Thomas Dietz | Michigan State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Thomas Dietz

Sociology of Development, 2018

We argue that sociological analyses of inequality could benefit from engaging the literatures on ... more We argue that sociological analyses of inequality could benefit from engaging the literatures on decision-making. In turn, a sociological focus on how contexts and structural constraints influence the outcomes of decisions and the strategies social groups can use in pursuit of their goals could inform our understanding of decision-making. We consider a simple two-class model of income and the need of capitalists and workers to mobilize resources to influence the adaptive landscape that shapes responses to decisions. We then examine the implications of the rational actor model and the heuristics and biases literature for class-based decision-making. We consider the importance of altruism in mobilizing collective action, and we offer some evidence that altruism is most common in the middle ranges of income and that altruism is a major influence on support for redistributive policies. These results, while tentative, suggest the value of having scholars of development and inequality eng...

Human Ecology Review, 2015

Taking serious consideration of the engagement of non-animals in human-society often transforms o... more Taking serious consideration of the engagement of non-animals in human-society often transforms our understanding of human society. Here we offer insights that come from considering the role of non-human animals in the production of human well-being. Drawing on Braverman's critique of the deskilling of labor, we examine the effects of the drive for efficiency in capitalist production on both humans and non-human animals. Non-human animals provide well-being through their role in ecosystem services, as companions, as objects used as both raw materials and as processors of raw materials, and as labor. The drive for efficiency impacts all four of these roles, especially by reducing the agency of non-human animals. Our analysis suggests several lines for future research, and re-enforces the idea that taking non-human animals seriously can substantially hone thinking in human ecology.

Human Ecology Review, 2015

Structural human ecology is a vibrant area of theoretically grounded research that examines the i... more Structural human ecology is a vibrant area of theoretically grounded research that examines the interplay between structure and agency in humanenvironment interactions. This special issue consists of papers that highlight recent advances in the tradition. Here, the guest co-editors provide a short background discussion of structural human ecology, and offer brief summaries of the papers included in the collection. Keywords: structural human ecology, carbon intensity of well-being, sustainability, coupled human and natural systems Structural human ecology Structural human ecology (SHE) is a term that covers the research of a network of scholars who examine the interplay between structure and agency in humanenvironment interactions. 2 The perspective of SHE is very much grounded in Darwinian thinking (Dietz & Burns, 1992; McLaughlin, 2001, 2012). The structures of the physical, biological and social worlds constrain human action by shaping the responses that will result from a human decision. But human actions also reshape the physical, biological and social worlds. To paraphrase G. Evelyn Hutchinson, SHE examines the cultural evolutionary play enacted in the human ecological theater (Hutchinson, 1965).

Energy Research & Social Science, 2017

Increased household adoption of solar photovoltaic systems has the potential to reduce greenhouse... more Increased household adoption of solar photovoltaic systems has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with providing electricity. Although residential solar has recently become more affordable, market penetration in the U.S. remains relatively low. This study proposes a theoretical framework for investigating the psychological and social determinants of interest in residential solar drawn from three theories that may explain the decision to pursue it: diffusion of innovations theory, theory of planned behavior, and value-belief-norm theory. We test this framework using survey data from 904 nonadopter homeowners, with the aim of identifying potential levers for intervention. Overall, we find that consumers see solar electricity in multiple ways: as an environmental benefit, a consumer good, and an innovative technology. Notably, individuals who trust installers and believe solar will be personally beneficial are more likely to consider contacting an installer, as are individuals drawn to novel products. Proenvironmental personal norms indirectly increase interest through perceived personal benefits, suggesting that marketing efforts aimed at environmentally-concerned individuals may need to emphasize non-environmental benefits. The results also support leveraging trusted social networks to convey the benefits of solar. We conclude by discussing the value of the integrated framework along with implications for policymakers and marketers.

Journal of World-Systems Research, 2009

We assess threats to environmental sustainability by examining the trends in three measures of th... more We assess threats to environmental sustainability by examining the trends in three measures of the ecological footprint (EF) the total EF, the per capita EF, and the EF intensity of the economy (EF/GDP) for China, India, Japan, and the United States. from 1961 to 2003. The EF, an estimate of the land area needed to sustain use of the environment, is the most comprehensive measure of anthropogenic pressure on the environment available and is growing in use. We argue that the total EF is the most relevant indicator for assessing threats to natures capital and services, that per capita EF is the most relevant indicator of global inequalities, and that EF intensity is the most relevant indicator of economic benefits from environmental exploitation. We find in all four nations that the ecological intensity of the economy declined (i.e., efficiency improved) over this period, but the total national EF increased substantially. This is a demonstration of the Jevons paradox, where effic...

