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Research examining the relationship between trust, public engagement, and natural resource management asserts that trust fosters positive behavior and enhanced cooperation. Yet some scholars are finding that certain kinds of distrust are helpful in achieving democratic outcomes by providing would-be participants with the motivation to engage in issues of public concern. This article seeks to clarify this apparent disjuncture in the trust literature by examining the multidimensional nature of trust as it relates to public engagement on energy-related issues in Canada. Based on a national online survey (n = 3000) we use a binary probit model to explore the connections between trust, knowledge, and public engagement. About 70% of respondents had participated in at least one form of public engagement over the last 3 years. Drawing on a two-dimensional conception of trust, we find that general trust on its own is not positively linked to public engagement. A combination of general trust and skepticism,...

Hydroelectricity is an old yet reliable form of renewable energy, with acknowledged social and ecological impacts. A tension currently exists between such concerns and energy needs, with dam construction and removal ongoing around the world. It is critical to better understand the implications of both on local citizens. We performed map elicitation interviews with 20 locals around the prematurely-aging Mactaquac Dam and headpond, in New Brunswick, Canada, to understand if and how they came to accept the dam landscape, and what they want for its future. A Baselines of Acceptability conceptual framework was developed to guide the interpretation. Respondents demonstrated attachment to the dam-in-place landscape, even those initially disadvantaged by its construction, and a preference for keeping the headpond intact. Despite this demonstrated adaptability, the paper calls for improved transparency, scope and justice in energy landscape decision-making, as well as further testing of the framework with different demographics, infrastructure case studies and over time.

Drawing inspiration from the literature on social imaginaries and cultural models, this study explores contending perspectives on energy and sustainability, moving beyond a simplistic understanding of support or opposition to specific energy developments. With a comparative study in three regions of Canada, we use Q methodology to identify five key discourses on energy issues: (1) climate change is a primary concern, (2) maintain the energy economy, (3) build on the resilience of nature and local energy systems, (4) markets and corporations will lead and (5) renewable energy sources are the path forward. We find several under-examined perspectives on energy and society – one discourse that attempts to balance growth in the energy economy with environmental concern and another discourse that promotes the resilience of natural and local energy systems. We also find a proclivity towards science, ingenuity and technological innovation as a strategy to resolve contemporary challenges in the energy sector. This...

This paper addresses the ownership and control of farmland, presents a conceptual model of landed property, and uses it to examine landlord-tenant relations in Wisconsin. A profile of farmland owners is constructed using survey data from two agricultural counties, Particular attention is paid to who controls farm management decisions on rented land. Results suggest that tenants enjoy much latitude in managing rented land and that relations between landlords and tenants seem satisfactory to both parties.

Distinctions between rural and urban populations are well documented in environmental sociology literature. Rural and urban places may exert different influences on participation in environmentally supportive behavior (ESB) as well as on other forms of environmental concern (EC). The influence of these distinct geographies may be due to present circumstances or because of childhood socialization in these places. Using data from a national survey in Canada (n51 664), we use cognitive (basic values, environmental worldview, and environmental attitude) and behavioral indicators (public and private sphere) of EC to explore differences among rural and urban populations and we include analyses accounting for place of socialization. We extend the conventional private sphere category of ESB by including stewardship behaviors. Results showed few differences between rural and urban residents on indicators of EC. Rural residents, however, scored higher on altruistic values, placed a higher priority on the environment, and reported higher participation in recycling and stewardship behaviors. Analysis that included place of socialization showed differences on environmental worldview, basic values, and some ESB. In terms of ESB, we conclude that residence and place of socialization may be less of a factor than opportunity and highlight the importance of providing services and facilities. We recommend future research on residence and ESB include a variety of behaviors that reflect opportunities for both rural and urban residents.

Williams and Patterson (2007) raise provocative points in their response to our article. We welcome the opportunity to reflect on the trajectory of our collaboration and to further clarify our own ...

Sense-of-place research has grown in recent years and has attracted interest from a diverse range of disciplines. Beckley (2003) suggests that it may be possible to disaggregate persons' attachment to biophysical versus sociocultural aspects of sense of place. Stedman (2003) and Beckley (2003) challenge researchers to experiment with new methods for examining the subject. This research addresses the challenges through the use of resident-employed photography. The method was used to elicit sense-of-place values in four communities across Canada. Participants took photographs of things that most attached them to their communities or region. Participants were interviewed about their photographs, and 937 photo-narrative data points were created and analyzed. The analysis involved ascribing photo-narratives to single response categories. Residents distributed their photographs fairly evenly between sociocultural and biophysical dimensions of their communities; however, many attachments involve both sociocultur...

Collectively, current resource-development literature has given little attention to organizational features of ownership as important variables in community resilience. By drawing from six local buyout cases in Canada's forest sector, we reveal the complexity and numerous constraints on local ownership and expose a more nuanced context than most sociologists tend to consider. Our findings suggest that the meaning of local ownership and community resilience varies depending upon the composition (e.g., private vs. public; mill vs. forest license vs. coupled mill & forest license), type (social, cooperative, trust and/or direct-share ownership), extent of ownership (percentage of local versus extra-local shares), and the level of control (e.g., proportion of locally held seats on the Board of Directors) associated with ownership. Future research on local ownership should more carefully differentiate between the nature of local ownership and its associated outcomes.

Research on attachment to high amenity places has usually focused on visitors, despite the fact that many of these settings also may hold permanent residents. Visitor employed photography (VEP) has...

