New Ways to Promote Proenvironmental Behavior: Promoting Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing

Most programs to foster sustainable behavior continue to be based upon modelsof behavior change that psychological research has found to be limited. Although psychology has much to contribute to the design of effective programs to foster sustainable behavior, little attention has been paid to ensuring that psychological knowledge is accessible to those who design environmental programs. This article presents a process, community-based social marketing, that attempts to make psychological knowledge relevant and accessible to theseindividuals. Further, it provides two case studies in which program planners have utilized this approach to deliver their initiatives. Finally, it reflects on the obstacles that exist to incorporating psychological expertise into programs to promote sustainable behavior.     

Instability and caregiving in the lives of street‐involved youth from foster care

A large proportion of youth who become street‐involved have experience in foster care, and our sample of 92 street‐involved youth, aged 14–18 years, all had foster care experience. We report on (i) instability of guardians and home from birth to street involvement; (ii) the connection between perceptions about foster care and measures of well‐being; and (iii) the implications of these findings for understanding street‐involved youth and the role of foster care in their life. The average number of transitions per youth from birth to mid‐teens was nine. Youth with experience in permanent care first lived away from biological parents at age 8.5 years, and for those with temporary care experience, it was age 10 years. Foster care was one of many living situations and one of several sources of caregivers. If participants were satisfied with foster care, they were more likely to be currently hopeful and happy. Participants who experienced positive influences from at least one long‐term caregiver tended to have other positive caregiver experiences, and those with negative influences were more likely to also have a positive relationship with a female caregiver. Foster care was one of several ‘way stations’ in their lives, one whose meaning needs further study.     

“Site Fights”: Explaining Opposition to Pipeline Projects in the Developing World1

Fifty years ago, the main challenges to large infrastructure projects were technical or scientific. Today, the greatest hurdles faced by such projects are almost always social and/or political. Whether constructing large dams in the developing world or siting liquefied natural gas terminals in the United States, the onset of these projects often triggers intense popular opposition. But not always, and therein lays the animating aim of this project. We undertake a systematic comparative case analysis of mobilization efforts against 11 oil and gas pipeline projects spanning 16 countries in the developing world. Using theories from the social movement and facility siting literatures and the technique of fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA), we examine the “causal conditions” linked to political and legal opposition to these projects. We find that both Western funding of projects and public consultation serve as necessary political opportunities encouraging mobilization. In addition, not compensating the host country for involvement in the project is linked to mobilization. Finally, some risk from the project, in the form of environmental or social impact, is associated with mobilization; however, this impact does not have to be very significant for mobilization to occur.     

Organizational Uncertainty and Labor Contracts in China's Economic Transition

Lifetime employment was a cornerstone of the Chinese socialist system constructed under Mao. In this system, organizations served the function of social security, and as a result, many organizations were overburdened with bloated work forces and retirees that drew from organizational coffers well into old age. Labor contracts fundamentally alter this system, as they allow firms to end the socialist institution of lifetime employment. Yet there is significant variation on the institutionalization of labor contracts in organizations. Based on a sample of 81 firms in industrial Shanghai, I show that organizations that are experiencing uncertainty in the economic transition are more likely to institutionalize labor contracts on an organizationwide basis. There are two types of organizational uncertainty in the economic transition: economic uncertainty and administrative uncertainty. In cases of economic uncertainty, firms that lost money in 1990 and firms that are burdened by large forces of retired workers are more likely to place their workers on labor contracts. In the case of administrative uncertainty, firms that are at the highest levels of the industrial hierarchy are also significantly more likely to place their workers on labor contracts. Although these upper level firms were the most protected under the command economy, they are being forced to handle the greatest among the responsibilities in the economic transition, and as a result, they experience the greatest sense of being set adrift by the state.     

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