International Journal of the Commons, 2011

The publication of Elinor Ostrom's (1990) Governing the Commons fueled significant theoretical an... more The publication of Elinor Ostrom's (1990) Governing the Commons fueled significant theoretical and empirical progress in the field of commons governance and collective action, most notably in the form of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. A central question within this literature is how trust is created, maintained, and potentially destroyed in the context of sustainability issues. While the commons literature has provided a deeper understanding of trust, most empirical work has been done in relatively simple settings that do not capture the complexity of many global, institutionally-complex dilemmas that we face today. This paper discusses how our understanding of trust in these more complex settings may be improved by considering how two broad categories of variables-belief systems and networks-influence trust.

Sustainability Science, 2014

Recent analyses of sustainability emphasize the tradeoff between human well-being and stress plac... more Recent analyses of sustainability emphasize the tradeoff between human well-being and stress placed on the environment as measured as the ecological intensity of human well-being (EIWB), a ratio of environmental stress to human well-being. Here, we examine the effects of economic growth on EIWB for developed and less developed nations over the last half century. We find that since the early 1970s economic growth has little effect on EIWB in less developed countries and leads to somewhat increased intensity in developed countries. This suggests that current trajectories of economic growth will be problematic for sustainability unless special steps are taken to reduce the unintended harm placed on the environment.

Nature and Culture, 2011

We examine trends since 1980 in material extraction in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan—which t... more We examine trends since 1980 in material extraction in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan—which together contain over 40% of the world's population—to assess the environmental consequences of modernization. Economic and population growth has driven rapid expansion of material extraction in China, India, and Indonesia since 1980. China and India exhibit patterns consistent with the Jevons paradox, where the economic intensity of extraction (extraction/GDP) has steadily declined while total extraction grew. In Indonesia, extraction intensity grew along with total extraction. In Japan, total extraction remained roughly constant, increasing somewhat in the 1980s and then slowly declining after 1990, while extraction intensity declined throughout the entire period. These different patterns can be understood to some degree by drawing on political-economic and world-systems perspectives. Japan is an affluent, core nation that can afford to import materials from other nations, thereby a...

Interactions between distant places are increasingly widespread and influential, often leading to... more Interactions between distant places are increasingly widespread and influential, often leading to unexpected outcomes with profound implications for sustainability. Numerous sustainability studies have been conducted within a particular place with little attention to the impacts of distant interactions on sustainability in multiple places. Although distant forces have been studied, they are usually treated as exogenous variables and feedbacks have rarely been considered. To understand and integrate various distant interactions better, we propose an integrated framework based on telecoupling, an umbrella concept that refers to socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances. The concept of telecoupling is a logical extension of research on coupled human and natural systems, in which interactions occur within particular geographic locations. The telecoupling framework contains five major interrelated components, i.e., coupled human and natural systems, flows, agents, causes, and effects. We illustrate the framework using two examples of distant interactions associated with trade of agricultural commodities and invasive species, highlight the implications of the framework, and discuss research needs and approaches to move research on telecouplings forward. The framework can help to analyze system components and their interrelationships, identify research gaps, detect hidden costs and untapped benefits, provide a useful means to incorporate feedbacks as well as trade-offs and synergies across multiple systems (sending, receiving, and spillover systems), and improve the understanding of distant interactions and the effectiveness of policies for socioeconomic and environmental sustainability from local to global levels.

Nature Climate Change, 2013

PLoS ONE, 2013

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) estimated that two thirds of ecosystem services on the e... more The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) estimated that two thirds of ecosystem services on the earth have degraded or are in decline due to the unprecedented scale of human activities during recent decades. These changes will have tremendous consequences for human well-being, and offer both risks and opportunities for a wide range of stakeholders. Yet these risks and opportunities have not been well managed due in part to the lack of quantitative understanding of human dependence on ecosystem services. Here, we propose an index of dependence on ecosystem services (IDES) system to quantify human dependence on ecosystem services. We demonstrate the construction of the IDES system using household survey data. We show that the overall index and sub-indices can reflect the general pattern of households' dependences on ecosystem services, and their variations across time, space, and different forms of capital (i.e., natural, human, financial, manufactured, and social capitals). We support the proposition that the poor are more dependent on ecosystem services and further generalize this proposition by arguing that those disadvantaged groups who possess low levels of any form of capital except for natural capital are more dependent on ecosystem services than those with greater control of capital. The higher value of the overall IDES or sub-index represents the higher dependence on the corresponding ecosystem services, and thus the higher vulnerability to the degradation or decline of corresponding ecosystem services. The IDES system improves our understanding of human dependence on ecosystem services. It also provides insights into strategies for alleviating poverty, for targeting priority groups of conservation programs, and for managing risks and opportunities due to changes of ecosystem services at multiple scales.

