Bob Edwards
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Catholic University of America 1995
Areas of Interest: Organizations, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Environment
Office: Brewster A-402
Tel: 252.328.4863
E-mail: edwardsr@ecu.edu
Curriculum Vita
Research
Selected Publications and Papers in Process
Books:
Beyond Tocqueville: Civil Society and the Social Capital Debate in Comparative Perspective, Bob Edwards, Michael W. Foley, and Mario Diani, Eds. University Press of New England Series on Civil Society (2001). http://www.dartmouth.edu/~upne/1-58465-125-3.html
2004. Posle Tokvila. Debata o gradjanskom drustvu i drustvenom kapitalu u uporednoj perspektivi. Bob Edvards, Majkl Foli i Mario Dajani (prir.), s engleskog preveo Milan Brdar, Izdavacka knjizarnica Zorana Stojanovica, Novi Sad, Serbia. Serbian edition translated by Milan Brdar (Department of Sociology, Novi Sad University). http://www.superknjizara.hr/index.php?content=1&page=knjiga&id_knjiga=15118&inv=364f847
Recent Articles and Chapters:
"Coalition Transformation and the Preservation of Legitimacy in the Global Justice Movement,” with Patrick Gillham.
“What Do We Do Now? Transforming Global Justice Protest in the Aftermath of the 911 Terrorist Attacks,” with Patrick Gillham.
“Women’s Leadership and Participation in Rural Community Organizations in Lithuania,” with Maria Dillard and Arunas Juska.
“Advocacy Organizations in the US Political Process,” by Kenneth Andrews and Bob Edwards. Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 30:479-506.
“Strategy Matters: The Contingent Value of Social Capital in the Survival of Local Social Movement Organizations,” by Bob Edwards and John D. McCarthy. Social Forces 83(2):621-651.
“The Organizational Structure of Local Environmentalism.” by Kenneth T. Andrews and Bob Edwards. Mobilization 10(2).
“Refusing the Trojan Pig: The Trans-Atlantic Coalition Against Corporate Pork Production in Poland,” by Arunas Juska and Bob Edwards. Pps. 187-207 in Coalitions Across Borders: Transnational Protest and the Neoliberal Order, Joe Bandy and Jackie Smith, Eds. Roman & Littlefield.
“Resources and Social Movement Mobilization,” by Bob Edwards and John D. McCarthy. Pps 116-152 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
"Global Justice Protesters Respond to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks: The Impact of an Intentional Disaster on Demonstrations in Washington, D.C." by Patrick Gillham and Bob Edwards. Pp. 483-520 in Beyond September 11: An Account of Post-Disaster Research, Boulder, CO: Natural Hazards Research and Information Center, University of Colorado.
“Social Movements Beyond the Beltway: Understanding the Diversity of One Social Movement Industry,” by Bob Edwards and Michael W. Foley. Mobilization 8 (1):85-105.
“Organizational Mortality in a Declining Social Movement: The Demise of Peace Movement Organizations in the End of the Cold War Era.” American Sociological Review 60(6): 908-927, with Sam Marullo.
“The Paradox of Civil Society,” Journal of Democracy 7(3):38-52, by Michael W. Foley and Bob Edwards. Reprinted as: “La Paradoja de la Sociedad Civil.” Este Pais, May 1, 1997, Mexico, D.F.; “The Paradox of Civil Society.” Pp. 274-283 in Comparative Politics: Notes and Readings, Ninth Edition, Bernard E. Brown, Ed. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College Publishers. http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/journal_of_democracy/7.3foley.html
“Is it Time to Disinvest in Social Capital?” Journal of Public Policy 19(2):199-231, with Michael W. Foley.
“Environmental Justice, Swine Production and Farm Loss in North Carolina,” Sociological Spectrum 20(3): 263-290, with Anthony Ladd.
New Projects:
Mobilization of Rural Civil Society in Lithuania: Dynamics and Impact: In recent years a vibrant rural community movement has emerged throughout post-Soviet Lithuania with at least 1,400 rural non-governmental organizations (NGOs) founded in the last 4-5 years. The rapid growth in the number of rural community organizations has, in part, been facilitated by European Union development funds. This significant mobilization in rural civil society represents a substantial advance in grassroots participation in governance and advocacy in this rapidly democratizing society. Yet, what will happen as European Union funds for such groups decline? Will rural community groups disband as the funds recede, or will they develop alternative sources of support and continue their efforts to solve the economic, social and cultural problems facing their communities? Up until now scholars and policy-makers in Eastern Europe have focused on the issues raised by community groups in large urban centers. By contrast, rather little is known about similar civic advocacy efforts among the one-third of Lithuania’s population that lives in economically depressed rural areas.
