Mountain Scholar :: Browsing by Author "Malin, Stephanie, committee member"

Browsing by Author "Malin, Stephanie, committee member"

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Beliefs, ideologies, contexts and climate change: the role of human values and political orientations in western European and transition states
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Smith, E. Keith, author; Hempel, Lynn M., advisor; Lacy, Michael G., committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member; Hastings, Orestes P., committee member; Braunstein, Elissa, committee member
Anthropogenic climate change presents a threat on a scale unlike any other faced by human civilizations. Accordingly, extensive research has engaged with questions about which types of characteristics and under which conditions make it more or less likely for a person to be concerned about climate change, engage in actions aimed at fighting climate change, and support climate change relevant policies. Of this prior research, political factors and human values have emerged as key predictors. Values and political factors are deeply related constructs, and do not operate in isolation of each other. But, as of yet, little is known about how these factors interrelate to affect differences in climate change attitudes and behaviors. Further, contextual factors, such as political structures, affluence, and prior histories, have been linked to climate change attitudes and behaviors. Recent findings have noted stark differences between key predictors in Western European and post-communist transition states, such as those between political factors and human values. But, it is unclear in which ways these contextual differences systematically differentiate the patterning of climate change attitudes and behaviors. Accordingly, this dissertation engages theoretically and empirically with the issues of how human values and political factors interrelate to determine climate change attitudes and behaviors, and how these forces diverge based upon the Western European and transition state settings. Overall, when values and politics are in alignment, these forces affect an amplification of climate change attitudes and behaviors, a finding consistent in both settings. But, the role of human values and political factors substantively differs between these state groupings, as well as across different forms of climate change attitudes and behaviors.
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China and transparency norm development in global extractives governance
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Park, Hyeyoon, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Harris, Pete, committee member; Duffy, Robert, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member
Growing global demand for extractive resources, such as metals and minerals, particularly to produce low-carbon products, requires international society to develop effective global governance mechanisms to mitigate some of the environmentally and socially negative impacts of mining operations beyond national borders. Since early 2000, several transnational extractive governance initiatives (TEGI) have been established, and these initiatives commonly emphasize a transparency norm to cope with these new global challenges. At the same time, the influence of Chinese actors in global extractive sectors has been increasing along with China's rapid economic growth and rising natural resources demands. Notably, Chinese actors have started engaging in TEGIs and recently appear to take a more active role in global extractives governance. This dissertation examines whether China is a norm-taker or a norm-maker in transparency norm development processes of global extractives governance to understand this new phenomenon. In addition, this research seeks to answer under what conditions China is a norm-taker or a norm-maker and how power matters in transparency norm development. To date, there has been limited research on transnational extractives governance as an independent governance architecture within the system of global environmental governance. In addition, few International Relations (IR) and global governance scholars have examined China's normative role in global governance. In particular, there is a lack of understanding of China's normative role in "re-shaping" existing norms in global governance. This dissertation aims to fill the gaps in existing scholarship. By applying Acharya's (2018) norm-circulation model emphasizing two-way socialization processes, this dissertation find that Chinese actors take a global transparency norm, localize the norm based on China's local context, then universalize the localized transparency norm at the global level. Based on qualitative document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and process-tracing, this research includes a mapping exercise of 48 TEGIs and a case study of the Responsible Cobalt Initiative (RCI), a TEGI established by China in 2016 to improve the responsibility of upstream and downstream companies in the cobalt supply chain. The major findings show that Chinese actors act as both a norm-taker and a norm-maker. The mapping analysis shows that they more actively participate in TEGIs emphasizing a thin transparency norm that lacks the disclosure of information about decision-making processes to the public, the presence of an independent third-party auditor in monitoring processes, or the disclosure of the verification information to the public. The RCI case study reveals that the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemical Importers and Exporters (CCCMC) acted as a local idea-shifter by localizing a global transparency norm and developing Chinese versions of transparency guidelines. CCCMC is trying to universalize their locally constituted norm at the transnational level through the RCI. China's role in facilitating a thin transparency norm could lead to green- or white-washing of extractive companies, given the less stringent characteristics of a thin transparency norm. I argue that CCCMC's efforts to universalize the localized Chinese version of transparency is based on their institutional and structural power supported by the Chinese government's sponsorship and its close ties with powerful business actors. These findings, notably, suggest that power facilitates or constrains agency of certain groups of actors seeking to play a norm-maker's role, particularly in a universalization process in Acharya's norm-circulation model. These findings resonate with realist constructivists' understanding of world politics, emphasizing both norms and power, beyond the fragmented paradigmatic debates in IR between realists and constructivists. Collectively, this dissertation contributes to the broader debates in IR and Global Environmental Politics about the rise of China in global governance, global norm development, and legitimacy and accountability of global environmental governance.
