Department of Anthropology Speaker Series presents: David Sonnenfeld
Dr. Paul & Natalie Strasser Legacy Room - 220 Eggers Hall
The Maxwell School is a graduate school of social science with a unique multidisciplinary character that cuts across traditional departmental lines. At Maxwell, theory and practice are regarded with equal seriousness: the barriers that divide academic disciplines from one another and from the larger world of public life are routinely breached by the wide-ranging scholarly and educational activities of an outstanding faculty and an exceptionally cosmopolitan student body
In the conventional view, some form of liberal capitalist democracy is deemed necessary for the institutionalization of environmental ideas, organizations, institutions, and practices in contemporary societies. What happens, then, when the setting is a non-Western, industrializing society that lurches back and forth between civilian and military rule? For a dozen years (1993-2006), the 'Land of Smiles' enjoyed a brief, if at times chaotic, civilian rule. Today, Thailand is governed by the military-run 'National Council for Peace and Order'. How have environmental institutions, organizations & issues fared? Must Western-style democracy and environmental reform go hand in hand? These are important concerns not only for Thailand, but also for the many places around the world with 'non-democratic' governments. What are the true prerequisites for environmentalism? and for environmental reform?
Dr. David Sonnenfeld is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Affiliate Faculty member in the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University