From synthesis to analysis and back again

This is a retrospective view of experiences and events centered around participation in the geography Ph.D program at Clark University in the early 1970s. It traces my career from that of a landscape architect practitioner-teacher to involvement as a graduate student with the Clark resources management group and to current research interests and activities. Two themes are highlighted, the effects of the Clark experience and the continuity of my interest in values, issues and problems related to landscapes.     

Environmental perception: An odyssey of ideas

Convergent interests paved the way for multidisciplinary research in environmental perception and behavior, in which the Clark Group was an important focus. For me that fruitful conjunction began in the mid-1960s, when I taught at Clark and had just embarked on a large-scale assessment of observer responses to urban milieus. Through the early 1970s the Clark Group helped to catalyze perception insights generally and to guide my own work. Emigration to Britain in 1972 distanced me from that ambience and style of inquiry, but the Clark experience continues to inform by perceptual excursions into images of the past.Specific memories of Clark merge with general judgements about the fortunes of environmental perception research. By the early 1970s it was already clear that various drains on scanty human resources in this new field left insufficient concerted attention for theory and synthesis. The 15 years since have seen little fundamental progress. Much research seems narrow in scope, lifeless in tone, and trivial in its conclusions. Exciting advances can be found along a number of peripheries, but the centre seems devoid of spirit.     

The grand fiction of a personal odyssey

This paper describes a personal intellectual transformation that resulted from immersion within the Clark milieu of the early 1970s: a liberation from limitations of exclusive reliance upon a positivist quantitative paradigm in the study of human/environment transactions. The paper traces the genesis, nurturing, and subsequent evolution of a research program oriented toward developing a humanistic perspective on the environmental experience of the elderly. The parallel development of similar research on children (much of it also emanating from Clark) is noted. The paper concludes with advocacy for the development of a humanistic life-cycle perspective on environmental experience that will embrace the ‘hole in the middle’, the span of life between childhood and old age that, to date, has been subjected to limited study.     

A social topography of home and horizon: The misfit, the dutiful, and longing for home

The environmental perception wave at Clark University was already in full swing when Anne Buttimer arrived in Fall 1970 with curiosities about social space, ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, ‘home’ and ‘reach’, from a project on residential area design in Glasgow, Scotland. Lessons learned from the intense interaction between geographers and psychologists were enormously valuable for subsequent work with geography students at Clark during the 1970s. Since then she has worked on temporality and environmental experience, migration and identity, with colleagues in Sweden, and has pursued autobiographically-based approaches to questions of creativity and context and the history of geographic thought and practice. In retrospect, she claims, one of the most valuable results of the perception wave was to provoke awareness of the lenses through which reality is experienced by people in different cultures, and that includes the disciplinary cultures into which researchers themselves are socialized.     

A view from the periphery

The author describes his background and relationship to the behavioral geography revolution at Clark. Key events included the independent invention of ‘turf maps’, the Place Perception Project of Blaut, Stea and McCleary, and the synergy of an exceptional cluster of faculty and students. The influence of the revolution on the author's own research has resulted in a radical redirection of effort toward applied research on children's environmental behavior, geographic learning, and participatory design methods in particular.     

In the midst of change

It is characteristic to be in the midst of change and not to recognize it. In retrospect 1970–72 at Clark University presaged a successful universalization of environmental perception, but it was a high point rather than a beginning in pursuit of the higher aspirations of the then-fledgling field. These aspirations—to solve practical problems, to develop a common methodology, to bridge the disciplines, and to develop or revise a theory—have never been fully realized. Widely accepted today, environmental perception and behavior mirrors the everyday differences within and between disciplines and thus is divided by theoretical ideology, substantive focus and views as to what constitutes data. As with the individual disciplines, I have successfully integrated environmental perception into my own work, moving it from the exceptional to the everyday, and with some regret, from the magic of 1970–72 to the science of today.     

