( SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL)

Volume 46/ Number 1 / March 1992

Environmentalism and the Poor The ecology of survival

by Juan Martfnez-Alier and Eric Hershberg*

Increasing public en itivity to the global ramification of environmental change in Latin America and other "Third World" region has led many social cienti ts to tudy the cau e of environmental degradation in poor countrie and to formulate trategie for encour­aging "su tainable development." De pite good intention, however, the e efforts have commonly failed, as methods of natural re ource management derived from the social and climatic condition of the North have proven to be poorly suited to the natural conditions and cultural norms of the region into which they are introduced. Partly in re ponse to thi experi­ence, re earchers are beginning to explore the potential of locally generated approaches to environmental management, including program that deploy "indige­nous technical knowledge," to advancing the goals of su tainable development. 1

At the same time, highly publicized cases of ecological activism acro s much of the Third World, from the rubber tappers in Brazil to the Chipko movement in India, in which women ha~e bound them elve to trees to protect the fore t from de truc­tion by government and commercial agencie , have further stimulated interest in alternative approache to environmental issues. Until recently, "green politics" was commonly understood as characteri tic of the political land cape in the wealthy ocietie of North

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

economic hard hip wa said to have enabled quality of life i ue to displace purely economic conflicts as the chief factor motivating collective political action. 2

Neverthele s, the increa ing prominence of environ­mental activi m in "developing regions" ha moti­vated scholars to focus greater attention on the way

• Juan Manfnez-A1ier i profe r of economic and economic hi tory at the Universidad Aut6noma de Barcelona. Eric Hershberg, a political scienti t, serve as taff to the Joint Committee on Latin American Studie (JCLAS).

Thi anicle synthe ize the preliminary work of an SSRC research group whose members include, in addition to Mr. Manfnez-Alier, Bina Agarwal , Institute of Economic Growth, University Enclave (New Delhi); Peter Brimblecombe, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia; Ramachandra Guha, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (New Delhi); Paul Richards , Department of Anthropology, University College (London); Lori Ann Thrupp, World Resource In titute (W hing­ton, D.C.); Victor Toledo, Centro de Ecologfa, Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de M~xico; and Stefano Varese , Native American Studie , University of California, Davi . Enrique Mayer, University of lIIinoi , Urbana-Champaign, a member of the JCLAS, i an advisor to the group.

I See Paul Richards, Indig~nous Agricultural Rtvolulion: Ecology and Food Production in WtSI Africa (London: Hutchinson, 1985); Victor Toledo, "The Ecological Rationality of Peasant Production" (in M. Altieri and S. Hecht , cds., Agrotcology and Small Farm Dtv~lopfMnt .

Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Pre ,1989); and Lori Ann Thrupp, " Legiti· mizing Local Knowledge: From Di placement to Empowerment for Third World People" (Agricultur~ and Human Valu~s , February 1990).

2 Ronald Inglehan, Th~ SiI~nt R~volution . Princeton University Pre , 1977.

CONTENTS OF Tm S ISSUE Environrnentali m and the Poor, Native American Research ,

Juan Mart(nt,·Alitr and Eric David L. Ftath~rman HtrshlNrg Current Activitie at the

The Near and Middle East Council Research and Training Act, Comparative and Tran na· Sttvtn Htyd~mann 6 tional Seed Grants

Reconstructing the Hi tory of New Project on European Imperial Rus ia, Jant Integration Burbank 9 Recent Council Publications

10

11

II

13 14

America and We tern Europe, where an ab ence of r:o.~~;--------------------

in which poor peoples' movements may articulate grievances of an ecological nature. 3 Indeed, whereas protest by subordinate groups has been. analyzed conventionally in terms of discrepancies rooted in social cla ,gender, property owner hip, or ethnicity, a growing literature is attempting to conceptualize such activity as involving conflicts over access to natural re ources and patterns of natural re ource exploitation.

This emerging area of research takes on the challenge of synthesizing the insights of social historians and those of environmental historians.4

Social historians have expended a great deal of theoretical and empirical energy tudying the origins, articulations, ideologies, and forms of re olution of two generic kinds of ocio-economic conf1jcts - those over cultivated land and its produce (peasants vs. the state, landlords vs. peasants and agricultural laborers), and those within the factory (workers vs. capitalists, capitalists vs. the state). At the root of the environ­mental debate is a third kind of socio-economic tension-over nature and natural resource. Although we know much about the first two kinds of conf1jct, that is not yet the case with the third kind. And while conf1jcts over land and labor raise que tions of economic efficiency and social justice, environmental conf1jct highlights the (potentially prior) dimension of the sustainability of different technologies, ideologies, and in titutions, as well as the question of ocial justice.

Exploring avenues for comparative research

In an effort to increase understanding of the ecological component of popular social movements in the Third World, and to assess their potential impact on the environment, the Joint Committee on

J Examples include Ramachandra Guha, Th~ Unquiet Woods: Ecologi­cal Change and P~asant Resistance in tM Himalaya (Berkeley: University of California Pre . , 1989; and Delhi: Oxford University Pre ,also 1989); and Juan Martlnez-Alier, "Ecology and the Poor: A Neglected Dimension of Latin American Hi tory" (Journal of Latin A1Mrican Studies, vol. 23, pan 3, October 1991).

4 For panicularly influential examples of the writings of environmental hi torians, see Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe (Cambridge University Pres , 1986); Donald Worster, Th~ Ends oftM Earth: Persptcliv~s on Modern Enviro~ntal History (Cambridge, 1989); and William Cronon, Chang~s in th~ Land: Indians, Colonists and th~ Ecology of N~w England (New York: Hill and Wang, 1983). A useful survey of the field is Worster, "Transformation of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in Hi tory" (Journal of AlMrican History, 76:1087-1106, 1990).

