Philip Mancus | College of the Redwoods (original) (raw)
Papers by Philip Mancus
xiii, 182 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the librar... more xiii, 182 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.Representing a distinct contribution to the tradition of comparative international research in the environment, this dissertation studies the effects of national economic restructuring programs, implemented under the administration of multilateral development institutions, on the fertilizer intensity, energy intensity, and value efficiency of national commodity agriculture for the period 1980 to 2002. Known as structural adjustment, these conditional loan agreements have been thoroughly studied with respect to various social outcomes but in terms of environment impact, sociological investigation has been limited to case studies and to preliminary quantitative analyses of deforestation. Examining the consequences of structural adjustment on soil fertility management is a unique contribution to the field. Combining empirical work with theoretical ...
be one of the most important books published in the final decade of the last century. Winning num... more be one of the most important books published in the final decade of the last century. Winning numerous book awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, it has been translated into over two dozen languages, sold millions of copies worldwide, and has been the subject of a documentary produced by the National Geographic Society and broadcast on PBS. The broad appeal of GGS, as with Diamond’s previous book The Third Chimpanzee (1992) and his more recent book Collapse (2005), can be explained by its powerful and sweeping investigation into environmental history. Undeniably, few other scholarly works have been as comprehensive in scope and as prominent in public recognition. Here, for the 10th anniversary of the original publication of GGS, we review Diamond’s work, highlighting its major strengths, of which there are many, while also presenting
Sociological Theory, 2013
Animals have had a profound influence on human societies, playing a major role in the course of h... more Animals have had a profound influence on human societies, playing a major role in the course of human history. However, their presence and theoretical significance has been overlooked in sociological theory, while being the central concern of the growing field of anthrozoology (the study of the interaction between humans and other animals). To illustrate how a focus on other animal species can improve our understanding of sociocultural evolution, we assess the influential work of Gerhard Lenski and Patrick Nolan and their materialist approach to macrosociology. Animals are largely invisible in Lenski and Nolan’s Ecological-Evolutionary Theory, yet they underlie the key subsistence technologies identified by Lenski and Nolan as crucial for explaining uneven development. By considering the history of domestication, the role animals played in the development of agricultural technology, and the translocation of Eurasian livestock during the colonial era, we show how sociocultural evolut...
Representing a distinct contribution to the tradition of comparative international research in th... more Representing a distinct contribution to the tradition of comparative international research in the environment, this dissertation studies the effects of national economic restructuring programs, implemented under the administration of multilateral development institutions, on the fertilizer intensity, energy intensity, and value efficiency of national commodity agriculture for the period 1980 to 2002. Known as structural adjustment, these conditional loan agreements have been thoroughly studied with respect to various social outcomes but in terms of environment impact, sociological investigation has been limited to case studies and to preliminary quantitative analyses of deforestation. Examining the consequences of structural adjustment on soil fertility management is a unique contribution to the field. Combining empirical work with theoretical explication, I frame the object of study using agrarian systems theory and the concept of societal vmetabolism, examining how the problem of...
Animals have had a profound influence on human societies, playing a major role in the course of h... more Animals have had a profound influence on human societies, playing a major role in the course of human history. However, their presence and theoretical significance has been overlooked in sociological theory, while being the central concern of the growing field of anthrozoology (the study of the interaction between humans and other animals).
Rural Sociology, 2007
The global agro-food system relies heavily on inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers. In addition to c... more The global agro-food system relies heavily on inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers. In addition to consuming enormous amounts of energy, this manufactured input contributes to the accumulation of reactive nitrogen in the biosphere and undermines the biological basis of agricultural production itself. While technological inefficiency and population may play a role in the phenomenon of global nitrogen accumulation, the social structural features of industrial agriculture must also be examined. The concept of social-ecological metabolism provides an important and needed conceptual framework for engaging global food security issues.
Organization & Environment, 2008
Sociological Theory, 2009
We lay the foundations for a critical human ecology (CHE) that combines the strengths of the biop... more We lay the foundations for a critical human ecology (CHE) that combines the strengths of the biophysical human ecology tradition in environmental sociology with those of historical materialism. We show the strengths of a critically informed human ecology by addressing four key meta-theoretical issues: materialist versus idealist approaches in the social sciences, dialectical versus reductionist analyses, the respective importance of historical and ahistorical causal explanations, and the difference between structural and functional interpretations of phenomena. CHE breaks with the idealism of Western Marxism, which dominated academic neo-Marxist thought in the latter half of the 20th century, and advocates instead the pursuit of a materialist, scientific methodology in dialectical perspective for the explanation of social and ecological change. In turn, this project also involves a critique of the ahistorical and functionalist tendencies of traditional human ecology, while sharing human ecology's basic starting point: the ecological embeddedness of human societies.
