Matthew R. Sanderson

Opinion: Endogenizing culture in sustainability science research and policy

Integrating the analysis of natural and social systems to achieve sustainability has been an international scientific goal for years (1, 2). However, full integration has proven challenging, especially in regard to the role of culture (3), which is often missing from the complex sustainability equation. To enact policies and practices that can achieve sustainability, researchers and policymakers must do a better job of accounting for culture, difficult though this task may be.

Prediction in a socio-hydrological world

ABSTRACT Water resource management involves public investments with long-ranging impacts that traditional prediction approaches cannot address. These are increasingly being critiqued because (1) there is an absence of feedbacks between water and society; (2) the models are created by domain experts who hand them to decision makers to implement; and (3) they fail to account for global forces on local water resources. Socio-hydrological models that explicitly account for feedbacks between water and society at multiple scales and facilitate stakeholder participation can address these concerns. However, they require a fundamental change in how we think about prediction. We suggest that, in the context of long-range predictions, the goal is not scenarios that present a snapshot of the world at some future date, but rather projection of alternative, plausible and co-evolving trajectories of the socio-hydrological system. This will both yield insights into cause–effect relationships and help stakeholders identify safe or desirable operating space.

Does Immigration Promote Long-Term Economic Development? A Global and Regional Cross-National Analysis, 1965–2005

Immigration is perceived as both boon and bane in host countries. Yet, whether immigration promotes, or undermines, economic development remains an empirical question. Using cross-national data for up to 122 countries, this paper tests whether cumulative immigration flows raise aggregate living standards in the long term. The results strongly support the hypothesis. Immigration, however, is not uniformly beneficial for all countries. A sub-analysis of the Latin American and Caribbean region reveals that immigration is less beneficial in the context of higher fertility rates. The results are discussed in the context of migration research and policy at the national and international levels.

Testing a Global City Hypothesis: An Assessment of Polarization across US Cities

Social polarization is perhaps most evident within the worlds large cities where we can easily observe stark contrasts between wealth and poverty. A “world city” theoretical perspective has emerged that associates large cities’ importance in a global network of cities to the degree of internal polarization within these cities. The research reported here locates 57 large US cities within this world city hierarchy and then empirically examines the hypothesized positive association between global centrality and social polarization using a multivariate, cross–city analysis. The findings are mixed, with some evidence that global centrality increases income polarization, but only in the context of higher levels of immigration. There is no evidence that a citys centrality affects occupational polarization. We conclude by suggesting implications for the world city literature and future research.

Bringing the “social” into sociohydrology: Conservation policy support in the Central Great Plains of Kansas, USA

Identifying means of empirically modeling the human component of a coupled, human-water system becomes critically important to further advances in socio-hydrology. We develop a social-psychological model of environmental decision-making that addresses four key challenges of incorporating social science into integrated models. We use the model to explain preferences for three conservation policies designed to conserve and protect water resources and aquatic ecosystems in the Smoky Hill River Basin, a semi-arid agricultural region in the Central U.S. Great Plains. Further, we compare the models capacity to explain policy preferences among members of two groups in the River Basin: agricultural producers and members of non-farming communities. We find that financial obligation is the strongest and most consistent explanation of support for conservation policies among members of both groups. We also find that policy support is grounded in cultural values- deeply-held ideas about right and wrong. Environmental values are particularly important explanations of policy support. The constellations of values invoked to make decisions about policies, and the social-psychological pathways linking values to policy support, can vary across policies and types of agents (farmers and non-farmers). We discuss the implications of the results for future research in socio-hydrology.

Are world cities also world immigrant cities? An international, cross-city analysis of global centrality and immigration

Systematic research on world cities neglects immigration, despite its significance to world city formation. In this article, we test a foundational, but untested, premise of world cities research: that global centrality in the world urban system is associated with larger, more diverse immigrant populations. Using an international sample of cities, we conduct multivariate regressions of Benton-Short et al.’s Urban Immigrant Index on the Globalization and World City Network measure of advanced producer service firm centrality and two other measures of global urban centrality, controlling for competing explanations of international migration. Our findings reveal that cities that are more central to the network of advanced producer service firms have larger, more diverse immigrant populations than less-central cities. World cities are thus not only key sites for corporate control of the world economy, but they are also central in international flows of immigrant labor, as Sassen hypothesized nearly 30 years ago.

