchurin, University of Chicago  Constructing Road Safety as a Shared Responsibility and a Social Problem: The Swedish Model of Road Safety and Its Built-Environment Antecedents, Carolyn McAndrews, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar, University of Wisconsin-Madison  State Capacity, World Polity and Deforestation: A Cross-National Analysis of Less-Developed Nations, Adam Driscoll, North Carolina State University Date: Saturday, August 20 Time: 8:00 AM - 9:40 AM Session 50:  Environmental Activism: Race, Class, and Inequalities Room: Laughlin Sponsors: Conflict, Social Action, and Change Environment and Technology Poverty, Class, and Inequality Organizer & Presider: John C. Alessio, Minnesota State University Papers:  Incorporation of the Sarayacu: Environment and Technology Division Responds to Service Sociology, A listing of 2011 Sponsored Sessions "If each of us chooses some ... form of public service and puts himself thoroughly into it, things will go very well." Charles Horton Cooley, Social Organization (1909).  Page # Environment and Technology Division Newsletter Ecological and Social Challenges, Paul Prew, Minnesota State University - Mankato  Perceiving the Invisible: Chicago Residents Perceptions of Neighborhood Air Quality, Katherine E. King, University of Michigan  The Income, Housing and Jobs Divide in Jersey City: A Case of Uneven Development and Urban Inequality, Donal Malone, Saint Peter s College  What Happens to Foreclosed Properties? Race, Class, and Neighborhood Inequality in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Region, Emily Tumpson Molina, University of California, Santa Barbara  Women of Color Leadership in the Environmental Justice Movement, Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, California State University, Long Beach Date: Saturday, August 20 Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM Session 63:  Issues in Technology and Sexuality Room: Silver Sponsors: Environment and Technology Racial and Ethnic Minorities Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Organizer, Presider &Discussant: Cary Gabriel Costello, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Papers:  Meeting On-line and Maintaining Personal Safety Offline, Luis F. Nuño, William Paterson University  Sexuality in Virtual Worlds, Cary Gabriel Costello, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee  Beyond the Digital Divide: Low-Income Mothers Negotiate Technology for and with their Teens, Joslyn Brenton, Rachel Powell and Sinikka Elliott, North Carolina State University  Human Trafficking and Hurricane Katrina, Kimberly Sue Smith, Virginia Tech Date: Saturday, August 20 Time: 2:30 PM - 4:10 PM Session 77:  Non-human/Human Species and Inequalities Room: Silver Sponsors: Environment and Technology Poverty, Class, and Inequality Organizers: Julie Andrzejewski, St. Cloud State University Anthony J. Nocella, II, Syracuse University Presider: Julie Andrzejewski, St. Cloud State University Papers:   Saving Face While Confronting Guilt: Promoting Vegetarianism and Veganism to Omnivores, Jessica B. Greenebaum, Central Connecticut State University  Is the American Pit Bull Terrier a Social Problem? Aggression, Deviant Subcultures, and Dog Ownership, Genevieve D. Minter and Andrew L. Spivak, University of Nevada, Las Vegas  War: Animals in the Aftermath, Julie Andrzejewski, St. Cloud State University  They Call it Thrill Killing: Animal Abuse in Wisconsin, Ray Hutchison and Karen Dalke, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay Date: Sunday, August 21 Time: 10:30 AM - 12:10 PM Session 109:  Globalization and Environmental Justice Room: Silver Sponsors: Environment and Technology Global Organizer &Presider: Erin E. Robinson, Canisius College Papers:  Materialism and Post-Materialism: Theory, Human Development, and Valuation of the Environment, Tobin N. Walton, University of Tennessee  National Footprints in the Modern World-System: An Indirect and Direct Effects Theorization and Structural Equation Modeling, Laura A. McKinney and Ed Kick, North Carolina State University  Statistics, Uncertainty, and the News Media Construction of Cancer Clusters in Delaware, Victor W. Perez and Joel Best, University of Delaware  Third World Sanitation in the First World: A Look at Detroit, MI and Lowndes County, AL, Jennifer S. Carrera, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2011 Division Sponsored Sessions, Continued Page # Summer 2011 More Division Sponsored and Business Meeting Information Date: Sunday, August 21 Time: 12:30 PM - 2:10 PM Session 119:  Teaching Environmental Sociology: Sharing Techniques and Perspective Room: Silver Sponsor: Environment and Technology Organizer & Discussant: Erin E. Robinson, Canisius College Papers:  Incorporating Environmental Organization Website Analysis into an Environmental Sociology Class, David F. Steele, Austin Peay State University  Teaching about Global Environmental Issues, Christine A. Wernet, University of South Carolina Aiken  The Greening UMass Projects: Empowering Students for Activism in Sustainability, Shawn A. Trivette, University of Massachusetts, Amherst  Using Fiction to Teach Environmental Sociology, Manuel Vallée, University of Auckland Division Business Meeting Date: Friday, August 19 Time: 4:30 PM 6:10 PM Room: Lake Tahoe Ever wonder how sessions for next year s meeting are created? Come to out divison meeting for a relaxed atmosphers and discussion about next year s program. Volunteer to be a session organizer! It is a great way to get involved with the organization and provide professional service. We will be electing a new chari in 2012. At the business meeting, we will be thinking of nominations for next spring s division election. The business meeting is a great way to meet others in the division and share ideas for research and trends in the field. I hope you to see you there!! Graduate Student Paper Competition Winner! Environment and Technology Division Mission... The Environment and Technology Division strives to encourage research and discussion about societal impacts of issues in environment and technology.  