Dissertation
"Principals, Agents, and Distant Markets: The Role of Information in Non-State Market-Driven Environmental Policies"[Full manuscript available after the link.]
Although non-state market-driven (NSMD) policies are promoted as more efficient and effective alternatives to state-based regulation, there are no comparative studies of the two approaches. Integrating principal-agent theory with formal network analysis, I develop a comparative framework that highlights key structural features expected to produce slippage (divergence of principals' demands and agents' actions). I apply this framework to compare state forest laws and two NSMD systems currently operating in Chile. Since NSMD authority is predicated on market forces, I also analyze media content throughout the global products chain, controlling for social distance (geography, culture, epistemic framing). I conclude that an essential NSMD structural feature (chains-of-custody) weakens their reliability as a means of implementing public policy. Moreover, the quality of communication about NSMD systems strongly declines with geographical distance. These results suggest we may be replacing governmental systems of safeguarding public goods (however flawed) with alternatives that are likely to be less effective in the long run.
Committee: Ken Conca (Chair), Virginia Haufler, Irwin Morris, Dennis Pirages, Matthias Ruth, and Miranda Schreurs.
Education
Ph.D. May, 2006, Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland.
Fields: Political Economy (May 2001), Resource and Environmental Politics (August 2002)
M.A., Political Economy, University of Maryland, 2001
B.A., Political Science, University of Washington, 1998
B.A., Ecological Agriculture, minor in Computer Science, Evergreen State College, 1992
Research and teaching interests
- Global, Comparative, and US Environmental Politics
- Political Economy of Resources and the Environment
- Transnational Social Movements
- International Political Economy
- Political Economy of Technology
- Craft of Political Science Research
- Experiential Learning and Field Research
- Technological Literacy for Social Science Research
- Social Network Analysis
Research
Faculty Research Assistant, NSF Law & Social Sciences Grant SES-0519157, 2006-present. Intercourt Relations in the American Legal System II
Developed and co-directing a multi-year $210,000 project on the extensive social network analyses of the communication of precedent within the American court system, on the issue of regulatory takings. Wayne McIntosh, Principal Investigator.
Research Assistant, NSF Law & Social Sciences Grant SES-0416455, 2004-2006. Intercourt Relations in the American Legal System
Developed and co-directed an initial $120,000 project on the development of new tools and techniques to isolate the complete corpus of federal court decisions pertaining to a single legal issue (regulatory takings), mapping references to legal precedent (i.e., citations) to investigate structural variations in prestige and authority amongst courts. Wayne McIntosh, Principal Investigator.
Research Fellow, Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, University of Maryland, 2002-2003
Field research in Santiago, Valparaíso and Temúco, Chile on forest policy, sustainable forest management systems and the domestic forest products industry.
Research Assistant, Minorities At Risk Project, Center for International Development and Conflict Management, University of Maryland, 2002, 1998
Coded event-level data for thirty-three minority groups throughout Latin America and the Caribbean for 1992-1997 and 1998-2002; produced a summary risk assessment for each group.
Research Fellow, Forest Stewardship Council, Washington, DC, 2001-2002
Field research on private forestry in the United States; assessing programs for small-scale land owners, proposing policy alternatives.
Program Assistant, Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, University of Maryland, 2000-2001
Planning and logistical support, including twice-monthly lecture series and academic workshops; outreach to both academic and general public.
Research Assistant, Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, MA, 1996
Assisted in preparation of an undergraduate course on the history of economic thought; research support for an intellectual biography of J K Galbraith.
Publications
“Principals, Agents, and Public Goods: Information and Structural Complexity in Policy Implementation” submitted to Global Environmental Politics June 2007
Ken Cousins, Steve Simons and Wayne McIntosh, "The Emergence of Regulatory Takings: Comprehensively Identifying Legal Precedent in the Federal Court System" submitted to the Journal of Legal Studies March 2007
Dennis Pirages and Ken Cousins, eds. From Environmental Scarcity to Ecological Security: Exploring New Limits to Growth. MIT Press (2005). Co-editor of volume, author of one chapter.