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Latin American Studies (JCLAS) convened a workshop at Nuffield College, Oxford, in March 1991, on the topic of "The Environmentalism of the Poor." Participants at the meeting, which was supported by a seed grant from the President's Fund for Comparative and Transnational Research, included scholar with regional expertise on Latin America, Africa, and South Asia.5

In focusing on the interactions between popular social movements, ecological perception, and environmental change, the meeting at Nuffield sought to accomplish several goals. First, the JCLAS wanted to explore whether an interdisciplinary group of social and natural cientists could arrive at some general propositions about the "environmentalism of the poor." Secondly, the committee hoped to determine whether research in this area could contribute significantly to our understanding of popular social movements and of the potential for such movements to advance alternatives to practices that cause environmental degradation. Finally, a third aim of the meeting was to explore the possibility of establishing a working group that would analyze ecological movements in comparative and historical perspective and propose theoretical categories with which to understand the interaction between popular social movements and the environment.

An informal working group was established soon after the workshop, and with support of a seed grant from the MacArthur Foundation's Collaborative Research Program, a team of eight scholars, co­chaired by Juan Martinez-Alier and Ramachandra Guha and working closely with both the JCLAS and Council staff, has begun to elaborate an agenda for research on "Environmentalism and the Poor." The remainder of this article outlines some of the central ideas that have emerged from the group's ongoing discussions. We conclude by suggesting some of the most promising areas for future research.

Popular social movements, the environment, and "the poor"

An initial challenge for the group has been to

5 In addition to members of the research group mentioned earlier, participants included William Beinart, University of Dri tol; Richard Grove, Churchill College (Cambridge); Andrew Hurrell, Nuffield College (Oxford); Ravi Rajan, Wolfson College (Oxford); Mahc h Rangarajan, Nuffield College; Ka Keng Tan, Churchill College; Meg Vaughan, Nuffield College; Laurence Whitehead, Nuffield College and member of the JCLAS; and Donald Worster, University of Kansas.

VOLUME 46, NUMBER 1

elaborate a framework for identifying the ecological components of popular mobilizations which ocial hi torian have often defined in term of more conventional forms of social conflict. Clearly, ecologically based popular movement can arise in respon e to a wide range of concerns. They may emphasize the defense of traditional method of re ource exploitation (and the diverse cultural practice and knowledge as ociated with them) in the face of challenge from "modernizing" force; the pre ervation of local control over the allocation of natural re ources; or the threat to traditional mean of ub i tence po ed by the pread of ecologically

un ound technologies and pattern of re ource u e. They may imply prote t the deterioration in living conditions brought about by environmental contami­nation-e.g., air pollution.

Yet the forms the e movements take is molded not only by pecific grievance but by hi torical and ocial context. While in orne case outright collec­

tive action may occur, in others the expre ions of re i tance are more "everyday" and implicit in the action of the poor.6 Thu , the African mallholder who resi ts the introduction of Green Revolution technologies is operating within a model of ecological su tainability at odds with that of the modernized exten ion agent or agrochemical ale man. The farmer's re i tance, rather than being "un cientific" or "con ervative," may in tead be based on indige­nou technical knowledge better uited to a pecific ocial and ecological niche. 7

A econd major ta k ha been to conceptualize the poorly understood relation hip of poverty to environ­mental degradation and u tainability. The Bruntland Report (1987) identified poverty as a major cau e of environmental degradation, and advocated economic growth as a remedy to poverty, and thu to environ­mental degradation. Obviou ly, poverty does con titute a hazard to the environment, as when pea ants are forced to eat the eed of next year' crop, thereby turning a renewable re ource into an exhau tible one, or when poor people u e the last remaining tree for cooking fuel. A imilar situation obtain in the ca e of ecological damage wrought by

6 See Jame Scott, Wtapons oftht Wtak (Vale University Pre ,1986); and Guha, op. cit.

7 Example of worts which look riously t the contribution of local or indigenou knowledge include Richards , Thropp, and Toledo, op. cit.

• Bina Agarwal, Cold Htanhs and Barrtn Slopts (Londoo: Zed Pre 1986).

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urban dwellers who e in ufficient upply of water prevents them from developing adequate sewage y tern.

The e circum tance sugge t, however, that the cau e of environmental degradation lie not in poverty per e but in the deeply rooted socio­economic and political inequitie which poverty reflects. Thus, popular movements that seek to overturn relation of political domination and economic extraction which are perceived to cau e poverty may al 0 be understood to be truggle for ound environmental management. Ecological

movements uch a the Chipko tree-huggers in India, the rubber tapper of Brazil, or mobilization again t large dam by potentially di placed peoples, may be a urvival imperative for the poor, who e existence is

not being a ured by the market economy or by the welfare tate. Recent work in ecological economic ugge ts that such movements may even force capital

(or the tate) to "internalize" orne economic externalitie (e.g. oil ero ion, defore tation, water pollution), bringing monetary co ts clo er to ocial co t .9 In 0 doing, they may contribute to ecological u tainability in way that have been largely over­

looked to date. Thu , a central hypothe i of the working group i

that many pa t and pre ent popular movement can be een through ecological eyeglas e , whatever the

idiom in which claim to the ecological requirements of life (energy, water, living pace, health) were or are expre ed. Moreover, to the extent that the generalized market and/or tate control over re ource implie a logic of hort time horizon and externaliza­tion of environmental co t , the poor, by demanding acce to re ource from large- cale entrepreneurs and/or the tate, may imultaneou ly contribute to the con ervation of re ource . Thu , the ecology of survival can lead the poor toward environmental con ervation, often in elf-con ciou ways which are expre ed not in the language of cientific ecology but in local idiom -e.g., through appeal to religiou belief . Thi interpretation call into que tion much of the conventional environmental wi dom ba ed on the notion of "tragedy of the common ," which conflate open acce and communal control, and which ee in privatization and market bargaining over externalitie a route toward improved re ource management.