Open Access
Demand management' and injustice in rural agricultural irrigation in western Colorado: an anatomy of ambivalence
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) MacIlroy, Kelsea E., author; Hempel, Lynn, advisor; Carolan, Michael, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member; Kampf, Stephanie, committee member
The Colorado River is overdrawn. Decisions made a century ago created an institutional framework allowing overuse while climate change has exacerbated it with increasing temperatures and reduced natural flows. 'Demand management', a key component of the 2019 Upper Basin Drought Contingency Plans, would utilize water conserved from consumptive use to create a 500,000 acre-foot storage pool, only used to protect the Upper Basin of the Colorado River in the event they were unable to meet water delivery obligation to the Lower Basin. Rural irrigators on Colorado's West Slope would be the prime contributors to such a program, but largely responded with ambivalence. Increasingly, collaborative water governance is cited as the best way to create change in water distribution. However, if rural irrigators respond with ambivalence, why would they participate voluntarily in such a program? Using a grounded theory approach, interviews and focus groups with 45 participants, and participant observation, I explore why rural irrigators were ambivalent towards a program that would, ostensibly, protect them in times of water shortage. Drawing from the concept of sociological ambivalence and the literatures of water justice, hydrosocial analysis, and rurality, I describe the symbolic and material landscape that shapes perceptions of 'demand management'. I argue irrigators were ambivalent because they understood the need for water conservation, but they also perceived injustice in terms of distribution, recognition, and representation. Since rural irrigators are the linchpin in any water conservation program that would address overuse in the Colorado River Basin, their perceptions of injustice must be addressed. Findings provide key insight into water governance as it relates to crafting effective water policy.
Open Access
Environmental security: a source of legitimacy and contestation in global environmental governance
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Liebenguth, Julianne, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Harris, Peter, committee member; Macdonald, Bradley, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member
Environmental security is an increasingly popular concept though which various actors seek to understand and articulate the urgency, risks, and vulnerabilities associated with dangerous socio-environmental changes. Such urgent shifts include rising temperatures, droughts, floods, intensifying weather-related disasters, land-use changes, and the expansion of exploitative and extractive practices, all of which can be said to pose significant dangers to a vast range of political communities and systems under the broader rubric of environmental security. The consequences of turning to the logic of security, however, are heavily debated among those who both espouse and reject this conceptual linkage. Thus, this dissertation seeks to dig deeper into the ways security is conceptualized, leveraged, and contested across certain domains of global environmental politics. Specifically, I contribute three empirical studies that each employ critical discourse analysis to highlight distinct connections between the environment and security as they emerge across different state and non-state actors, including governments, IGOs, NGOs, TNCs, and resistance movements. I focus on the Food, Energy, Water (FEW) security nexus as an over-arching arena of global environmental politics in which such actors frequently draw upon securitized language to describe environmental problems and their potential solutions. I find that 1) elite actors including state representatives, NGOs, and IGOs designing the FEW security nexus agenda position scarcity as the main threat and private sector actors as key agents of environmental security; 2) environmental security is leveraged in unique ways as a source of legitimacy by TNCs operating across the FEW nexus; and 3) resistance movements can generate contradictory and alternative visions of environmental security and legitimacy that challenge prevailing and unequal systems of governance. I conclude that the emergence of the FEW security nexus as global development paradigm presents a particularly important opportunity to interrogate processes and performative implications of securitization (both oppressive and emancipatory), build upon alternative, bottom-up visions of environmental security, and reflect upon the changing role of the state in relation to both security and global environmental politics more broadly.