“Twenty-nine Days: Responses to a Finite World” concluding chapter to From Environmental Scarcity to Ecological Security: Exploring New Limits to Growth. Dennis Pirages and Ken Cousins (Editors), MIT Press (June 2005)
Ken Cousins and Wayne McIntosh, "More than Typewriters, More than Adding Machines: Integrating Information Technology into Political Research" Quality and Quantity 39: 581-614(2005)
Trista Patterson, Tim Gulden, Ken Cousins, and Egor Kraev, "Integrating environmental, social and economic systems: a dynamic model of tourism in Dominica" Ecological Modelling 175: 121-36 (2004)
Teaching
Instructor, Visions of Power: Politics in Science Fiction Cinema (GVPT 388F), University of Maryland, Spring 2007
Colloquium on popular ideas about political power, as seen through fourteen Science Fiction films.
Instructor, Environmental Ethics (CPSP 218E), University of Maryland, Fall 2006
Introduction to ideas about nature in human society and humans in the non-human world, the values guiding the actions of individuals, organizations, and governments.
Instructor, The Craft of Political Science Research (GVPT 399O), University of Maryland, Summer 2006
Introduction to social scientific processes: research design, ethics, archival research, survey design, interviewing, content analysis, process tracing, social network analysis.
Instructor, Introduction to Environmental Politics (GVPT 273), University of Maryland, Summer 2006
Historical overview of environmental problems, institutions, policies, practices, and remedies, with an emphasis on American public policy, both domestic and foreign.
Co-instructor, GVPT Graduate Technology Workshops, University of Maryland, 2006-2007
Series of training workshops: reference management software; advanced text processing techniques to improve the efficiency and scope of social science research; web design for academics
Instructor, Policy in Context: Changing the Chesapeake (GVPT399), University of Maryland, Summer 2004
Online course on the relationships between politics, policy, and environmental systems, through a case study of the natural and social history of the Chesapeake Bay
Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Environmental Science (ENSP101), University of Maryland, Fall 2003, Fall 1999
Led discussions and presented lectures on Environmental Science in this first of a two-semester undergraduate course
Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Environmental Policy (ENSP102), University of Maryland, Spring 2004, Spring 2000
Led discussions and presented lectures on Environmental Policy and in this second of a two-semester undergraduate course
Instructor, Vocational Agriculture and ESL, Bolivian National Agriculture-Technical Institute and Peace Corps, Caraparí, Bolivia, January 1993 - October 1995
Taught agriculture, nutrition, and ESL; established basic curriculum; weekly lectures and practical exercises to over one hundred students; all classes taught in Spanish
Conferences and Workshops
"If a Tree Falls on the Other Side of the World... Distance and Information in Global Markets" Exploratory Workshop on Research in Corporate Social Responsibility, Yale University, New Haven, CT (January 12-14, 2007))
"The Evolution of Law in the Federal Court System: a Citation Analysis of Federal Regulatory Takings Decisions, 1978-2005" with Wayne McIntosh, Michael Evans, Steve Simon, and John McTague, Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia (August 30 - September 2, 2006)
"Principals, Agents, and Public Goods: Information and Structural Complexity in Policy Implementation Systems" Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, San Diego (March 22-25, 2006) Awarded Best Graduate Student Paper, Environmental Studies Section
"Patterns of Judicial Influence: Tracking Regulatory Takings Policy in the Lower Federal Courts" with Shanna Pearson, Steve Simon, Mike Evans, Kimberly Karnes, John McTague, and Wayne McIntosh, Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC (September 1-4, 2005)
"Using Information Technology to Examine the Communication of Precedent: Initial Findings and Lessons from the CITE-IT Project" with Wayne McIntosh, James Rose, Steve Simon, Mike Evans, Kimberly Karnes, John McTague and Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz, Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Oakland, CA (March 17-19 2005)
"More than Typewriters, More than Adding Machines: Integrating Information Technology Into Political Research” with Wayne McIntosh, Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Montreal (March 17-20, 2004)