The origins of environment and behavior at clark: Recollections from pre- and neonatal life

This paper provides an account of developments and events in the Departments of Geography and Psychology at Clark University during the 1960s that led up the establishment at Clark of a flourishing, though largely informal program of graduate training and research in environment-and-behavior, involving close collaboration among members of these two departments. The paper concludes with some reflections on the structural problems besetting the development of new interdisciplinary programs at the graduate level, such as the field of environment-and-behavior appears to call for. The history of the experience at Clark (as at other institutions), it is suggested, points to more informal devices and arrangements that do not explicitly challenge the established disciplinary order as more likely to be crowned with success.     

A pragmatic environmental psychology: A metatheoretical inquiry into the work of M. Powell Lawton

Environmental psychology is a field of such great diversity—in topics of interest, research approaches, in disciplinarity—that it often appears to lack coherence, exemplified by its poor fit within paradigmatic frameworks found in academic psychology, resulting in its “outlier” status. This paper explores the work of the environmental gerontologist M. Powell Lawton, as an exemplar of environmental psychology research, suggesting that such a review renders greater insight into the current state of the field than any top-down applied conceptual framework. Themes discussed include Lawton's theoretical perspective on the person, the environment, and the relationship between them, his inquiry at various units of analysis; the type of knowledge valued as evidenced in his work; and his fundamental applied orientation, all of which are reflective of contemporary directions within environmental psychology as a whole. Reviewed is Lawton's final proposal that takes an “epistemologically inclusive” approach, embodying all of the themes above and reflective of inquiry sought within pragmatic psychology. As such, it is argued that environmental psychology may find great affinity with the pragmatic psychology approach currently gaining impetus within applied and clinical psychology.     

The impact of some specific air pollutants on agricultural productivity

Summary Unplanned discharges of atmospheric pollutants influenced by intense industrialisation, the population explosion and urbanisation result in injury and damage. The intensity and nature of the damage is a function of the concentration of the pollutant and the duration of exposure (dose). This has immediate (acute) and long (chronic) effects on the quantity and quality of agricultural products.Based on the properties of these pollutants, the resulting effects on the receptor may cause biochemical and physiological modifications at the cellular level as well as whole plant, animal and ecosystem alterations. These may cause significant changes in agricultural output.Mr E.M. Shaibu—Imodagbe is Vice—Principal and a lecturer at the Samaru College of Agriculture, of Ahmadu Bello University. He holds a Master's degree in Pollution and Environmental Control from the University of Manchester, UK, and his research special interests are in pollution damage and environmental quality.     

From NIMBY to enlightened resistance: a framework proposal to decrypt land-use disputes based on a landfill opposition case in France

Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) supporters are presented as citizens in opposition to local developments due to their spatial proximity. However, these conflicts have proven much more complex than the NIMBY concept can explain. The objective of this paper is to provide a framework to facilitate the understanding of opposition movements and how they can affect society at large, triggering social change. The conceptual framework is applied to a case of local opposition to a landfill project in Essonne, France. Through the analysis of the structure of the opposition movement and its changes over time, the author shows how it can evolve into a social movement that enriches democracy through the constitution of four types of capital: social, scientific, patrimonial and political. The author argues that scientific and patrimonial capitals allow social capital to evolve into political capital. The shift from being a self-interest to a civic interest movement is called enlightened resistance, which reveals local public interest, called territorial interests. When studying environmental controversies, the author emphasises the importance of recognizing the evolution through time of (1) social landscape, (2) different types of legitimate knowledge, (3) the role of place attachment, and (4) the political dimension of identities.     

Mining and development: Are they compatible in South America?

Taking issue with the view that mining as an activity is necessarily beneficial to Third World countries, the author examines experience in South America. Possible non-beneficial aspects of mining in a developing country include its high capital intensiveness — when capital is liable to be scarce and unemployment high — and the potential for small but powerful groups, such as miners, to exercise a disproportionate influence on the political and economic life of the country. Furthermore, working conditions in many South American mines are extremely poor. Ways must be found to develop mining techniques more appropriate to developing countries.     

