Attached is a working abstract for my dissertation on environment and
technology and the pulp and paper industries of Australia, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Thailand. Comments and discussion welcome, either on the
list or directly. Thanks also for passing relevant items my way.
My apologies if you get multiple copies as a result of cross-posting.
Sincerely,
David Sonnenfeld
Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology
UC Santa Cruz
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A B S T R A C T
Ph.D. Dissertation (in process)
TITLE: "Conflict, cooperation & innovation: a social and environmental
history of innovation in environmental technology in the pulp and paper
industries of Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand"
AUTHOR: David A. Sonnenfeld, Ph.D. Candidate, Sociology, University of
California, Santa Cruz
SUPERVISOR: Professor Andrew Szasz, Board of Studies in Sociology,
University of California, Santa Cruz
SUPPORT: The Australian-American Educational Foundation (Fulbright
Commission); the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and
Cooperation; Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian
National University; Division of Social Sciences and Sociology Graduate
Program, University of California, Santa Cruz
EXPECTED COMPLETION DATE: June 1995
KEYWORDS: activism Australia bagasse bamboo bleach chlorine
community development dioxin ECF elemental environment government
Greenpeace history Indonesia industry innovation kenaf Malaysia NGOs
non-wood paper politics pollution pulp regulation science sociology
Southeast Asia TCF technology Thailand transfer wastewater wood
ABSTRACT:
Few industries have grown as fast, or been so conflictual, as the pulp and
paper industries of Australasia and Southeast Asia. New world-class pulp
and paper mills involve financial investments up to US $1 billion, hundreds
of thousands of hectares of natural forest and industrial timber estates;
very large quantities of water (and wastewater); and big impacts on people
and the natural environment in surrounding areas.
During the last decade, major conflicts have erupted in Australia,
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, over pulp and paper mill development
and operation. Disputes continue in these countries over the resource
rights and pollution impacts of pulp mill development.
Despite, and because of, this contentiousness, in all four countries, the pulp
and paper industry is moving away from the use of elemental chlorine in
pulping and bleaching. Environmental and community activists effectively
raised important issues about the dangers of using chlorine. Government
regulators responded with tightened regulations, especially for new
factories. Industry supply companies rose to the occasion, and to the
promise of lucrative markets. Leading pulp and paper companies found
ways of meeting the new regulations, reducing operating costs, and
establishing claims for "environmentally sustainable" production.
As a social and environmental history of technological innovation in the
Asia-Pacific pulp and paper industry, this study demonstrates the
importance of social and environmental, as well as business, factors in
setting a contemporary research agenda for industry. It draws on political
sociology, the "new" sociology of science and technology, and
environmental history, to broaden and deepen the theory of technological
innovation.
Data for this study have been collected through direct observation of pulp
and paper manufacturing operations in all four countries; interviews of
pulp and paper industry officials and researcher engineers, government
regulators, public sector research scientists, and environmental activists;
attendence at industry conferences and trade shows; and analysis of
secondary materials.
CONTACT:
Mr. David A. Sonnenfeld
Sociology Graduate Program
Adlai E. Stevenson College
University of California
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
USA
fax: +1 (408) 429-0146
tel: +1 (408) 459-8466
Internet: sonn@cats.ucsc.edu
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