Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Political Science

This dissertation responds to the global ecological crisis of climate change, showing how the temporal and spatial dimensions of the crisis challenge our capacities to imagine and implement effective political solutions. Rather than being natural limits, I argue these dimensions of the crisis are inherently social and political, derived from contradictions and antagonisms of the global capitalist nation-state system. I thus take a critical approach to ecology and politics, in the tradition of Marxist political ecology. I read Antonio Gramsci's political theories of hegemony and the integral state through an ecological framework that foregrounds the distinct roles that human labor, capital, and the state system play in organizing social and environmental relations. I develop an original conception of hegemony as a fundamentally ecological process that constitutes the reproduction of human relations within nature, which I use to analyze the politics of climate governance and climate justice. Grounded in textual analysis and fieldwork observations of state and civil society relations within the UNFCCC, I show that struggles for hegemony among competing coalitions of state and non-state actors have shaped the institutional frameworks and political commitments of the Paris climate regime complex. I demonstrate how climate governance reproduces capitalist political relations predicated on formal separation of `state' and `civil society,' and the endless accumulation of capital, thereby serving to reproduce, rather than resolve, the contradictions of the crisis. I then center my focus on the global movement of movements for climate justice. Using textual analysis and qualitative fieldwork conducted as a critically-situated, participant-observer of the climate justice movement at various sites, including the COP22 and COP23 climate negotiations, I show how the climate justice movement constitutes itself as a distinctly anti-systemic and ecological historical bloc in world p (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alexander Wendt (Committee Co-Chair); Joel Wainwright (Committee Co-Chair); Jason Moore (Committee Member); Alexander Thompson (Committee Member); Inés Valdez (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Studies; Geography; International Relations; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Environment and Natural Resources

Departing from literature on social-ecological fitness and social-ecological network analysis, this dissertation explores the degree to which social-ecological theory reflects underlying social processes of issue engagement and partnership evaluation and identifies pathways for future research to engage practitioners with social-ecological network data. In total, the research presented in this dissertation shows that social-ecological network analysis and theory can both be strengthened by participant engagement and qualitative analyses and can be translated into actionable information that practitioners can use to inform their management decisions. This research – which includes three consecutive empirical studies (chapters 2 through 4) – presents one of the first comprehensive accounts of confirming social-ecological network theory with participant populations. Each of the three chapters seeks to determine how practitioners navigate social-ecological interdependence by assessing whether practitioners' strategies align with social-ecological motifs that are commonly used in empirical network analyses (i.e., small-scale network structures that impart theoretically important processes). Further, all three empirical chapters analyze separate components of a dataset pertaining to climate change adaptation governance in Columbus, Ohio, which is a system comprised of over one hundred unique stakeholder organizations, 19 climate adaptation-related issues, and their interconnections. In the first chapter, I explore how community-engaged network tools can help to overcome fragmentation in environmental governance systems. I helped to develop a network tool that offers personalized partnership recommendations to practitioners that would close “collaborative gaps,” which are instances where two actors who manage the same issue(s) fail to collaborate with one another. Results from focus group conversations with practitioners suggest that engaged network tools can be 1) hampere (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ramiro Berardo (Advisor); Matthew Hamilton (Advisor); Alia Dietsch (Committee Member); Cynthia Tyson (Committee Member) Subjects: Climate Change; Conservation; Environmental Management; Environmental Studies; Natural Resource Management; Public Administration

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Geography

In a world where foraging is as popular as ever, it is becoming increasingly important for management agencies to develop strategies to address this activity. The response by management agencies has not been uniform, nor has their effect on the foraging community. Because of this novelty and irregularity, it is important to study the political ecology of foraging policy. In this study, I take a closer look at the people who harvest nontimber forest products (NTFPs), the people who manage forests, and the relationship between these two groups.

Committee: Harold Perkins (Advisor) Subjects: Geography

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Management

There is a growing body of literature highlighting the significance of adopting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, which contribute positively to an enterprise's value. The influence of stakeholder theory has prompted global organizations to increasingly embrace ESG principles, garnering heightened attention in recent years, a shift from the past. However, there is a paucity of literature on empirical studies investigating the impact of organizational behaviors on the decision-making process of adopting ESG principles. This dissertation employs a sequential mixed-method research design to explore the effects of leadership styles on the perceived importance of ESG factors in organizations. Initially, an exploratory qualitative inquiry, involving semi-structured interviews with thirty respondents, examines the factors influencing the decision to adopt and implement social-related issues in organizations. Subsequently, an archival study delves into the mechanisms through which ESG indirectly influences firm profitability via employee satisfaction. The research also investigates the direct effects of authentic and ethical leadership on perceptions of ESG. Informed in general by the upper echelons theory and the stakeholder theory of the firm, the study considers leadership authority as a factor driving the embrace and implementation of ESG principles. Leaders exert influence in allocating organizational resources to achieve desired outcomes. Additionally, other factors such as costs, regulation, and reputation play a role in the decision to adopt ESG-related policies. The second phase of the dissertation explores the direct and indirect effects of positive performance indicators of environmental, social, and governance aspects on corporate financial performance (CFP) through employee satisfaction (ES) among S&P 500 companies from 2015 to 2019. The findings indicate a significant positive impact of employee satisfaction on corporate financial perf (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Timothy Fogarty, Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Olubunmi Faleye, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yunmei Wang, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Philip Cola, Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Management