9 For an elaboration of the ide ,see Martlnez-Alier, op. cit.

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To the extent that alternative modes of ecological perception are advanced explicitly or implicitly by the poor, it i imperative to pecify preci ely what is actually meant by "the poor." Above all, "poor" people are tho e who have been affected adver ely by the expan ion of the global capitali t economy over the la t centurie , or tho e who lack sufficient re ource or the entitlement which would allow them to atisfy their need in the generalized market y tern. Yet the "poor" are al 0 tho e who are

deprived of political power in ide the tate structure which have expanded a a con equence of proce e of modernization. Finally, being "poor" entail an ab ence of acce s to in titutionalized scientific knowledge. The "poor" are not university trained, and becau e their own knowledge i derided as non- cientific, they eldom exerci e influence over the technological application of cience.

Of course, "the poor" hould not be considered as a homogeneous category. Precariou economic circum tance and the pre ure of the global political economy often lead the poor to exploit their natural urroundings, and each other, in ways that undermine u tainability and dimini h pro peet for solidari tic

collective action. This point i illu trated by the way in which gender is as ociated with the division of labor at the hou ehold level and acce to natural re ource at the community level. Difference in the material condition of men and women, variation in opportunitie for different ethnic group , and a myriad of other factors will inevitably hape perception of the environment and the character of re pon e to ecological is ue .

An agenda for comparative research

Growing ensitivity to the global ramification of ecological i ues, to the environmental components of ocial movements in a variety of hi tori cal and

regional ettings, and to the potential contribution of popular environmental knowledge for trategies of u tainable development, has 0 far failed to generate

a common theoretical framework for understanding the environmentalism of the poor. Nor have we developed a conceptual approach through which to understand the impact of uch movements on the natural environment it elf. Comparative and interdi -ciplinary re earch is nece ary to e tablish common theoretical understandings that will permit generaliza-tions, acro patial and hi torical boundaries, about

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the complex relationships between ecological con ciousness, popular movements, and environmen­tal change.

By studying social conflict over nature and natural resources in everal regions of India, Latin America, and Africa, and by analyzing perceptions of the environment in diverse parts of the world during different historical periods, participants in the working group hope to contribute to the debate about alternative approaches to ecological issues. The following paragraphs illu trate some of the theme and case studies that the group plans to explore comparatively during the coming years:

• Environmental Ideologies. Ramachandra Guha and Paul Richards will tudy the emergence of di tinctive approache to natural re ource manage­ment, particularly concerning fore t con ervation, in South Asia and We t Africa, re peetively. While local re pon es to deforestation and other forms of re ource depletion are commonly een as defensive reactions by the poor, the e inquiries will emphasize the ways in which locally rooted environmental ideologies may offer u eful in ight for efforts to forge more sustainable development strategies. The re earch is especially concerned with identifying way in which indigenou understandings of natural re ource management may interact with practice introduced by colonial authorities and international actors to forge alternative, ynthetic approaches to re ource conservation.

• Agrarian Transformation and Ecological Conflict. Related considerations influence the research of Lori Ann Thrupp, on the use of pesticides in several countries of Central and South America, and of Victor Toledo, on agro-ecology movements in contemporary Mexico. This work focuses on societies in which the tran ition to export-oriented agriculture has proceeded without adequate consideration of its environmental su tainability, and in which rural ocial movements articulate ecological grievances with increasing frequency. The concerns of the e notewor­thy but understudied movements range from the health consequence for agrarian workers of extensive pe ticide u e, to the impact of commercialized cultivation on natural re ource diversity. Thrupp and Toledo will explore the origins, cope, and character­i tic of these movements, as well as the factors that explain their differing degree of success.

• Socio-ecological Histories. Environmental degradation often elicits little or no apparent re is-

VOLUME 46, NUMBER 1

tance from affected populations. To better understand why this is so, Peter Brirnblecombe will study changing attitudes toward air pollution in colonial and contemporary India. This work, which will build on Brimblecombe's previous histories of air pollution in major European cities, concentrates on how people become aware of environmental degradation and how the distribution of its effects conditions public responses to contamination. Similarly, Juan Martfnez­Alier's socio-ecological history of the Peruvian Andes seeks not only to identify cases of popular resistance to environmental degradation, but also to explain why ecological movements apparently did not emerge to protest the depletion of essential renewable resource because of overexploitation (e.g., the case of guano for export).

• Ethnicity, Gender, and Responses to Environmen­tal Change. Drawing upon a series of contemporary

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and historical case studies from everal region of the Amazon basin, Stefano Varese will explore the connections between ethnic conflict and truggle over ecological is ues. While this re earch aim to discover ecological dimensions of ocial movements that are often interpreted in terms of ethnic division , it is also expected to highlight a critical factor that may impede the poor from responding collectively to environmental threats. Similarly, Bina Agarwal will analyze the ways in which the impact on the poor of particular types of ecological degradation, and thus the range of potential re pon es to environmental change, varies according to gender. By focu ing on the distinctive po itions of women and men in the division of labor within poor hou eholds, and the resulting difference in environmental perception , thi re earch will examine another fundamental ource of tension among the poor them elves.

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The Near and Middle East Research and Training Act Background and current status

by Steven Heydemann*

In July 1991, the Senate Foreign Relations Commit­tee authorized the creation of a new program to fund a broad range of re earch and training activitie on the Near and Middle East. The program, titled "the Near and Middle East Re earch and Training Act" (NMERTA), wa sub equently authorized by the Congre s as part of the State Department Authoriza­tion Bill. The NMERTA has been authorized at a level of $3.0 million/year, and while many hurdle remain to be overcome before this program becomes a reality (notably, it till remain to be appropriated), the Congres ' action con titute a major step forward in efforts to ecure the pas age of the NMERTA, and hold out real hope for a long overdue increase in the level of federal re ource available to cholars and peciali ts on the Middle Ea t. This report offers a

brief review of the NMERTA, its background, and legi lative prospects. It al 0 de cribe how the act i organized and the range of activitie it is intended to upport.