This is funded in part by the International Research Exchange (IREX) and is a collaboration with Arunas Juska (ECU, Sociology) and scholars at Vilnius University has collected representative data on a sample of 237 rural community organizations throughout Lithuania. The first paper from this project is in preparation for presentation at the Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) in Budapest, Hungary, September 8-10, 2005.
Environmental Organizations in North Carolina: Over the last 25 years trends in American public policy have been toward a smaller federal government role in monitoring and enforcing regulations of various kinds and toward a shifting responsibility for regulatory monitoring and enforcement to lower levels of government like states or municipalities. This has been especially true in the environmental policy arena. Thus, states and state-level environmental movements are becoming increasingly important for environmental policy making and the number of advocacy organizations operating in state capitals has grown rapidly in recent years. However, relatively little is known about local and state level advocacy organizations. Political scientists and sociologists have been studying “interest groups” since the 1960s, but have focused almost entirely on large, national groups based in Washington, DC. This research will examine systematically the role of environmental advocacy organizations in the political process in North Carolina and will address two long-standing short-comings in the literature: the nearly exclusive emphasis on national groups, and the role of such state-level and local advocacy groups in an increasingly deregulated and devolved political context.
This collaboration with Andy Andrews http://www.unc.edu/~kta1/ began in 2000 when we both had summer appointments at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Since then we have secured grant funding for preliminary data collection and identified over 800 environmental groups currently operating in North Carolina. During 2002 we will have complete 60 minute phone interviews with a representative sample 300 groups. The phone interviews will be follow-ed up by 40-50 face to face interviews to collect in-depth information about specific issues. Over the next several years, we expect to write a series of articles and a book from this data, though at this time we have one publication forthcoming “Advocacy Organizations in the American Political Process” Annual Review of Sociology (2004).
Recent Projects:
Civil Society, Social Capital and Contemporary Democracy. In a series of nine articles, two co-edited issues of the American Behavioral Scientist (vol. 40, no. 5, 1997 and vol. 42, no. 1, 1998), and a recent book, Michael W. Foley (Department of Politics, Catholic University of America) and I have been examining the concepts of civil society and social capital in current research and debate about the state of democratic societies. For links to a number of these publications see http://arts-sciences.cua.edu/pol/faculty/foley/.
Environmental Justice. I have a long-standing interest in environmental inequality and advocacy for environmental justice beginning with a book chapter I wrote in 1991 for an edited volume on (“With Liberty and Environmental Justice for All: The Emergence and the Challenge Grassroots Environmentalism in the USA.” Pps. 35-55 in Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism. Bron Taylor, ed., Albany: SUNY Press, 1995.). This interest has continued in research since 1996 on the political conflict over the recent growth, restructuring and spatial distribution of pork production in North Carolina. This has led to several publications with Anthony Ladd (Sociology, Loyola-New Orleans) including: "Environmental Justice, Swine Production and Farm Loss in North Carolina," Sociological Spectrum 20(3): 263-290; “Race, Poverty, Political Capacity and the Spatial Distribution of Swine Waste in North Carolina, 1982 - 1997,” North Carolina Geographer (9):55-77 (2001); and “Corporate Swine and Capitalist Pigs: A Decade of Environmental Injustice and Protest in North Carolina,” by Anthony Ladd and Bob Edwards. Social Justice 29 (3)(August 2002).
Social Impact of Natural Disasters. Since I joined the ECU faculty in 1995 our area has been struck by five hurricanes and massive flooding following Hurricane Floyd in 1999. These storms have caused tremendous damage and adverse social impacts. I have been part of an interdisciplinary group researching the social and economic impacts of these recent natural disasters. My own interests in this project have dovetailed with questions of environmental justice and focused on the extent to which natural disasters exact a disproportionate toll on low-income, minority and physically disabled residents in the region. This project has yielded several technical reports to state and federal government agencies (LINK to WEBSITE), three chapters in an edited volume Facing Our Future: Hurricane Floyd and Recovery in the Coastal Plain (Coastal Carolina Press, 2001), and four recent articles in Environmental Hazards and Natural Hazards Review.
Service Learning in Higher Education. I recently completed a project on the promise and challenges of service learning as a pedagogical innovation at colleges and universities nationwide. This project yielded several publications including a thematic issue of the American Behavioral Scientist (Vol. 43, No. 5, Pp. 741-912) entitled "The Service Learning Movement: Response to Troubled Times in Higher Education" (co-edited with Sam Marullo, Dept. of Sociology, Georgetown University) and two articles with Linda Mooney (Dept. of Sociology, ECU): “Experiential Learning in Sociology: Service Learning and other Community-Based Learning Initiatives,” Teaching Sociology 29:181-1944 (April, 2001); “Who Is Being Served? The Impact of Student Volunteering on Local Community Organizations,” Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly 30(3): 444-461 (2001).