Our division sponsors paper sessions across a range of subfields of sociology and the environment, including, but not limited to political economy of the environment, social movements and the environment, animals and the environment, technology and society, natural disasters and society, risk and risk perception. As a division, we serve to support research that extends an understanding of social causes and impacts on social institutions that extend from environmental and technological concerns.  We strive to advance the causes of social justice by directing attention to the unjust social consequences of environmental problems.  Socio-economic status and other quality of life indicators become indicators of environmental pollution as well.  Often times, poor and minority individuals suffer the burden of environmental pollution, while those in higher socioeconomic statuses are able to avoid such consequences.  Our division works to understand the institutional causes and consequences of such disparities and work towards producing research that advances the literature in these areas.  Additionally, we seek to understand science and its limits surrounding conclusive evidence between exposure and illness.  For example, it makes sense to focus on the basic needs that provide individuals with a strong quality of life.  Arguably, if someone s quality of life is impacted, but the exposures do not fall within the deemed statistical significance necessary for the state to act, should consideration still be given to their right to pursue life in a clean, healthy environment? Essentially, the issues become issues of human rights and justice.  Environmental sociology and related areas of study have developed into a substantial field of literature since the 1970s.  We seek to consistently address the findings in the literature from this field and offer engaging dialogue that seeks to advance the study of environment and society.  From political economy of the environment introduced in seminal works, such as The Environment from Surplus to Scarcity (Schnaiberg 1980) to the social constructionist work of John Hannigan in Environmental Sociology: A Social Constructionist Perspective (1995), literature rich in theoretical and empirical findings continues to challenge assumptions made about the social world.  Our division serves as a space for these discussions to be held. SSSP members are drawn to this organization in part because of its historical focus on issues of social justice.  We are interested in applying critical scientific perspectives to the basic study of society that affects us all.  In concert with that, members of the Environment and Technology Division seek engage in research in order to explore and analysis a root cause of social injustice environmental issues.  Environmental issues are fundamentally issues of social justice. Inherent to these issues are issues of health and illness, issues of economics, issues of race, class, and gender, and issues of colonial exploitation.  As we continue to advance as a society in late modernity, we will evermore have the need to explore and understand the consequences on society and environment of such forms of development such as a globalization, neoliberalism, and advanced capitalism. Erin E. Robinson, PhD. Department of Sociology Canisius College 2001 Main Street Buffalo, NY 14208 Phone: 716-888-2748 E-mail: robinso5@canisius.edu Check out the latest SSSP updates and information at sssp1@org Environment and Technology Division Newsletter Page # Summer 2011 Page # Congratulations, David Bidwell, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, Environmental Science and Policy Program at Michigan State University. David is this year s winner of the Brent K. Marshall Graduate Student Paper Competition. David s paper on the perception of wind farm and clean energy served as an excellent example of superior research that our graduate students are conducting. He is encouraged to submit this paper for publication and will be presenting it at the annual meetings in the following session. Session 58:  Student Award Winning Papers II Room: Parlor D Sponsor: Program Committee Organizer: Holly Foster, Texas A&M University Presider: Steven E. Barkan, University of Maine Papers:  Explaining Women s Activism: Rethinking the Women s Environmental Justice Narrative in California s San Joaquin Valley, Tracy E. Perkins, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1st place Winner of the Conflict, Social Action, and Change Division s Student Paper Competition  The Influence of Habitus in the Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status, Cultural Capital, and Academic Success, S. Michael Gaddis and Andrew Payton, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1st place Winner of the Educational Problems Division s Student Paper Competition  The Role of Values and Beliefs in Public Attitudes towards Wind Farms, David Bidwell, Michigan State University, 1st place Winner of the Environment and Technology Division s Student Paper Competition  Locking Up Social Order: Incarceration, Organizational Leadership, and Street Corner Violence, Robert Vargas, Northwestern University, 1st place Winner of the Law and Society Division s Student Paper Competition  Remaking Reciprocal Rules of Geriatric Care: The Case of Aging Taiwanese Immigrants, Ken Chih-Yan Sun, Brandeis University, 1st place Winner of the Youth, Aging, and the Life Course Division s Student Paper Competition Thank you to all who submitted papers. It was a very competitive year and resulted in a difficult decision among all the superb papers. We encourage you to think now of a submission for the 2012 competition!! Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.  ~John Muir Environment and Technology Division Newsletter Page # Summer 2011 Page #