The immediate origin of the NMERTA can be traced to the Social Science Re earch Council. Its ucce thus far, however, i largely a reflection of

current circumstance . Such a program has long been needed and has been di cu ed informally for everal years. However, it i unlikely that it would (almo t) exi t today were it not for Iraq' invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War, and the po twar Arab-I raeli diplo­matic process. The attention the e events have focused on the Middle Ea t have helped crystallize concern about the importance of understanding the region, and reaffmned the need to expand the academic training and basic research programs currently available. Ju t a importantly, they have created an opportunity to mobilize Congressional

• Steven Heydemann. a polilical scienli I, serve taft' sociate 10

the Joinl Committee on the Near and Middle Easl, the Committee on ln~rnationaJ Peace and Security, and the Joinl Committee on the Compar­IJve Study of Muslim Societie . An earlier version of !hi article ppeared in the November 1991 MESA. Newsletter publi bed by the

University of Arizona, Tuc n.

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upport for expanded federal funding for cholarly research on the Middle East.

Evolution of the Act

At its March 1991 meeting, the SSRC's Joint Committee on the Near and Middle East agreed to pursue this opportunity, and to initiate efforts to create a federal program of re earch and training on the region. The committee adopted as a model the exi ting and highly ucce ful Soviet-Eastern European Research and Training Act of 1983, al 0

known as the Title vrn program. In fact, the language adopted by the committee for the NMERTA i e entially identical to the language of the Title vm program. Having Title vm available as a model, and as an example of an effective area studies program, greatly facilitated the work of the Middle East committee in persuading those in Washington of the viability of the NMERTA.

The committee' effort to ecure pas age of the NMERTA got under way in the pring of 1991, relatively late in terms of the Congress' legislative calendar. The House of Repre entatives Committee on Foreign Affairs had already completed initial work on its version of the bill authorizing the activitie of the Department of State. Nonetheless, the SSRC' initiative was in time to persuade the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to add the Act as an amendment to its version of the State Department Authorization Bill. The language ubmitted to the Foreign Relation Committee by the SSRC' Joint Committee on the Near and Middle East was accepted with no signifi­cant changes, and was eventually added as part of the fmal Senate version of the bill.

In the subsequent House-Senate conference to reconcile their versions of the State Department Authorization bill, the NMERTA was accepted by both sides, though with orne changes. Most impor­tant, the administration of the program was shifted from the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (in January 1992 the e became separate bureau ) to the United States Information Agency Bureau of Educational and Cultural Program . At this time, it is not expected that this shift will affect the administration of the NMERTA.

A number of people de erve important credit for their work on behalf of the NMERTA, particularly Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and his legislative

VOLUME 46, NUMBER 1

aide for foreign policy, Andrew K. Semmel. Without their upport the program would have remained imply a good idea.

Provisions

The NMERTA identifies a number of activities as crucial to the "development and maintenance of knowledge about the countrie of the Near and Middle East." The e include graduate training; advanced training; public di emination of research data, methods, and fmdings; contact and collaboration among government and private peciali ts; language training; and frrsthand experience of Middle Eastern countrie by American speciali ts, including on-site conduct of advanced training and re earch to the extent practicable.

The Act requires that funds be allocated to support a national re earch program at the postdoctoral level: for graduate, postdoctoral, and teaching fellow hip for advanced training in Near and Middle Eastern studie and related studie ; for fellow hip and re earch support for American peciali ts in the fields of Near and Middle Ea tern studies and related tudie to conduct advanced re earch with particular

empha i upon the u e of data on the countries of the Near and Middle East; to conduct eminar, confer­ence , and other work hop de igned to facilitate re earch collaboration between government and private peciali ts in the field of Near and Middle Eastern tudies and related field ; to conduct pecial­ized programs in advanced training and re earch on a reciprocal basis in the countrie of the Near and Middle East, designed to facilitate acce s for American pecialists to re earch in titutes, personnel, archives, documentation, and other re earch and training re ources located in the countrie of the Near and Middle Ea t; to upport training in the language and dialect of the Near and Middle East; and to upport "other research and training in Near and

Middle Ea tern Studies not otherwi e de cribed" in the Act.

Thi is an enormously broad and flexible mandate, opening up a huge realm of activitie for upport from NMERTA funds. Moreover, the Act is notable for the ab ence of re triction it impo e on cholar and tudent of the region: it i entirely unre tricted with regard to academic di cipline, the topic which can be funded, the countrie in the region which can serve as focu of research, and the language for

MAR H 1992

which training fund may be ought. The inclu ion of language in the Act referring to "related tudie" mean that NMERTA fund may be u ed for re earch on topic which include the Middle East as a central focu but extend beyond it, uch as re earch on the Hajj; on transnational religiou movements; on the effects of transformation in Central A ia on the Middle East; on labor migration within the region, as well as the migration of labor to the Middle East and from it; on the foreign policie of external actors in the region; and comparative tudie in which Middle Eastern countrie erve as central case .

How awards will be made

In addition, the Act i tructured to en ure that propo al for re earch and training are evaluated independently and on the ba i of cholarly criteria. In place of a direct proce through which cholars would apply to and be evaluated by a federal agency, NMERTA funds will be awarded on a competitive basi to "national organization with an intere t and experti e in conducting re earch and training concern­ing the countries of the Near and Middle East and in di eminating the re ults of uch re earch." In titu­tion which "emphasize the development of a table, long-term research program," and which demon trate the capacity to carry out a national re earch competi­tion on a peer-review basi , will receive priority in funding deci ion . The e organization will be re pon ible for developing re earch and training program to which both individual cholars and other in titution may apply, and for developing peer­review evaluation procedure to award fund .

