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Bill Freudenburg arrived in the Department of Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1986 with a broad view of environmental/resource sociology. Within a few years, Bill organized a dozen faculty members into STARE, the acronym for Science, Technology, Agriculture, Resources, and the Environment. For nearly a decade and a half, STARE comprised the country’s largest critical mass in environmental and resource sociology. His intellectual contributions to the field are well documented, but possibly his greatest legacy was training the next generation of environmental/resource sociologists.

After briefly covering Bill Freudenburg’s early years, this essay reviews his major scholarly contributions and professional accomplishments while a faculty member at Washington State University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of California-Santa Barbara. Bill’s unique strengths – especially his keen sociological imagination – and crucial conceptual, theoretical and empirical contributions are highlighted, as well as his commitment to providing valuable mentoring for students and colleagues. The enduring importance of his work is ensured by the continuing application and extension of his ideas by other scholars.

Environmental studies have developed slowly within social sciences in Latin America. This paper seeks to assess and systematize the contribution of social sciences in the research on the human dimensions of global environmental change (HDGEC) in the region outlining its state of the art and process of development.

The approach taken is the organization of a manual compilation and systematic review of publications on topics related to the HDGEC in order to investigate major research topics covering the period between 2001 and 2008.

Although it is possible to identify an emergent body of the literature and scholarship in the region, the involvement of Latin American social science in the HDGEC research is still timid and tentative and not yet institutionalized. The evidence from this compilation has shown that this literature is fragmented bringing difficulties for the homogenization of criteria for analysis and assessment.

The paper is one of the very few attempts to assess and analyze the research on HDGEC in Latin America through an international perspective. It provides an overview of its development building upon the progress of environmental studies in the region and looks to its challenges ahead in order to call for more involvement of social sciences in these research activities.

In 1981, W. Richard (Dick) Scott of Stanford's sociology department described a paradigmatic revolution in organizational sociology that had occurred in the preceding decade. In Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems (Scott, 1981), he depicted the first wave of organizational theory as based in rational models of human action that focused on the internal dynamics of the organization. He described the second wave, found in human relations theory and early institutional theory, as based in natural social system models of human action but still focused on the internal “closed system.” A sea change occurred in organizational theory in the 1970s as several camps began to explore environmental causes of organizational behavior. The open-systems approaches that Scott sketched in 1981 were still seedlings, but all would mature. What they shared was an emphasis on relations between the organization and the world outside of it. The roots of these new paradigms can be traced to innovations of the 1960s. Contingency theorists Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch (1967) had argued that firms add new practices and programs largely in response to external social demands and not simply to internal functional needs. James Thompson (1967) argued that organizations come to reflect the wider environment and particularly the regulatory environment.

In this chapter, I want to take some stock of the subdiscipline of environmental sociology. I believe that a productive approach to restoring some of the coherence of environmental sociology is to conceive of mainstream environmental sociology as reflecting several paradoxes. The bulk of this chapter will be devoted to a brief explication of environmental sociology's theoretical and empirical paradoxes. I will begin with three paradoxes that have played a major role in environmental sociology since the 1970s. However, many of the theoretical and empirical paradoxes of the subfield are relatively new ones – and some have not even been thought of as paradoxes. The thrust of the present chapter consists of something of a research agenda for environmental sociology for the next decade or so.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the confluence of data literacy with information literacy in an experimental one‐unit course taught in the UCLA Department of Sociology, and present the literature on, rationale for, and future of integrating these interrelated literacies into social science courses.

The course was co‐taught twice by a librarian and a data archivist using a syllabus and assignments that reflect sociological research problems and tools and information literacy competencies in the social sciences.

The need for information and data skills in sociology is well‐established, and their integration into a sociology course (rather than in a stand‐alone information literacy course) would produce more opportunities for students to apply what they learn and for the instructors to assess learning in the context of doing sociology coursework.

The class sizes were too small for full‐scale assessment and pre‐tests/post‐tests were not given. Assessment of student learning was based on work produced in and outside class and on course evaluations.