Global Environmental Change, 2014

ABSTRACT Whether or not actual shifts in climate influence public perceptions of climate change r... more ABSTRACT Whether or not actual shifts in climate influence public perceptions of climate change remains an open question, one with important implications for societal response to climate change. We use the most comprehensive public opinion survey data on climate change available for the US to examine effects of annual and seasonal climate variation. Our results show that political orientation has the most important effect in shaping public perceptions about the timing and seriousness of climate change. Objective climatic conditions do not influence Americans’ perceptions of the timing of climate change and only have a negligible effect on perceptions about the seriousness of climate change. These results suggest that further changes in climatic conditions are unlikely to produce noticeable shifts in Americans’ climate change perceptions.

Risk Analysis, 2009

Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a revival of interest in nuclear power. Two de... more Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a revival of interest in nuclear power. Two decades ago, the expansion of nuclear power in the United States was halted by widespread public opposition as well as rising costs and less than projected increases in demand for electricity. Can the renewed enthusiasm for nuclear power overcome its history of public resistance that has persisted for decades? We propose that attitudes toward nuclear power are a function of perceived risk, and that both attitudes and risk perceptions are a function of values, beliefs, and trust in the institutions that influence nuclear policy. Applying structural equation models to data from a U.S. national survey, we find that increased trust in the nuclear governance institutions reduces perceived risk of nuclear power and together higher trust and lower risk perceptions predict positive attitudes toward nuclear power. Trust in environmental institutions and perceived risks from global environmental problems do not predict attitudes toward nuclear power. Values do predict attitudes: individuals with traditional values have greater support for, while those with altruistic values have greater opposition to, nuclear power. Nuclear attitudes do not vary by gender, age, education, income, or political orientation, though nonwhites are more supportive than whites. These findings are consistent with, and provide an explanation for, a long series of public opinion polls showing public ambivalence toward nuclear power that persists even in the face of renewed interest for nuclear power in policy circles.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011

C limate change is the largest commons governance problem that humanity has ever faced. Emissions... more C limate change is the largest commons governance problem that humanity has ever faced. Emissions of greenhouse gases anywhere in the world contribute to radiative forcing everywhere. The impacts of climate change vary greatly from place to place, and the vulnerability to those impacts differs across human groups and across other species, even in a single location. The five nations with the largest CO 2 emissions in 2008 were responsible for less than 60% of total global CO 2 emissions (1). Although the action of a moderate number of the largest emitters could have some effect, substantial reductions in climate risk will depend on cooperative action across many nations. However, the costs of reductions are borne by each nation individually, whereas risk reduction is shared by all nations. Getting self-interested and often distrustful nations to cooperate is a major obstacle to addressing the climate problem. So far, international agreements have not had much impact on the trajectory of emissions or the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In the midst of this impasse, Heitzig et al. (2) offer an analysis that may show a way out, and they certainly suggest important avenues for additional analysis. Their work (2) falls clearly in what Stokes (3) labeled "Pasteur's Quadrant"-like the work of Louis Pasteur, it contributes to fundamental knowledge and is clearly useful.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013

For decades, scholars have been trying to determine whether small or large groups are more likely... more For decades, scholars have been trying to determine whether small or large groups are more likely to cooperate for collective action and successfully manage common-pool resources. Using data gathered from the Wolong Nature Reserve since 1995, we examined the effects of group size (i.e., number of households monitoring a single forest parcel) on both collective action (forest monitoring) and resource outcomes (changes in forest cover) while controlling for potential confounding factors. Our results demonstrate that group size has nonlinear effects on both collective action and resource outcomes, with intermediate group size contributing the most monitoring effort and leading to the biggest forest cover gain. We also show how opposing effects of group size directly and indirectly affect collective action and resource outcomes, leading to the overall nonlinear relationship. Our findings suggest why previous studies have observed differing and even contradictory group-size effects, and ...

Sociology of Development, 2018

Human Ecology Review, 2015

Energy Research & Social Science, 2017

Journal of World-Systems Research, 2009

International Journal of the Commons, 2011

Sustainability Science, 2014

Nature and Culture, 2011

Nature Climate Change, 2013

PLoS ONE, 2013

Global Environmental Change, 2014

Risk Analysis, 2009

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013