Program developed by the SSRC's Joint Commit­tee on Soviet Studie , u ing Title vm fund , offer a general illu tration of the activitie which might be upported by the NMERTA. The Soviet Studie

committee currently provide general fellow hip for re earch and training in Ru ian, Soviet, and Ea t European tudie at both the predoctoral and the po tdoctoral level; upport for re earch and develop­ment initiatives in Soviet tudie; grant for ummer language in titute for Ru ian and non-Ru ian language of the territory of the former Soviet Union; grants for ummer Ru ian language in titute ; fellow hip for frrst year Ph.D. tudents in underrep­re ented field in Soviet tudie; a program to alleviate backlog in Soviet and East European collection in U.S. librarie ; and a ummer work hop

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in underrepre ented field in Soviet Studie , targeting ociology and anthropology. Obviou ly, the pecific

Middle Ea t program which might be created with NMERT A fund will not duplicate tho e mentioned here, but will reflect the pecific priorities and need of the Middle East tudie community.

The NMERT A ha the potential to dramatically trengthen the tudy of the Middle East in the United

State. However, a noted at the out et, many ob tacle remain before the NMERTA become a

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reality. Not urprisingly, the mo t important ha to do with money. The Act has now been authorized by Congre . The Joint Committee on the Near and Middle East and other supporters of the Act are now directing their effort towards ensuring that the NMERTA is appropriated in FY1993. There are no guarantee that the e efforts will be successful. If they are, it i po ible that the first cycle of program upported by NMERT A will be in place in the fall of

1993.

VOLUME 46, NUMB Ell 1

Reconstructing the History of Imperial Russia by Jane Burbank*

Braving a snowstorm and a computer breakdown at O'Hare airport, 16 historians and one political scientist gathered on the campus of the University of Iowa on November 1-3, 1991 to di cuss future initiatives directed toward revitalizing the study of imperial Russia. The workshop, ho ted by Steven Hoch, University of Iowa, and supported by grants from the Social Science Re earch Council and the Center for International and Comparative Studies at the University of Iowa, focu ed both on speculative discussion of new directions in historical re earch and on practical plans for expanding scholarly endeavor in the imperial field. The workshop organizers, who are members of SSRC's Joint Committee on Soviet Studies (JCSS), ** will be drawing up proposals for two workshop-conferences on imperial Ru ian history to be held over the next two years and are receiving suggestions for participants and topics. The following is a brief summary of the issues and topics considered at the Iowa workshop.

The call from the SSRC's Joint Committee on Soviet Studies to revitalize and expand attention to imperial Russia was raised well before the disintegra­tion of the Soviet Union and stems in part from the recognition that while such initiative as the JCSS's National Seminar in 20th Century Rus ian and Soviet History have been very successful in stimulating research in the post-1917 period, the imperial period has not been a prominent area of graduate training and interest in recent years. Workshop participant agreed that the imperial field in the United States had not attracted new people in sufficient number , but they differed over the nature, extent, and causes of any "crisis" in the field. On the po itive side, all participants shared a strong confidence in new possibilities for reconceptualization and empirical

• Jane Burbank is a hi torian at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a member of the Joint Committee on Soviet Studie . An abridged version of this article appears in the March 1992 i ue of the Newslm~r of the American A sociation for the Advancement of Slavic Studies .

.. Nancy Shields Kollmann, Stanford University; Richart Stile , Georgetown University; Reginald Zelnik, University of California, Berkeley; and the author.

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research opened up in part by changes in acce to archival and human resource in the Soviet Union and its succes or states, but al 0 by changes in thinking about hi tory in the We tern academy.

In the 14 papers prepared for the work hop and in di cussions that included contributions from two non-Russianists, participants raised three kind of sugge tions for new approaches. First, participants thought that con tructive reconceptualization entailed a re-evaluation of the basic framework for doing imperial Rus ian history and a direct engagement with que tions of comparison, chronology, area, and theory. Should Russia be compared with Europe or with other region of the world? Are the conventional chronological boundarie of the period defensible and u eful? How can the history of the empire be repre ented without e entializing its parts? Are conventional paradigm too dependent on explaining the revolution of 1917 or other teleologie ? Partici­pants generally agreed upon the particular neglect of the 18th and early 19th centurie , and di agreed about the value of compari on with or integration into We tern European history.

A econd area of concern was the history of culture. A number of participants put culture at the center of future tudies, but always with an expansive notion of the term. As Isabel Hull (Cornell Univer­sity), a peciali t on the history of imperial Germany, commented, studies of culture reveal tensions and conflict and do not imply "community" as a benign construction. Among the directions propo ed along these lines were microhi torie of localities; inve tiga­tions of the interrelationship of state, "high," national/ethnic, revolutionary, and popular cultures; the examination of institution as cultural construc­tions; and attention to imperial ideology and its relation to political culture. Sarah Berry (The Johns Hopkins University), an economic historian of Africa, pointed out with the support of everal participants that the emphasis on culture should not obfu cate economic proces es, since acce s to material re­sources is critical to the construction of ocial and national identities.

The third area of discus ion concerned the integration of different perspectives into a more complex history of the imperial period. Explorations of fluctuating identitie replaced clearly delimited categories of opposition (state vs. society, primordial ethnicities) as productive approaches to understanding the empire. The continuities of some values over time

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and acro ocial group , as weU as the hi torical con truction of imperial and national identitie , were raised as topics for exploration.

The workshop concluded with plan to apply for support for two workshop-conference focu ed on ongoing re earch on imperial Ru sia. Among the

goal of the e meeting are inclu ion of new participants at each workshop, particularly graduate students and cholars working outside the United States; provision of a forum for new intellectual ap­proaches; and participation of hi torians of other regions.

