The Sage Handbook of Environment and Society

I am Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex. I was Head of the Department of Biological Sciences from 2004-2008. I joined the Department in 1997, having worked for ten years at the International Institute for Environment and Development, where I was director of their sustainable agriculture programme from 1989. Before that, I worked at Imperial College. At the University of Essex, I set up the Centre for Environment and Society, which links across a variety of departments and disciplines. I was appointed A D White Professor-at-Large by Cornell University for six years from 2001. Andys research if focused on the response, in terms of activity and diversity of the microbial community to environmental perturbations. One of his major interests is teh bioremediation of contaminated land and water, using both laboratory and field based research to examine the potential role of microbial communities in the treatment of waste oils and also in the factors limiting the breakdown of contaminants in contaminated sites. MAX J. PFEFFER is International Professor of Development Sociology and Senior Associate Dean of the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. His teaching concentrates on environmental sociology and sociological theory. His research spans several areas including rural labor markets, international migration, land use and environmental planning. The work has focused on a variety of rural and urban communities, including rural/urban fringe areas. Research sites include rural New York and Central America. He has been awarded competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Research Initiative and its Fund for Rural America, and the Social Science Research Council. Pfeffer has published a wide range of scholarly articles and has written/co-edited four books. He recently published (with John Schelhas) Saving Forests, Protecting People? Environmental Conservation in Central America. Max has served on and led National Research Council committees of the Water Science and Technology Board. Max has served as Chair of the Development Sociology Department, and the Associate Director of both the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cornell University Center for the Environment.