Open Access
Growing diverse co-operative networks?: an examination of boundaries and openings to resilient food futures
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Hale, James W., author; Carolan, Michael, advisor; Hempel, Lynn, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member; McIvor, David, committee member
Efforts to improve connections between people, food, agriculture, and the environment abound – Community Supported Agriculture, land-sharing, school and community gardens – just to name a few. Yet, the ability of groups to work together on such projects, and pull the resources that help them thrive, varies. This is the focal point of this dissertation. Drawing on extensive field work, this research examines how food and agriculture co-operative networks diversify their resources. Through a series of papers, I demonstrate: 1) that the importance of such inquiry lies in a relational approach to resilience thinking which views resilience as the imminent potential of networks to enact diverse resources. Assuming that diversity and equity play a vital role in fueling adaptation and transformation, I pay particular attention to the socio-cultural values and interactions which create openings and boundaries to more diverse network performance. 2) Honing in on the role of frames and framing processes in community development activities, I demonstrate the vital role of cultural and symbolic values in shaping co-operative network resource access. As symbolic power becomes more concentrated, diverse resources becomes more difficult to enact. For example, the more a utilitarian frame shapes co-op member engagement, the more this can limit boundaries and openings to cultural diversity and bridging social capital. My research suggests that while sustained dialog around co-op values can help networks adapt and access more resources, it also requires additional resources which may take away from other activities. 3) While co-operation the verb is often assumed in the co-operative organizational form, my research suggests that co-operative efforts can be unco-operative in practice. By adopting an egalitarian view of co-operation, I show that decision-making can often be exclusionary, that leadership can reproduce socio-cultural inequities, and that the emotional work necessary to co-operative relationships can sometimes limit membership recruitment and engagement.
Unknown
Immigration detention and the treadmill of production: a cycle of ecological and social disorganization
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Hagan, Alexander, author; Mao, KuoRay, advisor; Malin, Stephanie, committee member; Hausermann, Heidi, committee member
Conflict and group-threat theorists consistently debate what causes threat perception towards out-groups like migrants. These back-and-forth analyses focus on economic versus cultural reasoning. However, they often ignore the environmental context and political-economic structures influencing public perception. To complicate and scale these theories, this study relies on ecological degradation, characterized by Superfund sites, to determine how it influences the local economy and public perception of immigrants. Nearly one-third of United States prisons are within 3 miles of a Superfund site. Though the existing literature has pointed to the relationship between prison siting and ecological disorganization, the proximity of the immigration detention facility (IDF) to environmental harm has not been included in the broader toxic prison scholarship. This study first finds that nearly half of IDFs are located within 10 miles of a Superfund site. Next, regressing facility proximity data on county-level economic and social conditions helps understand the likelihood of their proximity to a Superfund site. A percentage point increase in a county's unemployment rate in 2017 compared to 1990 is associated with an 8 percent decrease in distance between an IDF and Superfund NPL site. Counties with a lower percentage of White Americans tend to have IDFs situated closer to Superfund NPL sites. If IDFs are treated as locally undesirable land uses (LULUs), their development relies on establishing sites of acceptance or Please in My Backyard (PIMBY) movements towards these facilities. This study finds that PIMPY movements towards immigration detention facilities near Superfund sites are motivated more by economic precarity than perceived cultural threat. This aligns with the motivation of the citizen/worker actor in the Treadmill of Production and Law (ToP/ToL) theory. The other actors within treadmill theory include corporations and the state. To test if these actors and the relationships between them apply to immigration detention, a secondary analysis is conducted to determine the association between these corporations' annual revenue and their political campaign and lobbying expenditures. Using data from 2015 to 2020, the two largest private prison and detention corporations, CoreCivic and GEO Group annual revenue and revenue from federal contracts share strong positive correlations with their political and lobbying spending. Though treadmill theory has traditionally been reserved for environmental crime, laws, and enforcement, this study shows that incarceration and detention policies are constructed by state, corporate, and labor actors to maintain accumulation and influence threat. Immigration detention is used to reestablish the state's legitimacy through the allure of jobs in areas harmed by environmental crimes and economic precarity. These associations further reveal the cyclical relationship between ecological and social disorganization in counties harmed by environmental degradation in the United States.