Native American Research

While ethnohistorian and cultural anthropolo-gi ts are providing new in ight into Native American culture during the colonial period, comparatively fewer ociologists, political cienti t , economi t , and related ocial cientists currently are tudying change within contemporary American Indian communitie (ee Chronicle of Higher Education, January 15, 1992). In mid-February over a dozen Native American ocial scienti ts, humani ts, and mu eum and library directors were invited to a meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico to advise the Council on future initiative that might promote greater ocial cience attention to contemporary dynamic , as weU a to the complex history of Native communitie and people .

Cochaired by Gary Sandefur and Matt Snipp, both of the University of Wiscon in, Madi on, and ho ted by Alphon 0 Ortiz, University of New Mexico and former SSRC board member, the advi ory panel identified everal opportunitie and chaUenges. For example, the tudy of Native American ' adaptation to colonization and re i tance to it; the study of the epidemiological, demographic, and cultural effects of European contact; of ongoing ocial movements that promote revitalization of Indian and tribal identitie ; the synergy between contemporary economic development, tribal politic , and governance y tern within mall (Indian) nation -all the e can be framed within a comparative approach. That i , the e very is ue of re pon e to colonialization, ethnic and tribal identitie in (re)building culture and nation, and the contingencie between economic and political change are under inve tigation in Ea tern and Central

10\ ITEMS

Europe, Southea t Asia, and other region . American ocial science has overlooked the e proce se as they

occur domestically, within Indian nations and tribal communities and among Native peoples resident in urbanized areas. Incorporating Native American ca es into an international, cro -culturally comparative approach could enrich ocial cience theory and al 0

would deepen our understanding of American society and hi tory. It al 0 would make the study of Native American culture , societie , and hi storie Ie s marginal to the main tream of academe.

The mo t ignificant challenge identified at the meeting focu ed on the recruitment of additional Native American into higher education (not only the tribal college but al 0 the four-year coUege and re earch universitie ); the difficulties and opportunity co t (to individuals, to tribal communitie ) of motivating college-educated youth toward u tained careers in academic cience, and of integrating younger Indian cholars and cienti ts into influential intellectual network . The e human re ource i sue are important in their own right, but they al 0

repre ent important target for re earch. The e and other i sue , including opportunitie for

the Council to as ist in building a regionalized North American network integrating Native American re earch center and tribal college or its role in strengthening the nascent Native American Studie A ociation, will be pre ented and di cu ed at the June meeting of the SSRC board of director.

-David L. Featherman SSRC President

VOLUME 46, NUMBER 1

Current Activities at the Council

Comparative and Transnational Seed Grants

Ten seed grants for compara­tive and transnational re earch projects have been awarded in response to a request for propo -als issued in September 1991. The RFP was sent to members of Council committee and recent recipients of postdoctoral fellowships administered by the Council and/or the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Seventy-three propo als were submitted. The 10 projects were cho en by the presidents of the SSRC (David L. Featherman) and the ACLS (Stanley N. Katz) , with the assistance of an advisory panel of cholars and the professional staffs of the two Councils. The intent of the grants is to promote cross-area collabo­ration in the initiation of promis­ing new comparative and/or transnational research projects.

Five of the e awards are made po sible by grants from the Ford Foundation in support of the development of the Councils' joint international programs. The other five, which bear on broadly defined issues of peace and security, draw on funds made available by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Founda­tion through its support of the Council's program on Interna­tional Peace and Security (IPS). The awards are designated as "General" or "IPS."

• Comparative Political and Economic Liberalization: $15,000 (IPS). In partial support of a conference and follow-up activities to study the proce e of

MARCH 1992

economic liberalization and democratization in countries of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet empire, Africa, and Latin America. The project will focus on efforts to explicate and a es competing model of the relation­ship between development of market and political liberaliza­tion. Project leaders: Michael Watts, Pearl-Alice Marsh, and Beverly Crawford, all of the University of California, Berke­ley. Project staff: Eric Hershberg, SSRC.

• Comprehending State Sovereignty: $15,000 (IPS). In support of two meeting on the meaning of sovereignty from both an international relations and a comparative perspective, in an effort to explore whether con­structive ways of integrating their multiple insights and diver e approaches can be found. The project will examine the meaning and functioning of sovereignty in different historical and geographi­cal locale , focusing on how the concept of overeignty is constructed and reconstructed at critical moments in international history when national boundarie are in flux; ethnic group struggle to form genuine nation-state ; and local practices have far-reaching transnational effects. Project leader: Thomas J. Bier teker, Univer ity of Southern California and Brown University. Project staff: Kenton W. Worcester, SSRC; and Lori Gronich, SSRC.

• Economic Liberalization and the Consolidation of Political Democracy: $15,000 (IPS). In partial support of an international conference that will bring together

economists, political scienti t , and sociologist to analyze the interactions between economic liberalization and democratic consolidation. An initial et of commissioned papers will explore the logic and as umptions underlying everal alternative approaches to this topic. Addi­tional papers will analyze factors that can trigger simultaneou political and economic reform; the implications of alternative patterns of equencing political and economic reform for su taining the two proces e ; and the potential role of a range of in titutions and actors in con oli­dating or undermining reform. Project leader: Laurence White­head, Nuffield College (Oxford) and member of the Joint Commit­tee on Latin American Studies. Project staff: Eric Her hberg, SSRC.

• Global Immunization and Culture: Compliance and Resistance in lArge-Scale Public Health Campaigns: $15,000 (General). In partial upport of a work hop and follow-up meeting to explore the cultural dynamics of large-scale immunization programs. Particular emphasis will be placed on the condition under which compliance with and resistance to public health immunization occurs. Workshop participants will be drawn from anthropology, ethic, public health, area studies, hi tory, epidemiology, and immunology. Project leaders: Paul Greenough, University of Iowa and member of the Joint Committee on South Asia; Emily Martin, The Johns Hopkins University; and Ronald

ITEMS/II

Munger, University of Iowa. Project staff: Frank Ke el, SSRC.