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Management

In a world grappling with energy poverty, Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, faces profound challenges marked by extreme disparities in energy access. Study 1 advocates for the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles as a linchpin for alleviating energy poverty by enhancing reliability and affordability and catalyzing low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It emphasizes the urgent need for a shared language among diverse stakeholders to pursue sustainable energy solutions. Study 2 introduces "coopetition" as a groundbreaking strategy across 54 African nations, combining cooperation and competition to drive energy access while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Challenging prevailing assumptions about the direct influence of financial development through official development assistance and foreign direct investment, the study highlights the pivotal role of transparent regulations and risk mitigation in fostering sustainable energy solutions. Study 3 further explores the interplay of coopetition and climate policy, introducing a model encompassing the Sustainable Development Index, GDP Growth Rate, and Corruption Perception Index. Coopetition emerges as an independent variable, moderated by climate policy, revealing a nuanced understanding of collaborative efforts' impact on energy poverty and emissions. The tripartite exploration underscores the call for a harmonious symphony of ESG principles, coopetition strategies, and tailored collaborations to illuminate the path toward a sustainable and equitable energy future for Africa.

Committee: Christopher Laszlo (Advisor) Subjects: Climate Change; Energy; Environmental Justice; Environmental Law; Environmental Management; Management

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2021, Environment and Natural Resources

Modern environmental problems pose unique management challenges since they are usually interdependent in myriad, complex ways. Climate change is the ultimate example of a problem that forces environmental managers to confront highly interdependent challenges, such as invasive species, rising temperatures, and habitat loss. A growing area of interest in understanding complex, polycentric governance systems has been to analyze the engagement of stakeholders in policy issues and the participation of stakeholders in policy forums. In this thesis, I focus on climate change adaptation governance in Ohio, USA as a model study system to evaluate conditions and incentives that drive actors to manage for interdependent issues or to participate in forums in ways that are collectively beneficial. To answer questions about actor management strategies in complex, polycentric governance arrangements, I analyze climate change governance as a three-mode network of interrelations among actors, forums, and policy issues related to climate change adaption in Ohio. I draw upon the Ecology of Games Theory (EGT) and an Institutional Fitness framework to formulate hypotheses that uncover the conditions, incentive structures, and attributes that prompt actors to engage with issues and participate in forums in ways that promote adaptive capacity. Chapter 2 tests whether actors are likely to simultaneously manage environmental policy issues that are highly interdependent (such as nutrient management and water quality, which are connected through the process of eutrophication). Then, Chapter 3 tests for how different types of theorized closure structures (i.e., unique situations of actor benefits) – lead actors to participate in decision-making forums. To tackle the questions at hand, both chapters utilize Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs), which is a tool for inferential network analysis. The results indicate that actors are more likely to manage for pairs of interdependent polic (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ramiro Berardo Ph.D. (Advisor); Matthew Hamilton Ph.D. (Advisor); Jeremy Brooks Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Management; Environmental Studies; Natural Resource Management

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2020, Integrated Bioscience

The Laurentian Great Lakes system holds approximately 20% of the world's available surface freshwater while being an immense economic engine for the region. Lake Erie, one of the five North American Great Lakes is classified as highly stressed and deteriorating. Flooding and erosion issues stemming from record-high water levels, as well as excessive nutrients causing harmful algal blooms which compounds the problems. This work investigates novel ways to approach, solve, and manage some of Lake Erie's most pressing problems. First, a historical political ecology approach was used to trace the history of land use practices that transformed the Great Black Swamp into the industrialized agricultural system that the Maumee River Watershed (MRW) is today. The analysis chronicles transformations in structure and function of the MRW implicating diverse drivers such as agricultural practices, legacy nutrient reservoirs, altered landscape hydrology, and energy policy while making policy recommendations at various scales. Second, a low-cost, open-source DIY spectrophotometer was developed in order to obtain crowd-sourced data to understand nutrient loading trends throughout the watershed, particularly the MRW. Tests of this device indicate that the typically expensive hardware is not the limitation. Rather, reagent performance is the leading cause of uncertainty. Third, a social-ecological risk and vulnerability model to flooding and erosion was created for the Ohio Lake Erie shoreline by adapting established maritime coastal indices to the limnological system. The result is both a foundation for Ohio's Department of Natural Resources, Office of Coastal Management to identify scientifically-informed, place-based priority management areas for erosion and flooding, as well as a methodological roadmap to adapt the Coastal and Place Vulnerability Indices to the other Great Lakes' states and provincial shorelines.

