Scholarly Works, Sociology

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Research articles, presentations, and other scholarship

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Browsing Scholarly Works, Sociology by Author "Bell, Shannon E."

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    Building Interdisciplinary Partnerships for Community-Engaged Environmental Health Research in Appalachian Virginia
    Satterwhite, Emily M.; Bell, Shannon E.; Marr, Linsey C.; Thompson, Christopher K.; Prussin, Aaron J. II; Buttling, Lauren G.; Pan, Jin; Gohlke, Julia M. (MDPI, 2020-03-05)
    This article describes a collaboration among a group of university faculty, undergraduate students, local governments, local residents, and U.S. Army staff to address long-standing concerns about the environmental health effects of an Army ammunition plant. The authors describe community-responsive scientific pilot studies that examined potential environmental contamination and a related undergraduate research course that documented residents’ concerns, contextualized those concerns, and developed recommendations. We make a case for the value of resource-intensive university–community partnerships that promote the production of knowledge through collaborations across disciplinary paradigms (natural/physical sciences, social sciences, health sciences, and humanities) in response to questions raised by local residents. Our experience also suggests that enacting this type of research through a university class may help promote researchers’ adoption of “epistemological pluralism”, and thereby facilitate the movement of a study from being “multidisciplinary” to “transdisciplinary”.
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    Environmental Injustice and the Pursuit of a Post-Carbon World: The Unintended Consequences of the Clean Air Act as a Cautionary Tale for Solar Energy Development
    Bell, Shannon E. (Brooklyn Law School, 2017-01-01)
    The combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) and, to a lesser extent, changes in land cover, have led to a rise in greenhouse gasses (GHG) in the atmosphere and an increase in global average surface temperatures.¹ This human-induced warming is causing dramatic changes in the climate that are manifesting in numerous ways throughout the world, including an intensification of storms, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, salt-water intrusion of fresh-water aquifers, more frequent and extreme floods, droughts, and heat waves, changes in the range and occurrence of certain infectious diseases, declines in agricultural productivity, and social upheaval resulting from competition for scarce resources.² Arguably, the transition to a post-carbon³ world is urgent, but thus far little progress has been made toward curbing carbon emissions in the United States and globally.⁴ Even the recent Paris Accord—which was lauded as a “historic breakthrough” and “landmark” climate deal⁵—falls far short of what many scientists argue is needed to limit the rise in global temperatures to a safe level. While the Paris Negotiations yielded an agreement to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels” and to “pursu[e] efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C,”⁶ the emission cuts in the agreement are voluntary pledges made by governments and do not actually come close to achieving the 1.5-degree, or even the 2-degree, goal.⁷ The limited outcomes of the Paris Accord should not indicate a lack of grassroots support for effective international policy aimed at addressing climate change, however. On the eve of the Paris Negotiations, over 750,000 people from more than 175 countries took to the streets in what was collectively called the Global Climate March.⁸ Their message to world leaders was a demand to leave “fossil fuels in the ground and [to] finance a just transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050.”⁹ Protests have continued since the Paris Negotiations, such as the “Break Free” demonstrations organized by 350.org during May 2016 that again urged leaders across the world to “break free” from fossil fuels and to make a shift to one hundred percent renewable energy.¹⁰ But what does that transition look like? Many argue that well-designed environmental regulations have the potential to engender technological innovation.¹¹ But can technological fixes really provide a sustainable future for all of us?
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    Pipelines and Power: Psychological Distress, Political Alienation, and the Breakdown of Environmental Justice in Government Agencies’ Public Participation Processes
    Bell, Shannon E.; Hughes, Michael; Tuttle, Grace; Chisholm, Russell; Gerus, Stephen; Mullins, Danielle R.; Baller, Cameron; Scarff, Kelly; Spector, Rachel; Nalamalapu, Denali (Elsevier, 2024-01-25)
    Environmental health research has demonstrated that living near industrial activity is associated with increased stress, depressive symptoms, and feelings of powerlessness. Little is known, however, about the effects of new natural gas pipelines—or the institutional processes dictating their approval and construction—on the mental health of local residents. Through our analysis of a mail survey, an online survey, and a set of semi-structured interviews, we examine how engagement with public participation processes associated with new interstate natural gas pipelines affects mental health. Our results suggest that the public participation opportunities offered by regulatory agencies during the pipeline certification process are primarily performative, and we find that many of the people who have taken part in these performative public input opportunities experience psychological distress, stress-activated physical health effects, and a loss of trust in government institutions. We argue that when people engage in public participation processes that have little or no effect on agency decision-making, it not only disempowers, but can harm those individuals and erode their trust in government institutions. Furthermore, we contend that providing the public with participation opportunities that are merely performative, with little ability to influence decision-making outcomes, is a violation of both procedural and recognition justice, two of the core tenets of environmental justice.
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    Resistance, Acceptance, and Quiescence: The Role of Social Networks in Predicting Responses to a New Natural Gas Pipeline
    Bell, Shannon E.; Gerus, Stephen; Mullins, Danielle R.; Hughes, Michael D. (Mary Ann Liebert, 2022-04-28)
    As a wide body of social movements scholarship demonstrates, inaction in the face of environmental injustice is far more frequent than mobilization. Using the case of the Mountain Valley Pipeline – a highly controversial natural gas pipeline that has been under construction through the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia and West Virginia since 2018 – we ask: what conditions predict whether a person who has experienced negative quality-of-life impacts from this pipeline will take action or resign themselves to quiescence? Through our analysis of responses to a 92-question survey questionnaire that our team mailed to residents living in ten of the counties through which the Mountain Valley Pipeline is being constructed, we find that the most powerful predictors of quiescence are variables related to social networks. Among respondents reporting negative quality-of-life impacts from the pipeline, those with neighbors supporting the pipeline were nine times more likely to be quiescent, and those who were not sure how their neighbors felt about the pipeline were five times more likely to be quiescent. Likewise, those who had joined a social media group focused on stopping the pipeline were nine times more likely to take part in resistance actions than those who had not. We situate our findings within existing scholarship on social movements, which points to the centrality of social networks for predicting social movement participation and quiescence, while also adding nuance to discussions of neoliberalism and sites of acceptance.