• Industrial Governance and Labor Flexibility: Contrasting Trends in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. $15,000 (General). In support of a planning workshop on a major et of indu trial organization and labor market trends linked to the globalization of productive sy terns. A state-of-the-art paper will be prepared to form the ba is for a two-day work hop involving economi t ,political cienti ts, and ociologists. The workshop will attempt to develop a long-term comprehensive re earch project on the ources and con equence of the new, "flexible" forms of production in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Project leaders: Richard Doner, Emory University; and Guy Standing, International Labour Organization; both member of the Joint Committee on Southeast A ia. Project staff: Helen Chauncey, SSRC.

• Intellectuals in Political Life. $11 ,300 (General). In upport of a re earch conference to bring together cholars from everal di cipline to discu the po ition, identity, and link to political power of "cultural producers" in three politically and economically di tinct region : Eastern Europe, We tern Europe, and the United State . The project will focu on differential constructions of public phere ,intellectual and ocial

movement , global flow of political cultur~, and national identitie . Project leader: Su an Gal, Rutgers Univer ity and member of the Joint Committee on Ea tern Europe. Project staff: Jason Parker, ACLS.

12\1TEMS

• Matrilineality and Patrilineal­ity in Comparative and Historical Perspective: $15,000 (General). In support of a conference, round table, and follow-up planning meeting. The project will attempt to find ways of constructing categories of kin hip that are ensitive to historical change and

variability through systematic use of direct cro -regional and cro s-temporal compari ons. It will focus on gender as a key analytic category, exploring the tension between profe ed norms and actual practice. Project leader: Allen I aacman, Univer­sity of Minne ota. Project staff: Barbara Bianco, SSRC.

• Minority Entrepreneurs and Modern Nationalism: Europe and Southeast Asia. $15,000 (Gener­al). In support of a planning meeting to define i ue and design a strategy for a major comparative study of the role of Jews in 19th century Hap burg, German and Ru ian empire and their 20th century ucce or tates, and of the Chine e in

Southeast A ia colonial and post-colonial state and in Thailand. The project will focus on why Jew and Chine e adapted o succe fully to modem

capitali t condition , how they tried to adapt to ri ing national­i m, and how variou new nationalist movements treated them. Project leaders: Anthony Reid, Au tralian National Univer ity and member of the Joint Committee on Southeast A ia; and Daniel Chirot, Univer­sity of Wa hington. Project staff: Kate Frie on, SSRC.

• Ottoman Legacies: Sultanistic Politics and Sectarian Societies in Eastern Europe and the Middle East: $15,000 (IPS). In upport

of a project designed to examine sy tematically the apparent similarities in patterns of political domination and conflict in East Central Europe and the Middle East and to explore the role of their hared experience of rule by the Ottoman Empire in shaping those pattern . The project will explore the ources\and contours of the mix of personalistic rule with ingle mobilizational partie , the role of the military in in tailing and sustaining the personal/party regimes, and problems of ethnicity, religion, ectarianism, and nationalism in

the former Ottoman territorie from Yugo lavia to Lebanon. Project leaders: Lisa Anderson, Columbia University and member of the Joint Advisory Committee on International Programs; and Deborah Milenkovitch, Barnard College and member of the Joint Committee on Eastern Europe. Project staff: Steven Heydemann, SSRC.

• Religious Regimes in Contact: Christian Missions, Global Transformations, and Comparative Research: $15,000 (IPS). In partial support of a planning meeting designed to develop a trategic approach to the comparative tudy of mis-ion , ba ed on a set of ca e .

The project will focus on the identity and di course that hape the ending of mi sion , transfor­mation of local religiou expre ion and experience after contact with Christian mis ion , and the role of missions on the academic tudy of religion. Project leader: Lawrence E. Sullivan, The Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religion . Project staff: Stanley J. Heginbotham, SSRC.

VOLUME 46, NUMBER 1

New Project on European Integration

As part of its research agenda, the Joint Committee on Western Europe has initiated a project entitled "Cooperation and Integration: The Political Econ­omy of Europe in 1992 and Beyond." The movement towards political and, especially, eco­nomic integration under the aegis of the European Community (EC) has profound consequences for the study of European politics and society as a whole. While a great deal of attention has been paid to the historical processes that have converged in the creation of a single European market, far less attention has been focused on the social and political consequences of European integration.

For this reason, project participants have been examining the structure of the polity that is

MARCH 1992

emerging in Europe, and its implications for the distribution of power, authority, and welfare throughout the Community. Special attention is being paid to the policy-making process, to the way in which the EC is becoming a polity in which authority and power are diver ely distributed between levels of government and among the institutions within them, and to the cau es of these difference . The e processes and their distributional con equences have significant implications for students of political economy, international institutions and integration, and state structures.

The project has hosted several meetings and four members of the project are fellows at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford, California) as a special project group. A volume of essays

focusing on both theoretical and empirical issues is anticipated for publication in early 1993. Topic to be examined include the relationship of the EC's in titu­tions to member governments; the emergence of transnational intere t group and their impact on the integration process; financial integration and the creation of a single European market; the politics of territorial integration within the EC; public policy and the management of the European environment; and the politics of class and production within the Community.·

I Participants in the project include Peter Lange, Duke University. and Philippe C. Schmitter, Stanford University, cochairs; Geoff Garrett , Stanford University; Leon Lindberg, University of Wiscon in, Madison; Gary Marks, University of North Carolina, Chapel HiU; Alberta Sbragia, University of Pittsburgh; David Sosldce, Wi sen haftszentrum, Berlin; and Wolfgang Streeck, University of Wiscon-in, Madison. Kenton W. Worce ter of the

Council serve as staff.