Committee: Peter Niewiarowski (Advisor); Hunter King (Committee Member); John Huss (Committee Member); Robin Kundis Craig (Committee Member); Lance Gunderson (Committee Member) Subjects: Biochemistry; Biology; Ecology; Environmental Management; Environmental Science; Geographic Information Science; Public Policy; Sustainability; Water Resource Management

BA, Oberlin College, 2017, Politics

This thesis analyzes the different relationships between cities and states in sea level rise adaptation. To determine the most effective governing structure, I compare my own categorical framework to an evaluative framework from the Georgetown Climate Center. I find that my category of limited-constraint autonomy is most effective for sea level rise adaptation.

Committee: Swapna Pathak (Advisor); H.N. Hirsch (Committee Member); Ronald Kahn (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Management

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2015, Manufacturing and Technology Management

This research examines the relationship between environmental social governance (ESG) collaboration in the supply chain and performance. ESG collaboration can essentially be described as the interaction within and between organizations in the supply chain pertaining to joint ESG planning, joint ESG goal-setting, joint ESG decision-making, joint reduction of negative ESG impacts, and shared ESG know-how or shared ESG knowledge. This research makes a number of contributions, two of which deserve particular attention. The first contribution of this paper develops the theoretical basis for linking ESG collaboration in the supply chain to ESG activity/ practice in the focal firm and to ESG performance. The second contribution consists of testing empirically the impact of ESG collaboration on diverse dimensions of ESG activity/ practice and to ESG operational and financial performance. Using a combination of stakeholder, agency, institutional, and conventional financial theories as a referent theoretical base to explain the ESG collaboration—performance link, this research draws upon differentiation strategy, espoused by the relational view of the firm (Dyer and Singh, 1998) and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm (Wernerfelt, 1984) theories for its theoretical development. The relational view of the firm proposes that organizational capabilities can be developed by creating various combinations of resources that exist in different supply chain partners (Dyer and Singh, 1998; Takeishi, 2001). In this regard, collaboration in the supply chain becomes an important organizational capability that offers the potential for intra- and inter-organizational learning. Inter-organizational learning involves a problem-solving routine comprising suppliers and or customers (Schroeder et al., 2002). Likewise, intra-organization learning also entails a problem-solving routine among internal departments of an organization. This cross-learning is one of the resource (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mark A. Vonderembse Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Monideepa Tarafdar Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Doina C. Chichernea Ph.D. (Committee Member); Peter S. Lindquist Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Management; Sustainability

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2015, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

This dissertation explores how partnerships between UN agencies and higher education institutions (HEIs) can enhance governance of the global commons. Unique attributes that HEIs have to offer in this regard include collaboration on development and dissemination of knowledge, the ability to design and test new technologies and systems, and the capacity to develop analytically rigorous research and evaluation. Many HEIs also explore issues across scales, sectors, and disciplines, and can act as neutral fora to promote dialogue. And all are educating future citizens and leaders. With the aim of highlighting the mutual value of partnerships between the UN and HEIs and also identifying where there are barriers and challenges in these relationships, I conducted two sets of research and analysis. First, using a set of criteria drawn from current literature on partnerships for sustainable development, I conducted a landscape review of UN websites to identify and assess what programs exist to engage HEIs. Second, I conducted semi-structured interviews with faculty members from three regionally diverse universities, each of whom has at least seven years of experience working with the UN, to gain their insights on the value of working with UN groups. My research demonstrates that UN agencies that engage universities meaningfully in developing solutions to sustainability challenges benefit from enhanced capacity, while HEIs stand to benefit from enhanced scholarship and recognition, access to resources, and the satisfaction of seeing theory translated into practice. It also demonstrates, however, that there is a need for clearer structures and robust programming.

Committee: James Jordan Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Rich Grogan Ph.D. (Committee Member); Maria Ivanova Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Studies; Higher Education; Natural Resource Management; Political Science; Public Policy; Sustainability

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Rural Sociology

The management of environmental pollution has traditionally been accomplished via the regulatory power of the state, but more recently we have witnessed the rise of a new, market-based form of governance. Its most visible manifestation is the trading of pollution credits, in which one polluter purchases credits to offset its own pollution output at lower cost than actually remediating the pollution on-site. This form of commodification has rapidly expanded and now includes markets for greenhouse gas, wetlands, and surface water nutrient credits. I focus on water quality trading and its specific institutional form in which point source “end-of-pipe” dischargers purchase nutrient credits from nonpoint sources such as farmers. I argue that the best way to understand this complex form of environmental governance is through a Polanyian framework. Polanyi's notion of a “double movement” illustrates the unique relationship between market and state that underlies water quality trading programs. While it seems that the commodification of water quality shifts market oversight from the state to the private sector, there is simultaneously a move towards increased participation by regulatory agencies to counter market uncertainties. I argue that such regulatory oversight is in fact required for the proper functioning of this market sector. I then conduct an extensive literature review of scholarly work on water quality trading and demonstrate that the literature consistently rests on a number of flawed assumptions, notably that the supply of water quality credits simply follows demand and that farmers behave as rational economic actors in regards to implementation of conservation practices. I argue that this understanding of water quality trading is hampered by the dismissal of social factors, particularly the social embeddedness of economic actors and the trust relations between them. I use a telephone survey of participants in all active water quality trading programs nationw (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Moore PhD (Advisor); Linda Lobao PhD (Committee Member); Kendra McSweeney PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Sociology