“Certification: an Insider's Perspective," 7th Annual Environmental Law & Institutions Colloquium, Certification Institutions and Private Governance: New Dynamics in the Protection of Workers and the Environment, Duke Center for Environmental Solutions (December 2001)
"Defining Responsibility: Control of Knowledge in Chilean Environmental Law," Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Chicago (February 2001)
Invited lectures
"Scholarship in the 21st Century: Computers, the Internet, and Shifting Baselines," Working Group on Qualitative and Mixed Methods, University of Maryland, March 2007
"Qualitative Research: Diverse Paradigms," Working Group on Qualitative and Mixed Methods, University of Maryland, November 2006
"Information, Non-State Environmental Policy, and Global Markets," Environmental Policy Roundtable (MEES608N), University of Maryland, April 2006
"Principals and Agents in Regulatory Networks: the Structural Complexity of Implementation Systems," University of Delaware, April 2006
"Introduction to Content Analysis," Qualitative Research Methods (GVPT888), University of Maryland, November 2006
Three-part series on "Population: Theoretical and Empirical Dynamics," Environmental Science and Policy (ENSP101), University of Maryland (November 2003)
"Ecology, Economics, Society: a dialogue about critical concepts," Ecological Economics Group (MEES608N), University of Maryland (October 2003)
"Twenty-nine Days: the History of Environmental Policy," Ecological Economics Group (MEES608N), University of Maryland (October 2003)
"Sustainable Forestry in Chile" Ecological Economics Group (MEES 608N), University of Maryland (September 2002)
Three-part series on "The Strategy of the Commons: A Political Economics of the Environment," Environmental Science and Policy (ENSP102), University of Maryland (April 2002)
Methodological training
ICPSR Workshop on Social Network Analysis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2006 (Stanley Wasserman and Ann McCranie, instructors)
Fuzzy Sets and Case-Oriented Research, APSA 2005, Washington, DC (Charles Ragin, instructor)
Qualitative Research Methods (GVPT888) University of Maryland, 2002 (Miranda Schreurs, instructor)
Dynamic Modeling of Ecological and Economic Systems (PUAF744) University of Maryland, 2000 (Robert Costanza and Alexey Voinov, instructors)
Advanced Quantitative Methods in Political Science (GVPT622, GVPT722) University of Maryland, 1999 (John Squire, instructor)
Blogs
Augmentation (Editor) http://augmentation.blogspot.com
Surveys new information technology-based approaches to data collection and analysis; methodological, political, and policy issues rising from these emerging technologies.
Manuscripts, works in progress
"A World History of the Environment" (pdf version) (2004)
"A World History of Environmental Policy" (brief summary) (2003)
"Smoke in the Skies, Bread on the Table" (2001)
"...Forest for the Trees: Biodiversity, Sustainability and Risk in the Transition to a Modern Forestry" (August 2000)
"Issues of Leadership During Economic Reform" (2000)
Awards
Best Graduate Student Paper, Environmental Studies Section of the International Studies Association, for "Principals, Agents, and Public Goods: Information and Structural Complexity in Policy Implementation Systems" (2006)
Graduate Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (2006)
Harrison Research Fellowship, Department Government and Politics, University of Maryland (2002-2003)
University Merit Fellowship Department Government and Politics, University of Maryland (2001–2002, 1998–1999)
Excellence in Teaching Award, Environmental Science and Policy, University of Maryland (2000)
Service
Coordinator and moderator, "Building Bridges: Environmental Education in the Classroom and in Practice," Earth Day Symposium, University of Maryland (April 23, 2004)
College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Teaching Committee (2003-2004)
President, UM Ecological Economics Group (2003-2004)
Student Representative, GVPT Political Economy Field Committee (2002-2004)
UM Ecological Economics Group Planning Committee (2000-2004)
Student Member, GVPT Admissions Committee (2000-2001)
Professional memberships
International Studies Association (from 1998)
American Political Science Association (from 2004)
Western Political Science Association (from 2004)
International Society for Ecological Economics (from 2002)
US Ecological Economics Society (from 2002)
Personal
Proficient in Spanish (spoken and written); competent in Portuguese (written).
Non-academic passions include sea kayaking, swimming, backpacking, recumbent cycling, cooking, drawing, and almost any form of music.