Unknown
Mississippi prisons as sites of environmental injustice: extreme heat, social death, and the state
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Luzbetak, Austin, author; Opsal, Tara, advisor; Mao, KuoRay, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member; Jacobi, Tobi, committee member
Expanding on existing literature which understands incarcerated people as victims of environmental injustice and states as complicit actors in the production or allowance of environmental harm, I explore how incarcerated people in Mississippi experience extreme heat and how the state of Mississippi manages heat in state carceral facilities. I answer these questions by drawing on data from letter correspondence with people in three state prisons in Mississippi, as well as conducting critical policy analysis on relevant Mississippi laws, policy documents, and Department of Corrections reports. My findings from correspondence show that extreme heat amplifies the experience of "social death" already endemic to incarceration. More specifically, extreme heat intensifies incarcerated peoples' experiences of social disconnection and isolation, humiliation, and loss of sense of self, all of which produce social death. Moreover, state law and Mississippi Department of Corrections policy do not adequately protect incarcerated people from extreme heat, which I characterize as a state-green crime of omission. Instead, my findings from critical policy analysis demonstrate how the state of Mississippi is centrally focused on turning people in prison into laborers to maintain the state's carceral arm and provide benefits to counties, municipalities, and state agencies. I argue that these data have profound implications not only for environmental justice researchers and green criminologists, but more broadly for all who are interested in the project of prison abolition.
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Risk, place and oil and gas policy preferences among Coloradoans
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Mayer, Adam, author; Shelley, Tara O'Connor, advisor; Malin, Stephanie, committee member; Lacy, Mike, committee member; Loomis, John, committee member
Unconventional oil and gas extraction, primarily via hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), has changed the energy landscape in the United States. The policy regime currently governing fracking is a complex patchwork in which state regulators have the primary authority. Social scientists have thoroughly documented general beliefs and risk perceptions related to fracking there is a lack of policy-related research. This dissertation examined public policy preferences for fracking regulation using a survey data from a statewide sample of Coloradoans. Theoretically, it was hypothesized that policy support hinged upon factors like risk perceptions, benefit perceptions, place attachment, community economic identity and political ideology. Overall, risk perceptions and political ideology emerged as relatively consistent and powerful predictors of support for unconventional oil and gas regulatory policy. On the other hand, several possible predictors had little to no role. Benefit perceptions had little effect on any policy dependent variable. Further, community economic identity and place attachment played very little role. I discuss policy implications and directions for future research.
Open Access
The "power" of coal: the US Diplomatic Coal Regime under the current global environmental discourse
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Batty, Evan, author; Taylor, Peter, advisor; Mahoney, Pat, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member; Stevis, Dimitris, committee member
Considering the scientific consensus that anthropogenic forces intensify climate change, addressing this "wicked" problem requires international cooperation to mitigate disastrous future global impacts. The increasing rate of international treaties and agreements focused on addressing climate change emphasize sustainable development as the global discourse for the environment. This thesis describes the global discourse, or more specifically a global environmental regulatory regime, as it emerges from the annual meetings of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change parties. Although it has been argued that these Conferences of Parties lack the enforcement mechanisms needed to directly affect the environmental regulations of nation-states, I argue that the international discourse on sustainable development has an indirect effect on state sovereignty, specifically related to domestic energy development and the US coal industry. In an effort to highlight this point, I discuss the alignment of recent attempts at environmental regulation in the United States related to the coal industry to the global environmental discourse.