Free trade, food-processing, and migration: An analysis of Mexican immigration in the U.S. Great Plains Region

Abstract This paper empirically identifies the factors driving Mexican immigration into the U.S. Great Plains region, focusing especially on the role of work in the Mexican and U.S. food-processing sectors, which in the context of NAFTA-induced foreign direct investments, opens up paths for migration along occupational lines into the U.S. from Mexico. Using a unique dataset on Mexican migration, the study addresses three related questions in a series of multivariate logistic regression analyses. First, is employment in the U.S. food-processing sector associated with Mexican migration into the Great Plains region? Second, does employment in the Mexican food-processing sector predict employment in the Great Plains food-processing sector? Finally, is the political–economic context linking Mexico and the U.S. related to the formation of occupational channels linking the food-processing sectors in Mexico and the U.S.? The findings demonstrate that the U.S. food-processing sector is a strong predictor of Mexican migration to the Great Plains region; Mexican migration is strongly channeled along occupational lines from Mexico to the U.S.; and the implementation of NAFTA, a period of intensive political–economic integration, strengthens the occupational channel between the food-processing sectors.

Does immigration have a Matthew Effect? A cross-national analysis of international migration and international income inequality, 1960-2005.

This paper empirically assesses how immigration affects international inequality by testing the relationship between immigration and national economic development across countries in different world income groups. A series of cross-national, longitudinal analyses demonstrate that, on average, immigration has a rather small, but positive long-term effect on development levels. However, the findings also indicate that immigration has a Matthew Effect (Merton, 1968) in the world-economy: immigration disproportionately benefits higher-income countries. Moreover, the wealthiest countries reap the largest gains from immigration. Thus, from the perspective of destination countries, immigration does not appear to be a panacea for international inequality. Instead, the results indicate that immigration actually reproduces, and even exacerbates, international inequality.

Virtual water: its implications on agriculture and trade

Water is the basis of life. And, unlike various forms of energy generation, water cannot simply be created where it is needed. Freshwater is remarkably scarce, comprising just 2.5% of the global water supply. Although this water at an annual level may be judged as sufficient for human use, spatio-temporal variations in the availability of freshwater over the globe is a challenge. Growing populations and rising levels of affluence mean increased competition for water, raising vital questions of equity, access, and social justice at the global scale. Water is thus a lens through which to examine an array of vital issues facing humanity and the planet: human and animal health; food production; environmentalmanagement; resource consumption; climate change adaptation and mitigation; economic development, trade and competitiveness; and ethics and consumer trust – to name but a few. The articles here, arising from a workshop supported by the OECD Co-operative Research Programme: Biological Resources Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems, on virtual water, agriculture, and trade at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in September 2016, consider questions of gaps in knowledge, why sustainability matters, and the policy implications of virtual water trade.

Moving socio-hydrologic modelling forward: unpacking hidden assumptions, values and model structure by engaging with stakeholders: reply to “What is the role of the model in socio-hydrology?”

ABSTRACT The arguments presented in Melsen et al. advance ideas in the “Panta Rhei” decade (2013–2022) of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, which focuses on change in hydrology and society. While we reiterate that, despite acknowledged shortcomings, the enterprise of integrating societal feedbacks into hydrological models is beneficial in prediction and adaptive management, we also agree with the sentiments of the authors. In response, we offer concrete steps the socio-hydrologic community can take to educate modellers to become aware about unconscious biases embedded in model structure and clearly communicate assumptions. We stress the need for “knowledge brokers” that can help modellers work with stakeholders, instead of doing everything themselves. We also caution, however, against the danger of over-reaching. Young scholars already pay a big price by having to master both the natural and social sciences. As coupled human–water problems increase in societal importance, along with calls for more holistic thinking, we also need to promote an academic culture that rewards reaching across the aisle.