Academic Biography
Hailing from the great state of Michigan, Steve is emotionally tied to the Great Lakes and Canadian sensibilities. His frequent visits as a child to see his numerous relatives in the wilds of Northern Ontario nurtured Steve’s love of nature. Coming from a working class family, he found his way to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he earned eventually his PhD. He is a third-generation comparative environmental/ natural resources sociologist out of the Yale University’s natural resources/environmental sociology lineage network (see tab on the original environmental sociology networks). His interests include organizations and politics and becomes most excited when research questions combine these two topics with environmental concerns. Over his long career, he has pioneered several lines of scholarship in environmental sociology and organizational studies. These included the sociology of biodiversity conservation (often called “people and parks”), with his Michigan mentor, the late Patrick C. West, and later with former Michigan graduate students, particularly regarding the political, social impacts, justice, and management concerns that arose with the global expansion of the US national park ideal, especially in the populated tropics, i.e. preserving land without human occupation. He also promoted the sociology of international organizations where he and another Michigan mentor, the late Gayl D. Ness, helped to introduced organizational sociology to international relations and international organization (IO) scholars, emphasizing greater organizational agency in shaping international events; Steve also provided an earlier organizational focus on natural resources and environmental concerns, especially tree planting as an economic development scheme in developing nations. He was also an earlier explorer of comparative and global environmentalism, especially by challenging Ronald Inglehart’s Postmaterialist Values Thesis and the Materialist-Postmaterialist divide when illustrated by environmental concerns in a comparative context. He also authored one of the first comparative/cross national public opinion reviews on climate change involving respondents from developing nations. Most current research focuses on numerous social dimensions of climate change, and how to achieve sustainability. If interested, there are detailed descriptions under the research tab of his newer and older areas of scholarship.
Publications
Awards & Distinctions
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Courses
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