The well-being of residents of resource dependent communities is a question of traditional interest to rural sociologists. The label “resource dependent” obscures how this relationship may vary between particular resource industries, regions, or indicators of well-being. Few analyses have compared the relationship between well-being and resource dependence across different industries, nor tested competing theories about the relationship between resource dependence and well-being. Our paper presents an overview of the relationship between resource dependence—agriculture, fisheries, mining, energy, forestry—and human well-being in Canada. Analysis of 1996 Statistics Canada data revealed a great deal of variation in the effect of “resource” dependence on indicators of well-being (e.g., human capital, unemployment, income): some industries exhibit fairly positive outcomes (e.g., agriculture), others more negative outcomes (e.g., fishing). Consistent with analyses conducted in the United States, these relationships vary by region, suggesting the need for models that incorporate the particulars of place and industry.

In the early 1990s, two Canadian newsprint mills formerly owned by large corporations were purchased locally through management or employee/management buyouts. This effectively established local control and decision making over mill and forestry operations for substantial amounts of land in Ontario and Manitoba. Over the last decade there has been considerable discussion in the literature regarding community forestry. Local ownership and control appear to be the most important criteria for determining whether community forestry exists. Our question is, "Do these examples of locally owned and operated forestry operations constitute community forestry?" We review definitions of community forestry, describe the circumstances of the two cases, and analyze qualitative interview data from both communities. Some criteria of community forestry are fulfilled in these cases, while others are not. The local buyouts did not last more than 6 years, but interestingly, the new corporate owners maintained some elements o...

Previous research on forest dependence has been limited by (1) an incomplete treatment of the topic (an overemphasis of timber dependence) and (2) careless specification of inferences based on data employed. This article presents a conceptual framework for understanding the nested nature afforest dependence, and demonstrates how forest dependence changes when examining progressively smaller units of analysis. North Americans derive a wide variety of goods and services from their forests. A combination of human uses, including timber use, tourism/recreation use, subsistence, other nontimber use, and ecological use, comprises forest dependence at any given unit of analysis. Available data from the northeastern United States are used to show how forest dependence differs as one shifts between nested, spatial units of analysis.

This article examines issues surrounding the potential applicability of nonmarket valuation techniques to indigenous peoples. A conceptual model examines relationships between natural and cultural environments and value systems. Problems of valuation identified include eliciting values for individuals, aggregating individual values into measures of social welfare, and comparisons of welfare across culturally different groups. The influence of sacred or taboo goods, the potential for satiation, and variations in property rights are factors to address in assessing individual values. Differences in political and property rights systems, and unique demographic structures are seen as limits to aggregating values for randomly selected individuals. Since valuation is endogenous to specific social environments, aggregations of indigenous and nonindigenous measures of social welfare may be inappropriate.

(1995). Community stability and the relationship between economic and social well‐being in forest‐dependent communities. Society & Natural Resources: Vol. 8, Society and Non‐Timber Forest Products in Asia, pp. 261-266.

This special section of Society & Natural Resources is intended to honor William R. (Bill) Freudenburg. Those who knew Bill, whom we lost to cancer at the end of 2010, know that there would be no better way to honor him than to publish a collection of works that was inspired by his scholarship. Bill had a tremendous influence on the field of natural resource and environmental sociology. While his career was cut short before he had turned 60, few in the field will surpass Bill’s productivity or creativity. Bill had an extremely inquisitive mind, tireless energy and enthusiasm for his craft, and a keen ability to draw insight and bring clarity out of seemingly jumbled and nonsensical data. Bill could spot the patterns. At a gathering in Santa Barbara in November 2010, a few dear friends and fans of Bill suggested that we organize some Freudenburg-inspired sessions at the International Symposium for Society and Resource Management in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2011. The hope was that those sessions would provide sufficient quality material that we could subsequently put together a special section of SNR from those presentations. The idea was to invite work that was informed by or inspired by Bill’s intellectual contributions to the field. The articles in this special section may appear to be all over the map and in a sense they are, but that is because Bill cast his gaze widely. His work includes major contributions to the Boomtown literature, and to social impact assessment more broadly. He wrote quite famously about resource-dependent communities (oil, mining, and forestry), and about polluters and the social and institutional relations around the production of pollution. Bill wrote about both government and corporate accountability, or more accurately the lack of it. His work touched on risk and disasters, both natural and unnatural, and anticipating a popular current trend, he often argued that so-called ‘‘natural’’ disasters have important human causal factors. Another of Bill’s special qualities is that he used and his work reflected and embodied the full breadth of sociological wisdom that came before him. He was

Rural sociologists have a lengthy history of examining the relationship between natural resource dependence and community well-being. This paper contributes to the understanding of this relationship in several ways. First, census data were used to describe forest sector dependence in two Canadian provinces where levels of dependence were much higher than those commonly found in the United States. Second, instead of linear regression analysis, a structural equation model was used to provide estimates for three indicators of well-being (income, poverty, and inmigration) within a single model and then the model was tested for overall suitability. Using market segmentation theory, this paper shows that forest dependence and well-being in New Brunswick is more consistent with many places in the United States where the pulp and paper industry alone is positively associated with well-being indicators. In contrast, pulp and paper, logging, and lumber sectors in British Colombia are positively associated with well-being. The model also reveals less transience in forestry towns than was previously assumed. These findings are discussed along with estimated effects between indictors of community well-being.