It is suggested that librarians and data archivists work with faculty to innovate curricular approaches based on recommendations and outcomes in key documents on learning sociology from professional library and sociology organizations. Attaching the lab to an existing course and promoting the data literacy modules for faculty to adopt in other courses are also suggested.

This paper invites social science librarians to examine the value to students and faculty of collaboration with professional data services staff to teach and merge information and data literacy within the social sciences curricula.

The purpose of this paper is to document the integration of sustainability into the accounting curriculum. Compared to many disciplines in the social and administrative sciences, the greening of the curriculum in accounting is a recent phenomenon. Nevertheless, there has been a remarkable growth in both the content and the coverage of sustainability topics integrated into the accounting curriculum.

The approach to the paper is multidisciplinary. It has combined organizational sociology and ecological anthropology approaches in the integration of sustainability into the accounting curriculum. In accounting, there is an increasing emphasis on the application of social science perspectives, particularly sociology and anthropology in curriculum development and pedagogical issues. This paper demonstrates that the influence of these two disciplines in accounting education is substantial.

Sustainability in accounting has both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, sustainability has integrated social and environmental dimensions into accounting education and research. Sustainability reporting contains information on the economic, social, and environmental activities of business organizations. In practice, sustainability has influenced the accounting standard-setting organizations in developing guidelines on how to integrate sustainability into corporate reports so that the information can be verified and certified by public accounting and regulatory organizations.

The paper is among the first to demonstrate the importance of organizational sociology and ecological anthropology for the integration of sustainability into the accounting curriculum. Both sociology and anthropology have been in the forefront of the study of ecology and natural resources management and conservation in sustainability development. The paper approaches have important implications for sustainability education and framework in accounting theory and research.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a meso-level (organizational) social capital theoretical approach to public relations. A theory and conceptualization of social capital as a resource- and exchange-based function of public relations is proposed. Here it is argued that public relations professionals serve as the managers of intangible resources on behalf of organizations. These intangibles serve as social capital for organizations and are managed through strategic, goal-directed communication behaviors. Social capital is conceptualized alongside other forms of capital that contribute to organizational advantage. The author proposes a conceptual social capital model of public relations and argues that the strategic management of intangible resources as social capital offers an ontology for public relations.

The author employed a process of open-system theory building. Extensive research from multi-disciplinary areas of scholarship – namely, sociology, business, and public relations – formed the basis for the conceptualized model and propositions.

Public relations theory is narrowly defined and does not offer an adequate ontology. This paper extends and refines existing public relations scholarship surrounding social capital to focus on competitive advantages for the organization. This paper uses input from the larger fields of sociology and business, while contextualizing social capital within the public relations scholarship. The result is a resource- and exchange-based social capital model of public relations and propositions for further theory building and empirical analyses.

The public relations discipline often struggles to demonstrate return-on-investment for organizations. The social capital model of public relations offers support for the capital generation and maintenance role of public relations for organizational advantage.

This paper represents one of the first comprehensive attempts at developing a meso-level social capital theory of public relations focused on intangible resource management for the organization.

Purpose – A geologist and sociologist have developed a pair of Earth resource courses to teach geology in global context and critical thinking and negotiation skills. The energy and minerals courses emphasize the physical and geological sciences as well as an understanding of the political, social structural, cultural, economic, and environmental factors that influence resource extraction and use. We are seeking to develop the global citizenship skills students will need to participate in future discussions on Earth resource issues. To this end, active learning approaches involve students in group problem solving and negotiation.

Methodology – For five years we have been developing these courses and regularly assessing the accomplishment of course goals. Focus groups and before/after surveys guide course modifications.

Findings – Though limited, our evidence shows an increased awareness and willingness on the part of our students to engage in discussions searching for solutions to Earth resource issues. Geology students are enthusiastic about the content that goes beyond geology. Non-geology students appreciate knowing more of the science of Earth resources that help thereby providing critical insight and background for their interest in environmental and social problems.

Value of the paper – The L(SC)2 paradigm we have developed can be adopted or adapted to a variety of possible partnerships between the sciences and the social sciences and humanities. Studying Earth resource issues in global context connects the immediate concerns of consumers to the practices and problems of Earth resource extraction and processing around the world to better foster citizen involvement.