Rebecca L. Schewe

Responding to Climate Change Barriers to Reflexive Modernization in U.S. Agriculture

The authors apply Ulrich Beck’s theory of reflexive modernization to examine how farmers in the United States perceive and respond to climate change. Using a case study, the authors identify diversions from Beck’s original theory and explore the importance of social constructionist and political economy perspectives. The article focuses on corn farmers in southwestern Michigan to examine climate risk recognition and reflexive responses, concentrating on the role of nitrogen fertilizer as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Results from interviews, focus groups, and a mail survey indicate that dualistic worldviews and exposure to limited and/or biased information can inhibit farmers from acknowledging climate change as a risk. In addition, structural barriers inhibit farmers from reducing nitrogen fertilizer application in response to climate change. These findings offer insights applicable to climate change mitigation efforts and also demonstrate the importance of both social constructionist and political economy perspectives to identify barriers to reflexive modernization.

Amenity Migration in the New Global Economy: Current Issues and Research Priorities

Drawing from a panel session held in June 2013 at the 19th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management in Estes Park, CO, this article offers a review of the current state of research on amenity migration and calls for future research to more comprehensively address critical gaps in the literature. We highlight five promising avenues for future research on amenity migration: international patterns—both domestic outside the Global North and across national borders, inequality, interdisciplinary investigations, the importance of policy contexts, and the effects of contemporary social, economic, and demographic factors.

Lakes and Community: The Importance of Natural Landscapes in Social Research

Natural resource sociology emphasizes the importance of analyzing society–environment interactions through the lens of community. Social communities develop structure, character, and culture based in large part on the natural resources present in the proximate geographic area and how they are used. This way of thinking about the world dates back to the origins of natural resource sociology and Kolb’s (1933) study demonstrating that hills and valleys (physical environmental features) affect social relationships (summarized by Field et al. 2002). Following this tradition, the focus of this essay is on the ways in which a biophysical feature (a lake) shapes social interaction. The research in this essay draws much of its context and insight from research, mentorship, professional associations, and data collection initiated by Don Field. Two of the authors were Field’s students and the third benefitted directly from the professional associations, relationships, and research traditions Field fostered. Field’s scholarship focuses on relationships between social and ecological landscapes and how they play out in rural communities. Among his contributions, Field has