Workshop: Bridging the Gap. A Mini-Conference on Race and the Environment: Philadephia, PA - August 10, 2018

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

Minority scholar participation in the study of environmental sociology is low, leading to potential biases in topics addressed and analytical approaches to them. The Workshop will provide a forum for scholars and practitioners to discuss strategies that would advance a more theoretically robust and methodologically rigorous environmental sociology that seeks to overcome institutional and disciplinary obstacles to advancing the study of race and the environment in sociology and in the sub-discipline of environmental sociology. This Workshop will bring together U.S.-based scholars to share work that draws on theoretical frameworks that are outside of the traditional purview of environmental sociology to address the lack of diversity in scholarship in the sub-discipline. This Workshop aligns well with the core value of inclusiveness and the strategic goal of innovative interdisciplinary collaboration outlined in the NSF Strategic Plan for 2014-2018. Both initiatives strive to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in scientific inquiry. Over the past four decades, membership in the Environmental Sociology (ES) section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) has steadily grown to reach 510 members in 2017, which is slightly higher than the section average of 505 for all 52 ASA sections. However, the percentage of African American, Hispanic/Latino(a), and Asian/Asian American scholars in the ES section is very low in comparison to other ASA sections and the association overall. Just under 5% of section members identified as Asian/Asian American in 2005 and 2016, and around 2.5% as Hispanic/Latino(a) in 2005 and 2016. Regular ES members who identify as African American increased from zero members in 2005 to seven in 2016, and now represent 2.5% of section membership. The proposal argues that the lack of diversity in ES and in the subfield of environmental sociology is a result of lack of engagement with other disciplinary fields. The one-day workshop will increase the range of theoretical and methodological discussion in the subfield, thus encouraging greater diversity in both scientific approaches as well as in the demographics of participation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.