‘El Gallo''s’ Last Flight for Jeremy Anderson: In Memoriam

The ‘Clark Phenomenon’ began in 1966 with two major events: the publication of a special number of the Journal of Social Issues with the (now admittedly sexist) title of ‘Man's Response to the Physical Environment’, and the arrival of Jim Blaut on campus. This watershed year, just two decades ago, also may have marked the transition from infancy to adolescence of the reborn field of ‘environmental cognition’. This article traces these early middle years of environmental cognition and its related emphases at Clark, the leadership of certain members of the faculty of the Graduate School of Geography in bringing the new field to full flower, the spinoffs and inevitable reactive forces, and the application of environmental cognition to problems of intercultural communication on environmental issues of an international scope. Such application is a later reflection of the social and political consciousness of the 1960s, the concern to relate environmental psychology to what was taking place in the U.S.A. and in the ‘emerging’ nations of the so-called developing world. In all of this, the Clark influence was, and remains, relevant.     

WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST1

ABSTRACT. The water resources manager, concerned with providing for citizen needs for water in all its varied aspects, is obliged to consider the public interest in his decision making. But the public interest, although inferring the superiority of public over purely private interests, is more of a concept of political ethics than an operational objective. Recent attacks on water resources developments place in question just how responsive the water resources manager has been to the public at large during the planning process. The recent broadening of planning objectives beyond economic efficiency to include greater attention to social goals is an encouraging development. Efforts should be expanded toward greater citizen participation and more attention should be given to sampling surveys to determine citizen attitudes on water resources proposals. In the last analysis, the decision-making process must combine the expertise of the water resources manager and the participation of the people through the political process.     

An exploration of place as a process: The case of Jackson Hole, WY

A variety of theoretical positions and frameworks have been advanced to account for how places become “places”—in other words, how places become meaningful. Most existing frameworks share the idea that a place is a complex concept, given life by people attaching meaning to a physical setting in a variety of ways. This paper explores how places evolve as ever-shifting points of meaning that mark changes in people's lives in response to a variety of influences. Data collected from in-depth personal interviews in and around Jackson, Wyoming, are used to explore the conceptualization of place as a process, rather than a static entity. Three key themes or dimensions that were frequently described by interviewees are examined: (1) life stage/course, (2) searching for a feeling, and (3) commitment to a place. Not only did some respondents describe what made places important to them (the components, such as social ties, or favorite activities), they also described how these attributes worked together to create and maintain place meanings over the course of their lives. During the interviews, it was noted that these dimensions and processes were expressed explicitly as well as implicitly.     

Emergent aspects of environment: A creative challenge

Summary Our environmental situation continues to decline faster than ever. This is demonstrated by, the growing spread of pollution of both the water and atmospheric systems, erosion of topsoil, tropical deforestation, desertification, mass extinction of species, depletion of the ozone layer, and climatic dislocations. Compounding the impact of these problems is growth in human numbers in developing countries, together with the associated factor of extensive poverty. The author asks why our environmental situation should continue to decline, despite a remarkable outburst of awareness on the part of the general public and its political leaders since the time of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. The author concludes that the problem does not lie with inadequate effort, rather with misdirected effort: we persist in tackling the symptoms of problems, rather than the problems themselves, let alone the sources of the problems. The paper broaches these issues within a context of fast-growing interdependence among the community of nations — both economic and ecological interdependence — which presents yet more problems, but also raises many opportunities for creative action.Professor Norman Myers is a consultant in environment and development. He has worked since 1970 on the general subject area of environment and natural resources, with emphasis on species, gene reservoirs and tropical forests. He was undertaken this consultancy work for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, US National Academy of Sciences, the World Bank, OECD, the Smithsonian Institution, UN agencies, World Resources Institute, US National Research Council and IUCN, among other organizations. His main professional interest lies with resource relationships between the developed and developing worlds.Among his recent publications areThe Sinking Ark (Pergamon Press, Oxford and New York, 1979);Conversion of Tropical Moist Forests (National Research Council, Washington D.C., 1980);A Wealth of Wild Species (Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1983);The Primary Source (W. W. Norton, New York, 1984); andThe Gaia Atlas of Planet Management (Doubleday, New York, and Pan Books, London, 1985).Norman Myers is an Advisory Board Member and regular contributor toThe Environmentalist.     

