Steven Brechin

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Brief Biography

Steven R. Brechin (Michigan 1989) is professor of sociology with interests in environment, natural resources and complex formal organizations. Theoretical work focuses on developing new theories to explain why public concern for the environment is a global phenomenon [current theories at the individual level fall short] and how environmental issues and movements differ in other countries and world regions. Brechin is also interested in the social consequences and strategies related to biodiversity conservation with a primarily emphasis in developing regions. Fieldwork has taken Brechin to Belize, Haiti, Indonesia, Niger and South Africa and has supervised graduate work in many others. Other interests include public attitudes, values and knowledge about the environment generally and around specific issues such as global climate change and biodiversity conservation. With students, Brechin is involved with the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs’ NGO initiative and is currently focusing on the organizational characteristics and behavior of large nature conservation organizations (BINGOs). A current book project, his 5th, Organizing Nature, explores organizational issues related to nature protection actions. His most recently released book (co-edited), Contested Nature: Power and the Dispossessed – Promoting International Conservation with Social Justice in the 21st Century (SUNY Press, 2003), has sold over 1000 copies worldwide. With the support from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Brechin with a team recently completed an applied project: the first nation-wide study (including Mayan communities) of rancher/farmer-jaguar conflicts in Belize, Central America.

Environmental Research Areas

Research Projects

Environmental Courses

Selected Papers and Abstracts since 2000

• Comment in Sociological Perspectives on Global Climate Change, Steven R. Brechin, June 2009.
• Corporate Contributions to Transnational Conservation NGOs: Private International Transfers or Transactions?, Steve Brechin, Forthcoming 2008, Forum: International Studies Review, 2008.
• Conceptual and Practical Issues in Defining Conservation Success: The Political, Social and Ecological in an Organized World, Steve Brechin, G. Murray, and K.A. Mogulgarrd, Forthcoming 2007. Journal of Sustainable Forestry., 2008.
• Contested ground in nature protection: current challenges and opportunities in community-based natural resources and protected area management, Steven R Brechin, Grant Murray and Charles Benjamin, Jules Pretty et al. (editors) The Sage Handbook of Environment and Society. CA: Sage Publications , 2007.
• Public Support for both the Environment and an Anti-Environmental President: Possible Explanations for the George W. Bush Anomaly, Steven R. Brechin and D. Freeman, The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics, 2(1), Article 6, January 2004.
• Comparative Public Opinion and Knowledge on Global Climatic Change and the Kyoto Protocol: The U.S. versus the World?, Steven R. Brechin, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 23(10), pp. 106-134, October 2003.
• Contested Nature: Promoting International Biodiversity with Social Justice in the Twenty-first Century, Edited by Steven R. Brechin, Peter R. Wilshusen, Crystal L. Fortwangler and Patrick C. West, SUNY Press, Albany, NY, August 2003.
• Beyond the Square Wheel: Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding of Biodiversity Conservation as Social and Political Process, Steven R. Brechin, Peter Wilshusen, Crystal Fortwangler and Patrick West, Society and Natural Resources, 15, pp.41-64, January 2002.

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