1. Two Useful Theories forTwo Useful Theories for
Environmental StudiesEnvironmental Studies
Mike Lehman
HDES
February 8, 2007

2. What Is Theory?What Is Theory?
• In the physical sciences… “cause and
effect”
• In the social sciences… an interpretive
framework
• Transnationalism
• Actor-Network Theory

3. TransnationalismTransnationalism
• Really a theory?
• Maybe…definitely themes
• Akira Iriye, an international historian
• Breaking out of the “key conceptual
frameworks” bounded by nations
• Not international or global history
• “the sum of non-state interactions”

4. TransnationalismTransnationalism
• Addresses “problems whose significance
transcends local boundaries”
• Reminder – the nation is an ideological
construct
• Flows: creeds, capital, ideas, people
• What happens when people can
communicate easily, ideally without
mediation?

5. Compression of Space and TimeCompression of Space and Time

6. The Transnational EnvironmentThe Transnational Environment
• An atmosphere without boundaries
• Rivers and oceans that wash many shores
• Migratory wildlife – no passports
• Travel and migration – legal or not
• Multi-national corporations
• Global technological problems & issues
• Non-governmental organizations

7. The possibility of global destructionThe possibility of global destruction
• William Cronon – the “Age of Ecology”
began on July 16, 1945
(Nature’s Economy, 342)

8. Transnational ThemesTransnational Themes
• Biodiversity
• Genetically modified organisms
• Sustainable development
• Fisheries
• Air pollution
• Climate change
• United Fruit
• Greenpeace

9. Actor-Network Theory (ANT)Actor-Network Theory (ANT)
• Sociology of science and technology
(early 1980s at CSI, Paris)
• Bruno Latour, John Law, & Michel Callon
• French post-structuralism grounded in
English science and technology studies
• Original focus: large technical systems
• Questions the origins of power and
organization
• Expanded to other disciplines, ca. 1990

10. ANT per Michel CallonANT per Michel Callon
• Translation – defining the network
Problematization – what needs solution?
Interessement – negotiating involvement
Enrolment – actors accept roles
Mobilization – active support by actors

11. Other Features of ANTOther Features of ANT
• Generalized symmetry – differences
generated by network of relations,
not inherent power of any actor
• Society as “patterned networks of
heterogeneous materials” (Law, 1992)
• Thus, human and non-human actors, such
as animals, machines, chemicals, fallout…
are all actants in networks of generalized
symmetry

12. The “black box”The “black box”
• Actants can also be the “sum of other
actors,” i.e. a “black box,” e.g. automobiles
• When things break, or the “black box”
quits functioning, it must be opened up so
that the assumptions it contains can be
examined, analyzed, repaired, or replaced
• Obvious applications for study of human
dimensions of environmental systems

13. The Consumption JunctionThe Consumption Junction
• Ruth Schwartz Cohen (in SCTS, 1987)
• In modern consumer-driven economies or
ecologies, the success or failure point of
technology, policy, or environmental
systems, i.e The Consumption Junction
• Seatbelts and airbags
• Steel moldboard plow and the prairie
• CFCs, ozone holes and your fridge
• Just bigger bombs…except for fallout

14. Thank you! Questions?Thank you! Questions?
Works Cited
Google -- Akira Iriye, transnationalism
Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History
Actor-Network Theory @ Wikipedia
netfiles.uiuc.edu/xythoswfs/webui/mlehman/www/TwoTheories