ITEMS/ 13

Recent Council Publications

Bureaucracy, Politics, and Decision Making in Post-Mao China, edited by Kenneth G. Lieberthal and David M. Lamp­ton. Studie on China, 14. Based on a conference held in Tuc on, Arizona in June 1988 and ponsored by the Joint Committee

on Chine e Studie . Berkeley: University of California Pre , 1992. xii + 384 page .

Detailed treatment of decision making in China typically inve tigate economic decision under the reforms. To what extent doe thi literature accurately portray decision making in the country's other major bureaucratic y tern -personnel, the military,

and propaganda and education? Doe the picture change in the economic and other bureaucracies as analy i shifts from the center to the province , the major municipalitie , the countie , and the town hip ?

Thi volume bring together detailed analy e of each of the e dimen ion of China' huge bureaucratic tructure, with mo t chapters informed by interview and field re earch, a well a by documentary source . Thi entree into Chine e officialdom and the volume' comparative approach pre ent a vivid picture of China' bureaucratic land cape.

Kenneth G. Lieberthal i profe or of political cience and re earch a ociate of the Center for Chine e Studie at the Univer ity of Michigan, Ann Arbor. David M. Lampton i pre ident of the National Commit­tee on U.S.-China Relation.

14\1TEM

Intellectuals et Militants de L'Islam Contemporain [Intellec­tuals and Militants in Contempo­rary Islam], edited by Gille Kepel and Yann Richard. Partly sponsored by the Joint Committee on the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1990. 290 pages.

The nine papers assembled in this volume explore a crucial area of re earch throughout the Muslim world: the transformation of the role of intellectuals, Mu lim clerics, and Islamic militants in Mu lim societie .

Among the mo t dramatic shifts to occur in many Mu lim ocietie over the past three

decade has been the marginaliza­tion of the "We ternized intellec­tual" and the growing importance of ideologies articulated not by the I lamic "e tablishment" but by a new generation of I lamic militants. For much of the mid-20th century, political and economic life in many Mu lim ocieties, as in other part of the

Third World, wa influenced to an exceptional degree by the activitie of intellectual who were educated in the We t and teeped in the categorie and

approache of We tern political and ocial thought. Anti-colonial nationali t movements, and the po t-colonial tate that re ulted from them, were profoundly haped by the ecular, ocialist,

and democratic idea the e intellectual "imported" from the We t.

Since the late 1960 , however, the influence of the e ecular intellectuals ha been broadly, and

often ucce fully, challenged by the expansion of Islamic ocial and political movements. Led by young activists and scholars, many of whom came of age during the po t-colonial period and are the products of their countries' po twar secular educational sy terns, the e movements are a significant expre ion of the ongoing struggles to define core ocial, political, economic, and cultural value and practices in these societies. The causes and consequences of this bift, and everal manife tation of it, are

carefully reviewed in the wide­ranging contributions to this volume.

Among tho e cited in Gille Kepel' thoughtful introduction are the weak claim to authentic­ity of We tern versu Islamic discour es, and the relative uperficiality of We tern political

vocabularie in the mind of Mu lim populations engaged in a very different political and cultural tradition; the declining appeal of the political rhetoric of anti-coloniali m, ocialism, and eculari m a the nationali t truggles that drew mo t heavily

on them have receded into the past; and the association of We t­ern ideologie with the failure of tate-centered economic develop­

ment trategie and the persi tence of repre ive, ingle-party regime. Foeu ing rather heavily on the Middle East and North Africa, with Ie coverage of non-Middle Eastern Mu lim oeietie, the vol­ume represents a useful and valu­able alternative to simplistic expla­nations that have singled out the

VOLUME 46, NUMBER I

frustration of Muslims, their "rage" again t the West, and their alienation from the main­stream of late 20th century politi­cal and economic change as the

MAltCH 1992

sources of Islam's growing popu­lar appeal.

Gilles Kepel is a fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and pcofes-

soc at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. Yann Richard is al 0 a fellow at the CNRS. Both have written extensively about the Near and Middle East.

ITEMS/IS

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Directors, 1991- 92: CLAUDE AleE, University of Port Harcourt; SUZANNE D. BERGER, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; LAwn: CE D. B080, University of California, Los Angele ; ROBERT M. CoEN, Northwe tern University; DAVID L. FEATHEDlAN, Social Science Research Council; ALBERT FISHLOw, University of California, Berkeley; GAU> £It LINDZEY, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; DAVID MAGNUSSON, Stockholm University; CoRA B. MARRETT, University of Wiscon in, Madison; EMILY MARTIN, The Johns Hopkin University; WILLIAM H. SEWELL, JR., University of Chicago; JOEL SHEItZER, University of Texas, Austin; BURTo H. SI GER, Yale University; FRANCIS X. SUTTON, Dobbs Ferry, New York; MARTA l'lENDA, University of Chicago; DAVID W AU>, University of Wiscon in, Madison; ROBERT B. ZAJo c, University of Michigan.

Officers and Staff: DAVID L. FEATHEItMAN, President; STANLEY J. HEGINBOTHAM, Vice President; RONALD J. PELECK, Vice President for Finance; GLOIUA KIRCHHElMER, Editor; DoRiE SINOCCHI, Assistant to the President; BAIlBAItA A. BIA CO, SUSAN BRONSON, GREG BROOKS, HELEN CHAU CEY, CARY FRASER, KATE FRIESON, MARTHA A. GEPHART, loRi HELENE GRONICH, ERIc HEltSHBERG, STEVEN HEYDEMANN, ROBERT T. HUBER, FRANK KEssEL, MtMI M. KIM, DAVID C. MAJOR, MAltY BYRNE McDoNNELL, JOHN H. MOLLE KOPF, ALICE O'CONNOR, WLODZlMIEItZ OKltASA, ELLE PEltECMAN, M. PRISCILLA STO E, TOBY ALICE VOLKMAN, KENTON W. WORCESTER.

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