xiii, 182 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the librar... more xiii, 182 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.Representing a distinct contribution to the tradition of comparative international research in the environment, this dissertation studies the effects of national economic restructuring programs, implemented under the administration of multilateral development institutions, on the fertilizer intensity, energy intensity, and value efficiency of national commodity agriculture for the period 1980 to 2002. Known as structural adjustment, these conditional loan agreements have been thoroughly studied with respect to various social outcomes but in terms of environment impact, sociological investigation has been limited to case studies and to preliminary quantitative analyses of deforestation. Examining the consequences of structural adjustment on soil fertility management is a unique contribution to the field. Combining empirical work with theoretical ...
be one of the most important books published in the final decade of the last century. Winning num... more be one of the most important books published in the final decade of the last century. Winning numerous book awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, it has been translated into over two dozen languages, sold millions of copies worldwide, and has been the subject of a documentary produced by the National Geographic Society and broadcast on PBS. The broad appeal of GGS, as with Diamond’s previous book The Third Chimpanzee (1992) and his more recent book Collapse (2005), can be explained by its powerful and sweeping investigation into environmental history. Undeniably, few other scholarly works have been as comprehensive in scope and as prominent in public recognition. Here, for the 10th anniversary of the original publication of GGS, we review Diamond’s work, highlighting its major strengths, of which there are many, while also presenting
Sociological Theory, 2013
Animals have had a profound influence on human societies, playing a major role in the course of h... more Animals have had a profound influence on human societies, playing a major role in the course of human history. However, their presence and theoretical significance has been overlooked in sociological theory, while being the central concern of the growing field of anthrozoology (the study of the interaction between humans and other animals). To illustrate how a focus on other animal species can improve our understanding of sociocultural evolution, we assess the influential work of Gerhard Lenski and Patrick Nolan and their materialist approach to macrosociology. Animals are largely invisible in Lenski and Nolan’s Ecological-Evolutionary Theory, yet they underlie the key subsistence technologies identified by Lenski and Nolan as crucial for explaining uneven development. By considering the history of domestication, the role animals played in the development of agricultural technology, and the translocation of Eurasian livestock during the colonial era, we show how sociocultural evolut...
Representing a distinct contribution to the tradition of comparative international research in th... more Representing a distinct contribution to the tradition of comparative international research in the environment, this dissertation studies the effects of national economic restructuring programs, implemented under the administration of multilateral development institutions, on the fertilizer intensity, energy intensity, and value efficiency of national commodity agriculture for the period 1980 to 2002. Known as structural adjustment, these conditional loan agreements have been thoroughly studied with respect to various social outcomes but in terms of environment impact, sociological investigation has been limited to case studies and to preliminary quantitative analyses of deforestation. Examining the consequences of structural adjustment on soil fertility management is a unique contribution to the field. Combining empirical work with theoretical explication, I frame the object of study using agrarian systems theory and the concept of societal vmetabolism, examining how the problem of...
Animals have had a profound influence on human societies, playing a major role in the course of h... more Animals have had a profound influence on human societies, playing a major role in the course of human history. However, their presence and theoretical significance has been overlooked in sociological theory, while being the central concern of the growing field of anthrozoology (the study of the interaction between humans and other animals).
Rural Sociology, 2007
The global agro-food system relies heavily on inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers. In addition to c... more The global agro-food system relies heavily on inorganic nitrogenous fertilizers. In addition to consuming enormous amounts of energy, this manufactured input contributes to the accumulation of reactive nitrogen in the biosphere and undermines the biological basis of agricultural production itself. While technological inefficiency and population may play a role in the phenomenon of global nitrogen accumulation, the social structural features of industrial agriculture must also be examined. The concept of social-ecological metabolism provides an important and needed conceptual framework for engaging global food security issues.
Organization & Environment, 2008
Sociological Theory, 2009
We lay the foundations for a critical human ecology (CHE) that combines the strengths of the biop... more We lay the foundations for a critical human ecology (CHE) that combines the strengths of the biophysical human ecology tradition in environmental sociology with those of historical materialism. We show the strengths of a critically informed human ecology by addressing four key meta-theoretical issues: materialist versus idealist approaches in the social sciences, dialectical versus reductionist analyses, the respective importance of historical and ahistorical causal explanations, and the difference between structural and functional interpretations of phenomena. CHE breaks with the idealism of Western Marxism, which dominated academic neo-Marxist thought in the latter half of the 20th century, and advocates instead the pursuit of a materialist, scientific methodology in dialectical perspective for the explanation of social and ecological change. In turn, this project also involves a critique of the ahistorical and functionalist tendencies of traditional human ecology, while sharing human ecology's basic starting point: the ecological embeddedness of human societies.