My current interests focus on "sustainable development." Living in Atlanta-- until recently, one of America's "most livable cities--" I have watched it become the poster child for sprawl. One cannot but become aware of the environmental and social harms of modern industrial society and the challenges connected to lifeways based on economic growth. I have become very interested in the vision emerging in many parts of the world of a more sustainable future, one that seeks to find the tradeoffs between economic, ecological, and social domains. Sustainable approaches work to reverse damage to biological life support systems, to sustain healthy livelihoods, and to increase social equity and participation in decision making.

Grassroots Efforts: Though there are areas in which the political arena provides leadership toward sustainability--especially in Europe and in some international agencies--many of the creative efforts that seek to construct and test out cultural alternatives are found among local groups of concerned citizens. In the U.S. and around the world, diverse groups seek to find locally-based solutions and focus on sustainability challenges in agriculture, industry, consumption, forms of community. I am focusing more of my attention on these lived experiments in a sustainable future.

Of particular interest to me is the intersection of local and global. Though the crises that these groups face are often regional or even international (declining fisheries, deforestation, global climate change, water contamination from erosion and agrochemical runoff), solutions are often explored on the local level. Local solutions, in turn, inspire others, leading to national and international movements, such as alternative agriculture, socially responsible consumption, and the international labor movement. A recent class project explored the range of grassroots responses to local/global crises, involving often local action with global connections and a re-conceptualization of a sustainable future. See our website of links to grassroots groups with English-language websites: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~antpfb/GlobalLocal.html

I am also drawn to the emerging emphasis on place in environmental work, noting that attachment to local ecosystems seems to be an important dimension of attitudinal and behavioral change.

Campus Greening: My interests in cultural transformation and in the challenges of sustainability to American society in particular have led me to focus on Emory University as a hands-on arena of change. Several new "communities of practice" have emerged in the last two years: the Faculty Green Lunch Group, the Ad Hoc Committee for Environmental Stewardship (a grassroots effort of faculty, staff, and students) that has carried out Woods Walks and Forest Restoration Projects, the Friends of Emory Forest, a group that successfully campaigned for the passage of a University-wide Environmental Mission Statement, and new campus architectural commitments to "green buildings." New structures to implement our mission statement and foster awareness and new practices on campus are now being debated. In addition, Emory seeks to emerge as an environmental leader in the city and region, thus providing a fascinating laboratory for my interests in cultural change and sustainability.

My previous research focused on agricultural development in Latin America and the United States. In the 1970's, I carried out economic and ecological research among peasant farmers in a mountainous village in Costa Rica. I was interested to explore the intersections of ecological and demographic change, emerging stratification, penetration of global markets, and household economic decisions and to link these local changes to larger international processes. In the 1980s, I extended these interests to the industrial world and explored the 1980s farm crisis through an in-depth study of one south Georgia county . I focused on the survival of family farms in America and combined political economy with an understanding of men's and women's visions of personal "success" and desired lifestyle. I have also carried out research in highland Ecuador among Quicha-speaking farmers and weavers, and have traveled in Central America with a human rights delegation and to explore ecological issues in Chiapas. My interests in international agricultural change were broadened by a four-year association with the Arkleton Trust research program on part-time farming in 13 EEEC countries, and on consultation with AID regarding poverty in Costa Rica.