Ecological,ethological, and ethically sound environments for animals: Toward symbiosis

There are inconsistencies in the treatment and attitudes of human beings to animals and much confusion in thinking about what are appropriate conditions for using and keeping animals. This article outlines some of these considerations and then proposes guidelines for designing animal management systems. In the first place, the global and local ecological effects of all animal management systems must be considered and an environment designed that will not rock the biospherical boat. The main points to consider are the interrelatedness of living things with each other and the environment, the self-sustaining nature of ecosystems, and the importance of diversity in the stability and maintenance of ecosystems. These can and should be taken into account when assessing animal management. They are illustrated by examples of companion/urban dogs, as well as farm, zoo, and circus animals. The environment must also be considered from the point of view of the ethological needs of the animals. There are two possible approaches to this: (1) the reductionist approach, illustrated by the choice experimental tests; and (2) a holistic, evolutionist approach that concentrates on the degree of behavioral restriction and the identification of distress. The assessment of an animal's ethological needs, and thus the ethological soundness of an environment, must take into account the species needs (communication system, species-specific characteristics of the brain receptors and cognition) and the individual's needs (his past experience). The behavioral effects of domestication and how distress can be assessed are discussed. Different ethical positions toward animals and their treatment are briefly outlined, and it is argued that, provided animals are in ecologically and ethologically sound environments, their use by human beings is ethically acceptable. The animal-human association should be characterized by symbiosis—mutual benefit—rather than a parasitic or exploitative relationship—employer to employee, rather than master to slave.     

Choosing restorative environments across the lifespan: A matter of place experience

Past research on restorativeness has emphasized mainly the potential of natural environments. In our hypothesis, built environments are also likely to be recognized as restorative places. In this study, focusing on restorative experiences more than on environments alone, attention is drawn on the relative importance of the four restorative components proposed by “attention restoration theory”—being-away, extent, fascination, compatibility—in leisure experiences of people at different stages of the lifespan, and on the characterization of these experiences in terms of relaxation and excitement. We also take account of the time available for restoration and the context in which the need for restoration may emerge, according to three models of the relationships between work and leisure: spill-over, compensation and segmentation. Results show that natural and built environments can have different restorative potentials in relation to the stage of the lifespan and to the time available for restoration; moreover, in people's perception, the four restorative components differ from each other in their relative importance. The social and affective dimensions came out as important features of restorative experiences. Finally, relaxation and excitement in leisure patterns were shown to be differentially related to work characteristics. Briefly, restorativeness emerged as the result of a global “place experience”.     

Place perception in perspective

This paper describes the Place Perception Project, a research program at Clark University and other institutions which studied place (macro-environmental) learning and behavior of children aged 3 to 9 years in several cultures. It was found that place learning displays marked differences from other forms of learning in children and that map-like spatial cognition is observable at the age of 3. The findings proved useful in elementary education and other applications.     

Oil seeds industry emissions: A case study

Summary This study assessed the contribution of an oil seed industry to the organic loadings of an urban atmosphere, so that more realistic strategies can be developed to control such pollution. Emission measurements suggest that fatty acids, aldehydes and solvent related hydrocarbons are emitted in amounts comparable to or even exceeding anthropogenic organics. Technological options for controlling emissions in the context of the local situation with the data presented are discussed.Paolo Battistoni was born in Ancona, Italy in 1951 and received a degree in chemistry in 1974 at Bologna University. He started his activity at Ancona University where he is a permanent professor of waste water treatments. His research interests have centered on monitoring of organics in ambient air and waste streams and method developments in these areas.Gabriele L. Fava was born near Bologna, Italy in 1945 and received his degree in chemistry from the University of Bologna in 1972. He started his research activity at Ancona University where he is a permanent professor of pollution and environmental control. He has spent research terms at the Iowa State University, USA in 1976 and 1979. His main interest is in the environmental behaviour of toxic substances through physicochemical profiles.