Open Access
Three essays in social economics: social perspectives on international environmental agreements and space tourism
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Houston, Mimi, author; Pena, Anita Alves, advisor; Fremstad, Anders, committee member; Bernasek, Alexandra, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member
The social realm is an important locus of insight to understand economic behavior. Social economics recognizes that behavior is a "result of complex social interactions with ethical consequences" (ASE, 2023), that not only informs theory, but also broadens the available policy space. Most importantly, it allows for ethical values to enter the study of economics, giving space for considerations such as equity and justice that are inextricably interrelated to economic phenomena and policy outcomes. One area of study where this interdependence is especially pertinent is in the literature exploring country behavior in global environmental negotiations. The transboundary nature of many environmental issues, especially climate change, warrants international cooperation in the form of international environmental agreements (IEAs). In the field of economics, theoretical models of IEA formation (mostly in the for of non-cooperative game theory) suggest that IEAs should be few and far between. However, the post WWII era, especially the last few decades of the 20th Century, have seen a rapid increase in the number of IEAs ratified and entered into force. In the 1990s alone, over 300 IEAs were signed, and since the turn of the twenty-first century, almost 400 new IEAs have been signed. Empirical work has emerged looking to explain why countries sign and ratify IEAs. Chapter 1 expands and contributes to this body of work by taking a closer look at how international ties, in the form of intergovernmental organization membership, formal alliances, and diplomatic exchanges, affect countries' propensity to sign an IEA and by exploring cross- disciplinary theories on the role of socialization in influencing this behavior. Data is compiled from Mitchell's IEA Database along with Correlates of War Project data on the abovementioned international relations metrics. A negative binomial model is fit to a panel of the count of IEA signatures from 151 countries over the years 1960-2005. Results suggest that global relations matter in countries' IEA signature behavior—with intergovernmental organization membership and diplomatic exchanges increasing the number of signatures, while formal (military) alliances have a negative effect. Looking to inform the theoretical side of the economics of IEAs, Chapter 2 takes a feminist epistemological perspective to critique and expand this area of study. Feminist philosophy, namely feminist standpoint epistemology, points to the epistemic effects of social stratification and highlights the influence of Western, masculinist ideals on the economic study of IEAs and the policy space that it informs. It points to the possible role of geopolitical power relations that favor the global North and their economic and environmental ideologies. As a poignant and timely example, the history of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is used to demonstrate these points. To conclude and move us "toward a feminist foundation of the economics of IEAs," this chapter explores how feminist philosophy and economics offers a more expansive framework to understand country behavior and power relations in this context. Such approaches allow for salient ethical considerations, like equity and justice, that are increasingly recognized as inextricable from environmental policymaking today. The final chapter pivots from the discussion of IEAs toward consideration of expanded worldviews associated with the planet as our environment. This chapter explores a unique set of data from the newly established space tourism market. Specifically, it seeks to learn more about potential positive externalities associated with a changed worldview that astronauts reportedly experience. Using "citizen astronaut" data from nonprofit Space for Humanity's 2019 application round for a sponsored trip to space, this chapter employs a probit model to explore the influence of demographics on the propensity for citizen astronauts to choose environmental aims as their focus for humanitarian work. It is shown that there are complex correlations between region, age, and gender that affect these altruistic aims. The topics explored in this dissertation work together to exemplify the relevance of the social sphere in economics studies. By empirically establishing that global social relations matter (Chapter 1), to exploring how feminist philosophy helps to understand these relationships (Chapter 2), and lastly, by examining prosocial motivations in the space tourism market (Chapter 3), this dissertation represents a key contribution to their respective literatures and to social economics as whole.

Browsing by Author "Malin, Stephanie, committee member"

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